Rolex Rises in Reputation Rankings

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Rolex, The Walt Disney Company and Google top Reputation Institute’s 2016 Global RepTrak 100, the world’s largest annual survey of corporate reputations. The RepTrak System measures the general public’s perception of the world’s top companies on the 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. A RepTrak Pulse score of 70-79 is considered “strong,” while 60-69 is “average.” None of the companies in the Top 100 scored below 67.

“The Global RepTrak 100 shows that to be a winner in the global market, companies need to deliver on all seven dimensions of reputation,” said Kasper Ulf Nielsen, executive partner at Reputation Institute, in a news release. “The top three companies all demonstrated strong or excellent scores in each dimension, which means that consumers are more likely to buy and recommend their products and services.”

One notable absence from the RepTrak 100 is German automaker Volkswagen, whose reputation dropped by 13.7 points globally in the wake of an emissions scandal. VW earned a strong RepTrak Pulse score of 75 in 2015, good enough for 14th place on the Global RepTrak 100 that year, but dropped to an average RepTrak Pulse score of 61.3 in 2016, falling to 123rd position.

Across the seven dimensions of reputation, VW saw an average drop of 10.9 points, with the biggest drops in governance, citizenship and leadership. VW also saw a drop across all supportive behaviors, which underscores the impact of a company’s reputation on the business.

The top 10 companies in this year’s rankings are:

  1. Rolex
  2. The Walt Disney Company
  3. Google
  4. BMW Group
  5. Daimler
  6. LEGO Group
  7. Microsoft
  8. Canon
  9. Sony
  10. Apple

Consumers identified Rolex as the global leader in products and services, while Apple remains the global leader in innovation and leadership. Google earned top marks on performance and workplace, with The Walt Disney Company perceived as best in citizenship and governance.

Out of the 100 companies that made the list, only six companies managed to make their way into the top 10 across the majority of the markets. Rolex, which occupied the fourth spot in 2014 and 2015 but jumped to first place overall in 2016, ranks in the top 10 across 11 markets – the most out of all companies.

Microsoft returned to the top 10 in 2016 after a one-year absence, replacing Intel, which slipped to 11th place. Though it remains in the top 10, Apple slid from 7th place since 2014.

Download the complete list of Top 100 Reputable Companies.

If Image is Everything, U.S. in Trouble

19218071The Reputation Institute does studies on, guess what, reputations. In this case, its all about countries.

In many ways, countries are like companies; They have “brands” to protect, budgets to adhere to, and many “competitors” vying for their export business, international diplomacy status and tourism dollars — and, as in business, a country’s global reputation can be the pivotal touch point around which those other metrics revolve.

According to new research from the Reputation Institute, Canada has moved back into the leading slot for reputation, having passed Switzerland to regain the top spot in this year’s Country RepTrak, the world’s largest annual survey of country reputations, showing regional trends for North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Canada, the United States and Mexico all improved their reputations, according to the survey.

Since the survey began in 2010, Canada has ranked first all but two of those years and never lower than second place. At the top of the list are all of Scandinavia, with Norway in second place, immediately followed by Sweden and Switzerland.

Historically, the reputation of the United States has been poor, even though the country’s image has improved 20% compared to an average reputation. Elsewhere around the world, Latin America is improving its reputation overall, but Brazil is experiencing a decline in reputation. Northern European countries are in the top 10, and Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland have improved their reputations due to improvements in certain economic indicators. Japan has the best reputation in Asia and while Asian countries are improving their reputations, theirs are still weak overall. Russia’s reputation is declining due to the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea’s annexation.

The top 10 countries in the 2015 Country RepTrak are:

Canada
Norway
Sweden
Switzerland
Australia
Finland
New Zealand
Denmark
Netherlands
Belgium