British consumers rank top 50 companies by reputation

by staff, marketingmagazine.co.uk 04-Jun-09, 11:48

LONDON - Marks and Spencer, Smith & Nephew, Cadbury and Morrisons rank as the most reputable companies according a survey of more than 5,000 consumers.

/* Style Definitions */

table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

`The most telling finding is that, next to delivering strong products and services, consumers want companies to act transparently and ethically, and to prove that they care about society. We are clearly seeing the reaction to the way in which banks in particular have let people down, and destroyed public trust,' said Seamus Gillen, UK MD of the Reputation Institute, which publishes the Global Reputation Pulse Study 2009.

According to the Reputation Institute, a company's reputation score has a positive and direct link to consumer attitudes and behaviours. There is a significant correlation between the strength of a company's reputation and the willingness of consumers to recommend it to others.

The score is a measure of corporate reputation calculated by averaging perceptions of four indicators: trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling.

Top 50 companies with the best overall reputations
Rank	Company	Global Pulse Score
1	Marks & Spencer	78.23
2	Smith & Nephew	77.58
3	Cadbury	77.58
4	William Morrison Supermarkets	77.16
5	Rolls-Royce	77.09
6	Tate & Lyle	76.84
7	Sainsbury	76.43
8	Intercontinental Hotels	76.16
9	Thomas Cook	75.99
10	Inmarsat	75.31
11	PZ Cussons	74.66
12	SAB Miller	74.25
13	Next	73.77
14	Travis Perkins	73.75
15	BHP Billiton	73.69
16	Unilever	73.6
17	Dairy Crest	73.57
18	GlaxoSmithKline	73.16
19	Associated British Foods	72.81
20	The Game Group	72.69
21	WHSmith	72.43
22	Tesco	72.29
23	AstraZeneca	71.39
24	Diageo	71.33
25	WPP Group	71.29
26	Wood Group	71.14
27	GKN	71.04
28	Weir Group	71.02
29	Wolseley	70.72
30	Babcock International Group	70.67
31	Rentokil Initial	70.38
32	Debenhams	70.31
33	Elsevier	70.09
34	Home Retail Group	70.04
35	Go-Ahead Group	70.03
36	Reckitt Benckiser	69.95
37	Xstrata	69.61
38	Johnson Matthey	69.49
39	Sage	69.47
40	Jardine Lloyd Thompson	69.45
41	Vodafone	69.45
42	Taylor Nelson Sofres	69.38
43	Nationwide Building Society	69.35
44	Yell Group	69.2
45	British Airways	68.98
46	Inchcape	68.78
47	BAE Systems	68.66
48	Pearson	68.55
49	Tomkins	68.46
50	Avis Europe	68.41

Comments

Mark Palmer - 04/06/2009

I'm sorry this is the sort of nonsense assertion because it is research that it is therefore carvedin stone as true - I really hate it when a quote of 5000 strong survey is allowed to justify such a swing or set of assetions on ranking companies and the reasons for it. 1. Look at the spread on scores... there are 9 companies with a score of 69ish and the ranking is based on second decimal place!!! If you take normal boundaries for confidence intervals on the actual scores for a "survey" this whole premise of ranking at this micro score level is nonsense from a professional research perspective. 2. Look who is in there and who is not and explain to me the logic. It is a consumer survey - no Google - no BBC - no P&G. Yet and Taylor Nelson Sofres are in it. How on earth have consumers got a view on them? 3. The number is made up by averaging scores of 4 variable scores...trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling. Isn't it just possible that one matters more or there is something else that isn't included...I'll make 2 up consistency and value for money. 4. Whilst it seems logical that reputation links to wilingness to recommend how about putting some real numbers on it and stating where this assertion is backed up. 5. Amazing to hear that banks reputaion has gone down....bite me.... really.

Richard Hayter - 04/06/2009

What's the definition of consumer here? How are Inmarsat 10th?

Mike Page - 04/06/2009

If I was asked about 'Wood Group' my response would have been 'who?' Sorry Wood group, but you're just not on my radar.

zweroret zweroret - 04/06/2009

Got to say as an average guy on the street, I can honestly say that I have no idea what probably a third of the names on this list do. I recognise around three-quarters, but some I am totally clueless about. As Richard says, what is the definition of consumer? If I was asked about 'Wood Group' my response would have been 'who?' Sorry Wood group, but you're just not on my radar. -))))))))

Tom Wells - 15/06/2009

Quite apart from the oddity of the companies on the list, this study overlooks the fact that in many cases, a good corporate reputation is either pointless or worthless at the consumer level. In the real world, if I want to get a train from Exeter to Birmingham, I have to go with Virgin, however much I loathe them, because there's no other provider of the service. On the other hand, however wonderful I think First Group is as a corporate citizen, I'm unlikely to leap on one of their trains just because... This is ust one very simple example of where the link between corporate reputation and business success breaks down, but sufficient to show how easy it can be to be misled by mindless measurement.