The majority of marketing and communications executives at financial
services firms said that Occupy Wall Street has impacted their business,
according to a study conducted by Echo Research and Makovsky, two
research and communications firms. The number one challenge for firms
this year is dealing with a negative public perception, according to
Scott Tangney, an executive at Makovsky. In recent years past,
recovering from the financial crisis superseded that concern."Banks and financial services firms have now shifted their focus from liquidity and financial performance to customer satisfaction and their own employees," said Scott Tangney, an executive at Makovsky. "The Occupy Wall Street Movement has indicated to firms where they need to be focusing."
The study’s findings come a little more than one week after Occupy Wall Street protesters were met with arrests celebrating the movement's six month anniversary.
Yet despite all the ruckus caused by the movement, more than 95 percent of marketing executives are blaming their firms' bad reputations on the companies themselves, not the protestors, according to the study.
That's in line with sentiments expressed by Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit in October, when he said the protesters' sentiments are "completely understandable."
Since the Occupy Movement began, the financial sector has faced a slew of other PR debacles. Last year, Bank of America dealt with heavy customer backlash after attempting to impose a debit card fee. Earlier this month, negative public perception became a heightened problem for Goldman Sachs when a former employee wrote a scathing op-ed about the company’s culture in The New York Times.
