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/.

RepTrak™ Pulse 2007: Russian Companies Make Largest Reputation Gains

According to the RepTrak™ Pulse 2007, the second annual study of the reputations of the World's Largest Companies, Russian companies made the greatest gains in reputation. The largest change was Sberbankwhose reputation catapulted the company into the top 10. Gazprom, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel and Lukoil also enjoyed huge gains, reflecting "the growing public optimism about Russia’s corporate sector".
Lego took gold in 2007, IKEA coming in 2nd, followed by 2006 winner Barilla. Lufthansa suffered the greatest decline in reputation, dropping from third place to a #36 position.
The RepTrak™ Pulse 2007 was developed by the Reputation Institute. Over 60,000 online interviews with consumers in 29 countries on six continents were conducted in January and February 2007. More than 175,000 ratings were used to create reliable measures of the ‘corporate reputation’of more than 1,000 companies.
Get the RepTrak™ Pulse 2007 report here.

Bain Comments Corporate Reputation Ranking

Mark Bain, President of Upper 90 Consulting, has compared the Harris Interactive’s Reputation Quotient (RQ) rankings with the Reputation Institute’s U.S. RepTrak results.
Although the two studies take different approaches, both generally agree on the worst and best corporate reputations in the US.
Mark has made a nice summary of interesting thoughts: "Rankings matter to the most reputable companies, which care about how they compare with all firms, not just their direct competitors. These companies work to improve their reputation rankings every year. Their CEOs view corporate reputation as an asset to be leveraged for strategic opportunity, not just a risk to be managed for minimal business harm. It’s no wonder these firms enjoy strong competitive advantage and consistent, sustained financial success.
Companies with the lowest reputation rankings seem to emphasize financial performance over all else, including reputation. Though most have strong financial results (none more than ExxonMobil), reputation is more of a risk than opportunity for this group. In a written response published in the Wall Street Journal, Halliburton’s spokesperson basically said her firm doesn’t care about public opinion represented in these rankings because her company doesn’t sell to consumers. But one has to wonder: would her management still feel that way when top-notch talent chooses to work with Halliburton’s more reputable competitors? Or when some government refuses to give Halliburton the benefit of the doubt in their next self-inflicted crisis, resulting in excessive regulations and/or fines?
There are B2B and B2C companies in both rankings and virtually all are highly visible. These firms work hard to build awareness, familiarity and understanding. They use the full arsenal of communications tools to tell their story proactively, and they reap the benefits of their visibility. Meanwhile, low-visibility companies can only congratulate themselves for saving money on such frivolities while their reputation languishes.
Not every company is large enough or familiar enough to be included in these rankings. But any company can use the exact same models, tools and techniques the reputation leaders use – and those that do will benefit the most."

Have a look at the rankings (source: Wall Street Journal)
read more about the subject here

Reputation Institute RepTracked 600 Companies Worldwide

This year the Reputation Institute (RI) and Harris Interactive parted ways. The two organizations have been ranking corporate reputations since 1999 by means of the Reputation Quotient (RQ). This year, the RI has ranked 600 companies worldwide following the RepTrack methodology.
Have a look at the top 50.

Pasta Maker Tops Reputation Poll 2006

According to the Reputation Institute's latest poll, the world's most respectable company is Barilla Holding, the Italian pasta maker, with a reputation score of 87.79 out of a possible 100.

The Reputation Institute surveyed 30,000 people around the world and ranked 600 of the largest companies worldwide according to the RepTrack method. Companies were only judged on their home turf; Americans only opined about American companies, for example, and Indians only discussed firms headquartered in India. To determine which countries and which companies to rank, the Reputation Institute started with a list of the 300 largest companies worldwide. The companies on that list were headquartered in 25 different countries. Then, the researchers looked at the largest companies in each of those countries, so that citizens from each nation in the survey could rank at least ten firms.

The Reputation Institute then adjusted its findings to account for regional differences. French respondents, for example, tended to rate companies less favorably than Brazilians. The researchers adjusted the scores so that the average rating in each country was 64, the same as the global mean. The distribution around the mean was also standardised.

Read more about this survey on Forbes.com