Johnson & Johnson ranked as the most reputable U.S. company, according to Reputation Institute’s 2009 U.S. Reputation Pulse. Other companies in the top five: Kraft Foods, UPS, General Mills, and FedEx.

AIG, the financial services firm, suffered the biggest drop in the index. Last year’s winner, Google, fell to number eight and lost significant reputation capital. Companies with the largest gains (an increase of 12 points in Reputation Pulse scores) were Dow Chemicals and Wal-Mart.

The study also showed that ethics and transparency rose in importance to their highest levels ever. Good governance, defined as “a responsibly run company that behaves ethically and is open and transparent in its business dealings” moved from the No. 4 driver of reputation in 2007 to No. 2 this year.

The Reputation Pulse measures the corporate reputations of the largest U.S. companies based on consumers’ trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling about a company across seven dimensions of reputation. The seven dimensions of reputation management are: Products/Services, Innovation, Governance, Workplace, Citizenship, Leadership and Performance.

Reputation Institute is the world’s leading reputation consulting firm. Visit the Reputation Institute Web site to learn more.