What brands do people unconditionally trust? Which companies are associated with reliability, quality and trends? Whose reputation is so pure that it allows you to be in TOP 10 one of the most prestigious rankings of brands loved by consumers?

Today we will get acquainted with the rating compiled according to the Reputation Quotient study, which has been conducted annually since 1999 by Harris Interactive, an American research company, a pro in the study of public opinion, sociological and marketing research. This is a world leader in its field, and the reliability of the data is beyond doubt.

More than 23,000 US adults took part in the latest survey, conducted in December 2015. And everyone knows that Americans know a lot about reputation: how to improve it and how to question it because of any, even the most insignificant, mistake of the company.

What affects reputation?

The study examined in detail 6 factors that form corporate reputation:

1. Social responsibility

• Friendly image
• Environmental commitment
• Public obligations

2. Ideals and leaders

• Market Opportunities
• Leadership level
• vision of the future

3. Financial indicators

• Competitiveness
• income level
• Risk for investors
• Growth prospects

4. Products and services

• Quality
• Innovation
• Price

5. Emotional attraction

• Perception
• Admiration and respect
• Reliability

6. Employer status

• Employee incentives
• Workplace comfort
• Employee professionalism

TOP 10 companies with the best reputation

2016 Reputation Quotient Ratings by Harris Interactive

1. Amazon
2. Apple
3. Google
4. Walt Disney Co.
5. Publix
6. Samsung
7. Berkshire Hathaway
8. Johnson & Johnson
9. Kellogg Company

Amazon takes the lead not for the first time and well deserved.

By the way, this year the founder of Amazon, 52-year-old Jeff Bezos, was in fifth place on the list. the richest people world according to Forbs with a fortune in $45.2 billion Despite this figure, Amazon has always promoted savings. In an address to shareholders five years ago, Bezos declared war on waste:

“The better we optimize costs, the more attractive prices we can offer the consumer.”

And, indeed, people are satisfied with the company and devoted to it with all their hearts, which has been confirmed by not a single study.

The second in the list of leaders is everyone's favorite Apple. Although there have been many scandals over violations of privacy and confidentiality laws, people trust the brand.

Not so long ago, Apple significantly increased the protection of the iPhone. After in 2014 former employee US intelligence agencies Edward Snowden released secret materials about the mass surveillance of American intelligence agencies over citizens around the world. Despite the fact that some of the violations have been confirmed (incidents have taken place since 2008), the public justifies Apple: "Who will refuse the FBI's demands ?!"

To get a complete picture, it is worth looking at the entire list of companies that fell into TOP 100.

For example, that, despite all its “un-Americanism”, the favorite among automakers has become Honda(17). Followed by Audi(29) and bmw(33). And already behind them - the American Ford(50), which turned out to be, oddly enough, higher than the US market leaders - General Motors(81) and Toyota(63). Well, he closed the TOP 100, until recently beloved by Russians and Europeans Volkswagen. As you can see, the Americans praise their native auto industry, but they don’t spoil it very much.

Positions in the fast food industry are also several unexpected. If lead Coca Cola(18) companies Pepsi(59) 41 steps could still be predicted, then the loss McDonald's(84) networks Burger King(79) was unpredictable. Is it all marketing moves McDonald's Loyalty Boost Was in vain? Apparently, neither freshness beliefs, nor the disclosure of ingredients, nor children's parties in restaurants help restore its former greatness. Or maybe it's just not worth throwing words to the wind? ..

Not so long ago McDonald's launched in the USA New Product– Crispy cheese sticks “Mozzarella sticks” made from “100% real mozzarella cheese”. Less than a month later, a lawsuit was filed by Chris Howe, who stated: “These snacks contain 3,76% starch, which is contrary to all existing standards (cheese should not have any impurities)”, with which the company categorically disagreed. Following Chris' demands for justice and damages in $5 million The Internet was flooded with a wave of content from the same deceived users. Many Americans, including celebrities, began to boldly publish photos and videos confirming not only the low quality of cheese, but also its complete absence!

Of course, not all brands allow themselves such “pranks”, but many, even the most attentive in relation to their products and services, turned out to be lower in the rating than they could be. How else can you spoil the image of the company?

What damages reputation?

Usually the name of the company is under attack when the public learns about dishonesty or fraud on the part of the brand. Also, the attitude towards the company is affected by the safety of purchases and the safety of consumers' personal data.

• Inaccurate information about products and services 80%
• Violation of norms and laws by leaders and key persons of companies 80%
• Violation of laws on non-disclosure of personal data 74%
• Recall of products in which flaws and malfunctions are found 66%
• Poor service, lack of service culture 64%

The brightest failure

Let's go back to what we already mentioned. Volkswagen and see why he is at the very end of the list.

Due to problems recent years, in 2016 Volkswagen Group lost ground on 20.5 points. The reason for this was the famous "diesel scandal": the automaker forged the results of testing cars with a diesel engine for emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere. The company had to pay claims and recall their cars.

The presentation of Volkswagen at the Geneva Motor Show was interrupted by British comedian Simon Brodkin, who suddenly appeared on the stage in a mechanic's overalls with a wrench and a box with the words "deception device" written on it.

Rationale for estimates

Most often, positive scores are based on the emotional attractiveness and affordability of products. The low ratings are mainly associated with the unsatisfactory level of social responsibility of companies.

The average scores of social responsibility of the 4 leaders decreased compared to the total scores by 4.82 . This suggests that even beloved brands are becoming less consumer friendly.

The average ratings of the emotional and financial attractiveness of the top 10 increased by 9.25 And 8.74 points, respectively. So, apparently, brands are trying to win customer loyalty with flexible pricing and marketing promotions.

Brand research and information sharing

Customers actively inquire before making a purchase or deciding to become an employee of the company. This is especially true for the so-called "customer elite" which has:

• prestigious education
• permanent job
• regular social and cultural activity
• certain moral attitudes and values.

In contrast to the elite, marketers, relying on the concepts of sociology and political science, single out “ masses” (public, general public). This segment is numerous, but less pretentious, selective and aware of the real life of brands.

• Cognitive activity aimed at studying companies from the elite is 72% , while the masses 52% .
• From cooperation with the brand after its study will be 57% elites and 37% general public.

Summarizing all of the above, we can conclude that for global corporations, in addition to the level of conversion, reputation is of great importance. It is extremely difficult to earn it, but you can lose it overnight, because today every consumer will share his indignation with the whole world. Therefore, in 2016, most companies, both small and industry leaders, are heavily investing in programs to increase customer loyalty and product quality.

Despite the fact that we live in an age of brands, not products, quality is what should be a priority any business.

If your environment does not make you better, makes you feel like a loser - it needs to be changed urgently!

We meet people in our lives every day. Among these people, we form groups, and even if we managed to gain a foothold in any of them, this does not mean that our real company now it's a good company. In fact, it may just be a strange affection that we have for these people, or a simple unwillingness to change something in our lives.

But the truth remains the truth, by these not tricky signs you can determine what you are in bad company:

1. They only date you when it's convenient for them.

The first and most obvious sign. If a company or person meets you only at a convenient time for them, leave them: they are not friends or even buddies. If you can't call them for a walk with or go for a drink, and any initiative comes only from them at the most inopportune time for you - congratulations, they take advantage of you! Don't let them do it! Despite beautiful words about relationships in the spirit of "No one owes anything to anyone", this does not happen. If friends entered into a relationship, it means that they owe something to someone.

2. They constantly bring up your past.

These people do not allow the thought that you could change. They remind you of old mistakes with some pleasure, showing you what a bad friend you are. Although many years have passed. Friends who treat you with respect will never remember your past, because they see that it has passed, and you have changed too. Those who are attentive to what has sunk into oblivion must be left behind, otherwise they will have to repair their future.

3. You feel trapped

Healthy relationships are healthy because you can easily come to this person and leave. You can break loose and run, and then come back. When the relationship is normal, there is a feeling that all the doors and windows are wide open: you can come, go, and breathe well. In relationships with “the wrong people” (regardless of what) you feel like a prisoner, as if you were lured into the house and then locked up. You are uncomfortable, awkward, you can not relax. So why not find the strength in yourself and get away from them?

4. They downplay your abilities and dreams.

Normal friends will praise you for something good and scold you for something bad. But they will not only scold you for all sorts of nonsense. I had a friend in my life who constantly belittled my abilities in all areas and believed that my dreams were stupid, naive and bad. And she was sure that I was doing an unloved thing. Or rather, that everything I do does not suit me. Over the years, I realized that a friend was just trying to leave on my background, belittling my, by the way, obvious advantages. If they tell you that what you are definitely doing well (and you know it yourself) is complete garbage, know that you are in bad company - it's time to get out of here. And never make excuses for these friends, like she / he just has her own opinion. Of course, she expressed her opinion, but why do you need such people around? Friends, friends and loved ones should support you. And occasionally scold for the cause.

5. They lied to you more than once (largely)

Love, like friendship, are things that are confirmed by deeds. If someone lies to you, it means only one thing: he does not respect you. And your relationship too.

Let's say you forgave a person some kind of lie, and he take it and set you up again, and just as stupidly and disrespectfully. And all why? Because he does not respect your feelings and acts in his own interests. This friend may not even realize what he is actually doing, but he will still chronically lie to you.

6. They are negative

There are people who are negative about everything. You shouldn't be in a relationship with them either. Their negativity is expressed in a negative attitude not only to you, but also to everything that relates to you at the moment and interacts with you. These people constantly sting, tease you and the people around you, you will think that they just have such a nature, but in reality they are a bad company.

7. They are very jealous of you

White envy does not apply to all property and personal qualities person. If a person is jealous of “white envy” of everything that has to do with another person, then this envy is not “white”, but the most common. Envy in no way means that you are admired. Envy is always contempt and disrespect for a person. Therefore, if you hear from a person the eternal “What kind of girlfriend do you have!”, “What kind of car do you have”, know that he envies and hates you. Is that bad.

8. They force you to be biased and hate others.

If your friend and company force you to disrespect and hate others, this company is not the most positive a priori. Decide for yourself who you hate: not a small one!

9. They want you to be someone else.

The most important reason. If other signs sometimes occur in good people, then this sign almost always means that you are in bad company. Your friends or loved ones know what kind of person you are. If they are trying to change something, it is only in your habits, and then it is absolutely optional: if you want - change, if you want - no. Bad company wants to completely remake you. These people are trying in every possible way to change you and attribute to you various shortcomings that you have not observed in yourself. They belittle and try in every possible way to show you your place. And decide for you. Why do you need them? Forget.

But these are not all signs of a bad company. There are many others. In the comments, you can write other signs of companies that you think are bad.

We continue to sum up the results of the outgoing year. These brands have undoubtedly turned out to be more visible than others: they have made people talk about them all year and can offer us all a lesson or two.

Let's start with the top five winners:

1. Uber: from taxi to technology

Uber can be listed already for how it changes the way we approach transportation. Its revolutionary business model attracts tens of millions of drivers and passengers. He stubbornly overcomes resistance at the levels of small (for example, at Chicago airports) and great (hello Indonesia!). But in fact, it ended up so high on the list because of less noticeable innovations. Among them - mobile applications, the use of unmanned vehicles and a partnership with the Department of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. IN Lately Uber seems to be implementing one of Google's plans to seize world domination (not surprisingly, Google is the company's main investor).

2. DraftKings: betting on nerds

3. Xiaomi: the flagship you may never have heard of

The young electronics brand is conquering Asia and is now the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer after Samsung and Apple. In addition, it is the world's most valuable technology startup. The company, whose inspirational mantra is "Always believe something wonderful will happen," was named to the winners for its rapid growth, including as a wireless provider, as well as expansion into Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, India and Indonesia.

4. Under Armor: The fastest growing tech brand in the world?

What is Under Armor - a sports, fashion or technology brand? Answer: both, and another, and the third. Under Armor (NYSE: Under Armor) is growing faster than Nike and Adidas and is threatening to reach $20 billion in less than 10 years. The company continues to innovate to help athletes achieve maximum performance through the use of new technologies in sportswear.

Having invested more than $700 million in the acquisition of sports apps MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal and Endomondo, Under Armor controls the largest digital fitness platform in the world. More than 60 million users open one of its apps at least once a month. Will Google knock on the company's door?

5 Star Wars: Intergalactic Marketing Monster

Yoda once said, "You can't see the future," but we disagree. We are ready hold bet that " star Wars: The Force Awakens is the closest thing to an ideal Hollywood creation. This is the first new film in the series in ten years, and it brings back characters that were almost forgotten, including Princess Leia and Chewbacca.

Although Apple modestly claims that sales have begun to rise, the product launch was not too successful. And, as it turned out, most of the sales came from a cheap sports model, and not the standard variant. Do you remember that model in gold for 10 thousand dollars? Anna Kendrick aptly dubbed her "the new

Bernard Heath leads the list of loser CEOs by right: he has not yet managed to do anything in his new post, but Heinz's largest partner, the McDonald's snack chain, has already refused to cooperate with the sauce manufacturer. Heinz became the head of Heinz in April, three years before that he headed Burger King Worldwide, McDonald's main competitor in the US market. It was Heath's past job that prevented Heinz's largest partner from continuing to work with the company.

Stephen Elop was hired at the end of 2010, it was planned that he would save the Finnish Nokia from stagnation and give the company new momentum. The company really received a powerful boost of energy from the new CEO, but instead of rapid development, it quickly lost even the existing shaky positions. It all started with Elop's first speech, entitled "The Burning Platform." An inspirational speaker, Elop compared his new company with a man standing on the edge of a burning oil tanker. The speech was intended only for Nokia employees, so Elop was not shy in his expressions. His example teaches us that in the era of smartphones and mobile internet any production meeting may become public. Later, Elop himself admitted that the statement that leaked to the net undermined Nokia's sales on the Symbian platform.

In the two years that Elop was at the helm, Nokia lost 26% of the market and became the target of an unfortunate deal with Microsoft. Division that produces Cell phones, was estimated at only 5.44 billion euros.

Johnson was Apple's senior vice president of sales and was considered one of the best in the industry. In particular, he was responsible for the launch of the Apple Store. In early 2012, he took over Texas department store chain J.C. Penney Co. He planned to change the company's business strategy, make the pricing policy more transparent.

But it turned out that buyers love sales, and turning an old department store into a kind of Apple Store is not so easy: stocks start to fall, investors get nervous. In February, the company announced that its loss for the fourth quarter of 2012 amounted to $ 428 million. And two months later, Johnson was replaced by the old director Myron Ullman, who led the company since 2004.

Diamond began his career teaching at a business school. Since 1977, he worked at the investment bank Morgan Stanley, and in 1996 he became a member of the executive committee of Barclays bank. After 15 years, he was appointed CEO.

On July 2, 2012, the head of the board of directors of the company announced that one of the employees was involved in market manipulations with the Libor interbank loan rate - because of this, Barclays will have to pay a fine of 59.5 million pounds. Diamond quit the next day.

The co-founder and head of the gas corporation Chesapeake Energy in 2008 was recognized as America's highest paid CEO: his salary was $112 million. At the same time, he actively used the company's capabilities for his own purposes. In particular, he borrowed half a billion dollars from EIG Global Energy Partners, which then received special conditions for investing in Chesapeake. He set up a $200 million secret fund that traded on stock market oil and gas futures. He used the company's planes for personal travel, and its employees built his house. Meanwhile, the company's shares were falling - by 20% per year.

On April 1, 2013, he was fired from his post as CEO of the company, and Robert Lawler was appointed to this position.

Before Schwartz replaced Scott McNeely as director of Sun Microsystems, the company was one of the market leaders in server hardware. After his appointment in 2006, the firm began to experience setbacks. It began to yield market share to HP and IBM. Within two years, shares fell from $27 to $4, and 6,000 employees were laid off.

In 2008, the director tried to diversify the company's business. Sun bought MySQL, which was doing databases, but it didn't help. Then she released Java software, software to develop websites and applications. But even it did not bring profit to the company, because it was free, and it was not possible to find ways to monetize it.

In February 2010, Schwartz was fired, and a year later the company was bought by Oracle for $7.4 billion. In honor of his dismissal, he wrote a haiku on Twitter: Financial crisis / Loss of clients / I'm not a director anymore. In 2012, Schwartz founded his company CareZone.

George SHAHRIN

Former director of bankrupt Webvan

In 1999, Shakhrin came to work at the Webvan online grocery store from consulting company Andersen. The store was one of the most high-profile Internet startups of the early 2000s and promised customers delivery of their order within half an hour. The company wanted to open offices in 26 American cities, but never expanded beyond the West Coast.

The director spent $1.5 billion to build logistics in a year and a half. The company employed 4,500 people, but after a year he had to lay off almost half. Shakhrin did not take into account the fact that grocers operate with very low margins, and because of this, the company suffered losses. Worst of all, he raised $375 million in an IPO, but the investors never got their money back. In 2001 the company went bankrupt.

The worst reputation is with Gazprom, the best with Euroset

Gazprom is the company with the worst reputation in the business environment, the W-City community research showed. The company does not care about its image at all and occupies the niche of a "celestial being", they say in the business environment. The best reputation of the Euroset company.

Experts of the W-City community research group together with the Bureau "Actual Global Sociology" interviewed more than a thousand representatives of the middle class from Moscow and St. Petersburg to find out how the reputation of leading national business structures (including those with state participation) changed in 2010 ).

Rating "Reputation-2010", in particular, is based on the confidence of respondents in the company featured in the survey. In addition, the results of the study are based on how the image of a particular structure is perceived by representatives of the business community who are trusted in their environment.

Thus, the State Concern "Gazprom" received the largest number of negative assessments - it took the first place among companies with a negative reputation in the business environment. Timofei Surovtsev, head of the w-city.net portal, explained, “the company has an ambiguous reputation. According to respondents, it does not improve it at all, does not consider it necessary to work with public opinion, it is not socially oriented". According to the expert, in the view of most people, the company takes the position of a "celestial being." interlocutor site.

"There is a great English proverb - "Without publicity there is no prosperity" (Without publicity there can be no economic prosperity)," marketing and PR specialist Konstantin Goloshchapov comments on the results of the rating. "Of course, such giants as Gazprom or Transneft" , The 1st position from this proverb is not needed at all, since they always have everything in perfect order with the 2nd position. At our expense, really. "

Companies with a negative reputation:

Good reputation

Among the companies that received the largest number of positive ratings, the cellular retailer Evroset took the first place. "The reputation of a company is very often associated with the reputation of its leader, and this is just such a case. The results of the study indicate that the business community sympathizes with the ex-co-owner of the retailer Evgeny Chichvarkin. The Euroset scandal benefited its reputation" - notes Timofey Surovtsev.

Recall that in November 2010, the jury of the Moscow City Court unanimously found the defendants in the Euroset case innocent, whom the investigation accused of kidnapping the freight forwarder. Later, in January 2011, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal, and. Now Euroset is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Companies with a positive reputation:

Meanwhile, companies that appear in the negative part of the reputation rating have been included in various global ratings of companies more than once. Sberbank was included in the top 100 most expensive brands in the world according to Brand Finance, as well as in the top 20 most expensive global banking brands, the magazine estimated its value at $12 billion.

The brands of "Gazprom" and "Rosneft" also "lit up" in the rating, however, only in its "tail". "Gazprom" took 208th line, "Rosneft" - 370th.

And two companies from the "positive" part of the reputation rating, along with Apple and Facebook, were among the 50 most innovative companies in the world according to Fast Company. So, "Yandex" took the 26th line, "Kaspersky Lab" - 32.

But none of the Russian players was included in the global rating of companies with the best reputation according to Fortune magazine.

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