Healthy Scores in Consumer Survey

Could Americans be getting just a little sick of junk food?

That's a question raised by the latest installment of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a survey that measures consumer perceptions of common brands and products.

The findings, released Wednesday, suggest that some companies making products linked to obesity and other health problems, including soda, candy and cigarettes, are scoring lower on customer satisfaction than in previous years. PepsiCo Inc., Coca-Cola Co. and Hershey Foods Corp., all saw their scores drop slightly.

Meanwhile, companies pushing their health-food lines, including ConAgra Foods Inc., maker of Healthy Choice brands, and Kellogg Co., which makes the Morningstar Farms vegetarian line as well as Nutri-Grain brands, saw their scores edge up.

The phone survey asked 10,644 U.S. consumers to rate their experiences with thousands of individual products from Mars candy bars to Reebok sneakers. Each quarter the survey focuses on a different segment of the economy, such as durable goods, services and retail trade. The most recent results delved into nondurable goods, including food, beverages, tobacco, apparel and personal-care products.

SURVEY SAYS … See the results of the latest installment of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Adobe Acrobat Reader required.

Consumers are asked to rate only products they have purchased or consumed in the past month, and results are compiled to create an overall score for the manufacturer.

Researchers at the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan Business School, which publishes the report, believe satisfaction with existing products is a strong predictor of consumer spending. They say score declines of three points or more are significant, but smaller declines may still be "meaningful."

The latest results suggest time-crunched American diners are also looking for instant gratification. Companies marketing "convenience" packaging, such as Campbell Soup Co.'s new "easy open pop tops" and Heinz's "Easy Squeeze" ketchup also had improved scores . H.J. Heinz Co. had the highest score of any company in the index, a 90 out of a possible 100, and a 2.3% increase over the previous year.

Across the board, food and beverage companies performed well compared with other segments of the economy. Food makers had a categorywide score of 81, out of a possible 100, while soft-drink makers had a score of 84. (By comparison, cable-TV companies have an average score of 61, and airlines average a 67 in their most recent survey.)

Among major food and drink companies, the soft-drink division of PepsiCo had the steepest score decline, with a drop of 3.5% to a score of 83 out of a possible 100; a Pepsi spokesman says the company is always eager to learn about how consumers feel about the company's products and continues to monitor that feedback.

Coca-Cola's score dropped by 2.4% to 83; a spokesman said the company is taking steps "to make sure that consumers have a positive experience every time they interact with our brands."

The latest findings also suggest Americans might be burning out on cigarettes, amid health concerns, rising prices and a growing number of smoking bans. Tobacco companies have been experiencing significant declines in their scores since the survey began, falling 6.2% since 1994. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.'s score dropped by 1.3% since last year. The company declined to comment.

Satisfaction with personal-care products, which includes household items such as laundry detergent and toothpaste, rose 3.7%, to a score of 84, with some companies showing particularly steep gains. Procter & Gamble Co. had the largest score increase, a jump of 4.9% to a total of 85. The company has rolled out a number of new products in the past two years, including Swiffer dusters and Crest White Strips tooth whiteners.

In the apparel category, Liz Claiborne Inc. registered a decline of 2.5% in the past year, dropping to a score of 78. While Liz Claiborne was the only apparel company in the group to show a drop in this latest survey, the decline represents a broader trend across the apparel category: Since the survey began in 1994, apparel-company scores have fallen 2.4%, on average.

Survey researchers say perceptions of quality may be eroding, possibly due to the intense price competition in the clothing market and the shift of many large apparel makers into discount lines for mass-market retailers. A Liz Claiborne spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's score .

Major breweries, including Anheuser-Busch Cos., have also registered long-term declines in satisfaction since the survey began as they lose ground to the growing number of microbreweries. The "other" category, which includes products made by smaller breweries, increased by 2.4%.

Write to Jane Spencer at jane.spencer@wsj.com

Updated November 19, 2003