This year’s most reputable brand, Apple, has scored the highest reputation score in the 13-year history of the Harris Poll Reputation Quotient. The study, by Harris Interactive (www.harrisinteractive.com), looks at the reputations of various manufacturers.
“Customer inclination towards strong leadership and technological innovation may be the catalyst, and it is within this environment that Apple reigns supreme,” says the research group. “The company benefits greatly from its hybrid status as a technology/consumer product/retail company, and earns the highest RQ score to secure the top spot in the ranking. It displaces Google — last year’s most reputable corporation, which now ranks second with an excellent score of 82.82.”
Companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon.com combine innovation and leadership across multiple business areas, giving them true competitive advantages, says Robert Fronk, executive vice president and Global Corporate Reputation Practice Lead for Harris Interactive. In terms of year-over-year change, only Apple, Toyota, General Motors and BP enjoy significant improvement in their RQ scores while one quarter of companies saw drastic declines.
RQ measures six dimensions that comprise reputation and influence consumer behavior: social responsibility, emotional appeal, financial performance, products & services, vision & leadership and workplace environment. Apple has the greatest score overall. In fact, despite today’s challenging environment, the company records the highest score in the RQ’s history, and is top-ranked in four of the six key dimensions.
