Rolex confirms to be the World’s Most Reputable Company

8 years ago - Published in Alternative investments, Finance

Rolex, the luxury Swiss watchmaker, is the brand with the best corporate reputation in the eyes of consumers, according to a new global survey.

Reputation Institute (RI), a reputation management consultancy, each year compiles a list of the top 100 most reputable companies in the world based on more than 170,000 ratings collected across 15 countries.

Using its proprietary RepTrak measurement system, RI tracks consumers' perceptions across seven key areas: products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance.

Rolex topped the 2017 rankings for the second year running, but this year also became the first company ever to be rated "excellent", which reflects an overall RepTrak score of 80 or more. "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", the institute wrote in the statement.

Other top performers in this year's rankings included Danish toymaker LEGO, which came in second, while the Walt Disney Company took third place.

The other seven spots in RI's top 10 went to Canon, the Japanese camera firm, Google, Bosch, Sony, Intel, Rolls-Royce and Adidas, the German sportswear brand.

"Looking at top performers, it's clear that offering high quality products, standing behind them, and meeting customer needs is foundational to delivering on the brand promise," said Allen Bonde, Chief Marketing Officer at Reputation Institute.

"But our data also shows that companies with a strong sense of purpose who are committed to improving on all dimensions of reputation – especially governance and citizenship – tend to be the most highly regarded."

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 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.

Volkswagen, which continues to deal with the aftermath of its emissions scandal, nonetheless returned to the top 100 (in 100th place) and saw its score recover by 3.4 points to 64.73 – one of the largest increases in 2017.

Founded in 1997, Reputation Institute (RI) is the world’s leading provider of stakeholder measurement, membership and management services, working with more than 400 of the top Global 1000 companies.