Toyota Motors Highest in Reputation Ranking

Stakeholders consider CSR as a reputation maker

On June 5th 2008 the Reputation Institute (RI) of New York announced the results of its Global Pulse 2008. These results are based on a survey measuring consumer perception of the worlds’ largest corporations. Toyota Motors led the pack and was followed by Google, Ikea, Ferrero and Johnson & Johnson. “Of the top 200 companies measured in 27 countries, all earned Global Pulse scores significantly above the global mean of 64.2,” says Kasper Nielsen, Managing Partner of Reputation Institute.

The Global Pulse 2008 study measures the overall respect, trust, esteem, admiration and
good feelings consumers hold towards the largest 600 companies in the world.

Other highlights from Global Pulse 2008 include:

• Toyota is the only car company in the top tier of reputation leaders
• Two US companies - Google and Johnson & Johnson - notched top 5 rankings
• Food-related companies (Ferrero, Kraft) dominate the world’s most respected top 10
• Consumer and tech product companies enjoy the best reputations followed by pharmaceutical companies, conglomerates, raw material manufacturers and airlines.
• The largest gains in reputation from the previous years’ study were in the information/media and computer sectors, where companies like Infosys Technologies (India), Sharp Corporation (Japan) and Xerox (U.S.) rose in the rankings between 2007 and 2008.
• Cracking the global top 10 this year is Denmark’s diabetes drug specialist Novo Nordisk, Mexico’s food retailer Grupo Bimbo and Switzerland’s food giant Migros.
• Making a big jump in rankings this year were China Faw Group Corp, Norway’s Coop, Canada’s Sobey’s, and Japan’s AEON

Reputation Institute’s research model indicates that reputation is built on 7 pillars from which a company can create a strategic platform for communicating with its stakeholders on the most relevant key performance indicators. These dimensions are: Products/Services, Innovation, Workplace, Citizenship, Governance, Leadership, and Performance.

The Global Pulse 2008 study indicates that consumers are most influenced by a company’s delivery of high quality products and services, accounting for 17.6% of a company’s reputation. But, governance and citizenship combined account for more than 30% of a company’s reputation. “This makes it critical for companies worldwide to communicate how they support good causes, protect the environment, behave ethically and act openly and transparently about the way they do business,” says Anthony Johndrow, Managing Director, RI.

The Global Pulse 2008 offers insight on how reputation impacts and influence’s a company’s stakeholders worldwide – and its bottom line. “When people trust, admire and have a good feeling about a company, they are willing to support and recommend the company to others,” explains Johndrow, of the significant value of reputation. “We see a strong pattern between reputation and support, demonstrating that building a favorable reputation platform should be a part of a company’s overall business strategy.”

Rank Company Global Pulse

1. Toyota Motor Corp. (Japan) 86.53
2. Google (US) 85.23
3. IKEA (Sweden) 84.14
4. Ferrero (Italy) 83.52
5. Johnson & Johnson (US) 83.48
6. Tata Group (India) 82.84
7. Kraft Foods Inc. (US) 82.79
8. Novo Nordisk (Denmark) 82.28
9. Grupo Bimbo, S.A. (Mexico) 81.75
10. Migros (Switzerland) 81.54
11. General Mills (US) 81.34
12. Walt Disney (US) 81.22
13. Haier Corporation (China) 81.19
14. Infosys Technologies (India) 81.18
15. United Parcel Service (US) 81.05
16. Sharp Corp. (Japan) 80.44
17. Coop (Norway) 80.43
18. Jean Cotou Group (Canada) 80.11
19. El Corte Inglés (Spain) 80.00
20. Petrobras (Brazil) 79.97
21. Carlsberg (Denmark) 79.82
22. 3M (US) 79.79
23. Barilla (Italy) 79.44
24. Grupo Gerdau (Brazil) 79.26
25. Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany) 79.22

Survey Methodology
The Global Pulse 2008 was conducted online between February and March of 2008. A Pulse score is a measure of corporate reputation calculated by averaging perceptions of 4 indicators of trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling obtained from a representative sample of at least 100 local respondents who were familiar with the company. Scores range from a low of 0 to a high of 100, Pulse scores that differ by more than +/-0.5 are significantly different at the 95% confidence level. Scores can be categorized using the below key:

Excellent/Top Tier above 80
Strong/Robust 70 – 79
Average/Moderate 60 – 69
Weak/Vulnerable 40 – 59
Poor/Lowest Tier below 40
About Reputation Institute

The Reputation Institute is a private advisory and research firm specialized in corporate reputation management. The Global Pulse is its flagship research study conducted annually with some 60,000 consumers in 27 countries from which emerge detailed ratings of the reputations of the world’s 1000 largest companies. For more information you can visit http://www.reputationinstitute.com/.