America's Most Reputable Companies

America's Most Reputable Companies

 

 

Amazon took the No. 3 spot this year. The Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth earned a pulse score of 79.95—up 1.31 points from 2012, when it ranked 5^th.

“Consumers seem to be rewarding Amazon for their exceptional customer focus,” Johndrow says. “The emotional connection [consumer have with the company] has remained high after making a leap in 2011 when it was the No. 1 most reputable company in the U.S.”

Amazon ranked among the top 5 in two of the seven dimensions. “Unsurprisingly, compared with peers, Amazon performs exceptionally well in innovation (No.2) and products (No. 1),” he says. The company also scores high, compared with the industry average, in governance, leadership and performance.

“This well-rounded strength in dimensions of reputation is necessary to sustain strong connections over time,” Johndrow adds. “A reputation built on service alone would not be enough.”

Deere & Co. and Dean Foods also joined the ranks of the top 10 this year, after building progressive gains since 2011. The four to fall off: No. 13 Procter & Gamble, No. 14 Kellogg’s, No. 24 Apple, and No. 35 PepsiCo. “Most of these are consumer packaged goods companies that traditionally do well,” Johndrow notes.

 

Overall, the transport and logistics, consumer products, industrial products, food manufacturing, and computer industries scored highest. At the other end of the spectrum, energy, telecommunications, banking firms and diversified financial companies earned the weakest scores.

“Not surprisingly, the majority of the bottom ranking companies are financial services firms–the likes of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, AIG and Goldman Sachs,” Johndrow says. Of the 30 companies that fall into this category, 19 rank in the bottom 50; 10 rank between 50 and 100; and only one, Berkshire Hathaway, ranks in the top 50.

The least reputable company on the list this year: Halliburton. In dead last, the oilfield services firm earned a pulse score of 32.01, which is 5.61 points less than last year.

The mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did only slightly better with 35.65 points and 37.35 points, respectively. However—the companies saw significant reputation gains this year.

Fannie Mae’s score increased by 6.14 points, while Freddie Mac was up a whopping 11.35 points. Others in the sector to see increases this year: Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup.

In 2012 AIG was the biggest gainer, when its score grew by about 16 points thanks to tangible progress on shifting perceptions of its ethics and transparency. But things went downhill again this year. As the fourth least reputable company in 2013, AIG’s score dropped 10.75 points to 39.17.

“Building a strong reputation takes time,” Johndrow says. “To earn trust and respect you need to consistently show that you will live up to your promises. To build a strong reputation companies need to deliver on these expectations through everyday work. But this is proving to be more and more difficult.”

Reputation management is a discipline that must be built into the way a company operates. “A great way to start is to bring consumers and other stakeholders ‘into the room’ with you when you make business decisions,” he concludes. “This is a mindset shift that can be helped by using analytical tools to connect stakeholder perceptions to business.

 

 

FULL LIST:

Rank 2013	Company	RepTrak™ Pulse Score 2013	RepTrak™ Pulse Score 2012	YoY Change
1	The Walt Disney Company	80.75	75.67	5.07
2	Intel	80.05	73.22	6.82
3	Amazon.com	79.95	78.64	1.31
4	Kraft Foods Inc.	79.59	80.05	-0.46
5	UPS	79.58	78.43	1.15
6	Johnson & Johnson	79.43	79.98	-0.56
7	General Mills	77.61	83.03	-5.42
8	Deere & Co.	77.16	76.04	1.12
9	The Coca-Cola Company	76.91	78.11	-1.20
10	Dean Foods	76.66	74.23	2.43
11	Kimberly-Clark Corporation	76.46	73.07	3.38
12	FedEx	76.36	74.25	2.11
13	Procter & Gamble	76.34	77.28	-0.93
14	Kellogg’s	76.29	79.05	-2.76
15	Colgate-Palmolive	75.31	76.14	-0.83
16	HJ Heinz	75.24	74.55	0.69
17	Stanley Black & Decker	75.10	74.47	0.63
18	Whirlpool	74.88	72.97	1.91
19	Google	74.41	76.17	-1.76
20	Lowe’s Home Improvement	74.37	76.31	-1.94
21	Home Depot	74.15	72.65	1.50
22	BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc.	74.13	69.94	4.19
23	Whole Foods	73.84	77.14	-3.30
24	Apple	73.62	77.74	-4.11
25	3M	73.58	73.89	-0.31
26	Microsoft	73.51	72.58	0.93
27	Kohl’s	73.25	71.03	2.21
28	Caterpillar	73.12	73.13	-0.01
29	Texas Instruments	73.04	75.51	-2.47
30	IBM	72.64	74.56	-1.92
31	Macy’s, Inc.	72.57	68.39	4.19
32	Union Pacific Railroad	72.50	63.14	9.36
33	Honeywell International	72.47	72.12	0.35
34	CVS Caremark	72.23	74.22	-1.99
35	PepsiCo	72.19	77.63	-5.44
36	Kroger	71.94	68.75	3.19
37	Target	71.91	74.25	-2.33
38	Goodyear	71.84	73.99	-2.15
39	Ford	71.68	71.80	-0.12
40	Cisco Systems	71.63	72.13	-0.49
41	Xerox	71.60	71.62	-0.02
42	Nordstrom	71.57	67.44	4.14
43	General Electric	71.35	74.47	-3.13
44	Berkshire Hathaway	71.33	75.75	-4.42
45	Staples	71.12	70.21	0.91
46	Southwest Airlines	71.09	70.17	0.92
47	Alcoa	70.93	68.69	2.24
48	Costco Wholesale	70.72	73.21	-2.49
49	Oracle	70.26	71.31	-1.05
50	Nike, Inc.	70.20	71.49	-1.29
51	Southern Company	70.14	67.01	3.13
52	CBS Broadcasting Inc.	70.06	69.40	0.67
53	Boeing	69.89	73.07	-3.18
54	Hewlett-Packard	69.83	73.04	-3.22
55	Marriott International	69.61	69.32	0.29
56	Office Depot	69.45	69.22	0.23
57	MetLife	69.24	68.30	0.94
58	ConAgra Foods	68.98	67.49	1.49
59	DuPont	68.74	66.37	2.37
60	Aflac	68.73	66.31	2.42
61	Medtronic	68.69	73.76	-5.07
62	Avon Products	68.55	73.13	-4.58
63	Eli Lilly	68.53	66.73	1.80
64	Supervalu	67.99	65.72	2.27
65	Tyson Foods	67.86	65.01	2.85
66	Amgen	67.74	67.21	0.54
67	Prudential Financial	67.43	64.19	3.24
68	Bristol-Myers Squibb	67.40	67.41	-0.01
69	Dell	67.18	68.66	-1.48
70	Pfizer	67.11	64.95	2.16
71	Baxter International	67.10	68.21	-1.11
72	Dow Chemical	67.07	59.80	7.27
73	The Hartford Financial Services Group	67.03	68.61	-1.58
74	Hess	66.97	62.75	4.22
75	Best Buy	66.74	68.84	-2.10
76	State Farm Insurance	66.73	69.45	-2.72
77	Rite Aid	66.63	68.98	-2.35
78	Travelers	66.45	64.52	1.93
79	New York Life Insurance Company	66.41	66.64	-0.23
80	Abbott Laboratories	66.35	72.32	-5.97
81	Walgreens	66.25	72.54	-6.30
82	TJX Companies	66.17	68.20	-2.04
83	JC Penney	65.79	73.65	-7.86
84	Safeway	65.63	65.85	-0.21
85	Phillips 66	65.54	-	-
86	Duke Energy	65.26	62.74	2.52
87	AutoNation	65.16	63.88	1.28
88	Archer Daniels Midland	64.70	61.54	3.16
89	Nationwide	64.52	59.63	4.89
90	eBay	64.38	68.48	-4.10
91	Dollar General	64.34	68.39	-4.06
92	Exelon	64.25	60.04	4.20
93	WellPoint	64.18	67.73	-3.55
94	Delta Air Lines	64.14	60.15	3.99
95	Progressive	64.14	60.20	3.94
96	Allstate	63.99	65.32	-1.32
97	FPL GROUP (Florida Power & Light)	63.99	61.48	2.50
98	Altria Group	63.96	52.88	11.09
99	Verizon Communications	63.87	62.57	1.30
100	Gap	63.81	65.33	-1.52
101	Starbucks Coffee Company	63.49	66.49	-3.00
102	Unum Group	63.46	63.83	-0.37
103	Liberty Mutual Insurance	63.33	65.00	-1.67
104	SunTrust Banks	63.08	61.93	1.16
105	American Express	62.99	64.82	-1.83
106	Xcel Energy	62.93	59.69	3.24
107	Humana	62.77	60.67	2.10
108	UnitedHealth Group	62.70	65.23	-2.53
109	ConocoPhillips	62.57	54.84	7.73
110	Marathon Oil	62.45	60.06	2.39
111	Valero Energy	62.28	59.24	3.03
112	The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation	62.25	63.66	-1.41
113	Constellation Energy	62.22	63.96	-1.73
114	BB&T	62.14	59.82	2.32
115	Chubb	61.84	67.11	-5.27
116	Merck	61.79	63.30	-1.51
117	McDonald’s	61.29	65.50	-4.22
118	Sprint Nextel	60.99	57.62	3.37
119	PNC	60.81	61.25	-0.44
120	Viacom Inc.	60.60	59.15	1.46
121	Aetna	60.56	58.66	1.90
122	CIGNA	59.76	60.66	-0.90
123	General Motors	59.64	64.45	-4.82
124	Wal-Mart	59.10	63.00	-3.90
125	AMR – American Airlines	59.07	53.62	5.45
126	Sears Holdings	58.90	65.71	-6.81
127	UAL – United Airlines	58.85	56.04	2.81
128	Capital One	58.74	-	-
129	US Bank	58.51	60.72	-2.22
130	US Airways Group	58.23	55.26	2.97
131	AT&T	58.21	58.67	-0.46
132	Time Warner	57.83	59.51	-1.68
133	CenturyLink	57.03	63.98	-6.95
134	Chevron	56.78	56.78	-0.01
135	Sunoco	55.40	60.48	-5.08
136	Comcast	54.52	54.05	0.47
137	JPMorgan Chase	54.13	55.38	-1.26
138	DirecTV Group	53.43	56.93	-3.50
139	Wells Fargo	52.46	53.63	-1.17
140	ExxonMobil	52.41	51.65	0.75
141	Morgan Stanley	52.39	62.24	-9.84
142	Citigroup	52.18	46.49	5.70
143	News Corporation	50.68	51.10	-0.42
144	DISH Network	50.27	53.80	-3.53
145	Goldman Sachs	43.04	36.95	6.09
146	Bank of America	42.45	43.90	-1.45
147	AIG – American International Group	39.17	49.92	-10.75
148	Freddie Mac	37.35	26.01	11.35
149	Fannie Mae	35.65	29.52	6.14
150	Halliburton	32.01	37.62	-5.61