Consumers Gravitate Toward 'Classic' Brands

Reputation Institute (RI), the world’s leading provider of stakeholder measurement, membership and management services, has announced the company’s annual Global RepTrak® 100 rankings.

Based on over 170,000 ratings collected in the first quarter of 2017, the survey is the largest corporate reputation study of its kind, and includes comparative ratings, trends by demographic cuts, and unique insights into which companies are best regarded by stakeholders as well as what drives trust and supportive behaviors such as willingness to purchase a company’s products, recommend the brand, invest in or even work for the company.

The top 10 companies in RI’s 2017 Global RepTrak® 100 are:

“The annual Global RepTrak® 100 spotlights the companies that truly understand what they stand for and how to reinforce the emotional bond with their stakeholders across all the markets they serve," said Michele Tesoro-Tess, RI executive partner.

RI’s RepTrak® System measures the general public’s perception of the world’s top companies on seven key rational dimensions of reputation: products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance. An “Excellent” reputation is represented by an overall RepTrak® Pulse score of 80 or higher. For the first time, the company with the highest rating and the top spot (Rolex) falls into the “Excellent” range. A RepTrak® Pulse score of 70-79 is considered “Strong,” while 60-69 is “Average.” None of the companies in the 2017 RepTrak® Top 100 scored below 64.

Key Trends by Industry:

• In terms of trends, 2017 saw the rise of heritage luxury brands like Rolex and Rolls-Royce, while consumer products took seven of the top ten spots in this year’s survey, with LEGO Group jumping 4 spots to 2nd, and Adidas moving into the top 10.
• In the tech sector, Intel returned to the top 10 (to 8th place) in 2017 after a one-year absence. Meanwhile Google (5th place) fell 2 spots, Microsoft fell out of the top 10 to 11th, and Apple slipped 10 spots to 20th place with a drop of 1.7 points. Samsung posted the most notable decline with its RepTrak® Pulse score dropping 4.0 points vs. 2016 and is now in 70th place overall.
• Among automakers, both BMW Group (12th place) and Daimler (27th place) both fell out the top 10, while Toyota, Honda, Ford and GM all showed modest gains vs. 2016. Meanwhile Volkswagen, who continues to deal with the aftermath of its emissions scandal nonetheless returned to the top 100 (in 100th place) and saw its RepTrak® Pulse score recover by 3.4 points to 64.73 – one of the largest increases in 2017.

The full list is available here.