What are the top 100 brands in US?

Source: What are the top 100 brands in US?, clarionledger.com

PDF: Brands

Quickly, before you think about it: What is the first name that comes to mind when you think of quality watches? What about e-commerce companies? Candy? Underwear?

If you named Rolex, Amazon, Hershey and Fruit of the Loom, you would be in good company. Those brands are among the top 10 on a list of the most highly regarded brands in the U.S. today, according to a study by the Reputation Institute.he organization compiles U.S. RepTrak 100, an annual list of the Top 100 brands most associated with positive attributes across a range of behaviors, including quality of products, use of innovation and others. The survey evaluates responses from 42,000 people who completed a survey in the first three months of the year. All this data is evaluated, analyzed and compiled into a cumulative score, resulting in a ranked list of the Top 100 companies.

The top 10 companies in this year’s just-announced survey are, in order: Rolex, Amazon, Sony, Lego, Hallmark, Netflix, Kimberly-Clark, Hershey, Fruit-of-the-Loom and Barnes and Noble.

“Classic American brands stand out at the top of this year’s US RepTrak 100 rankings, with seven of the 10 companies U.S.-based, and most of these representing what we’d consider ‘nostalgic brands’ like Lego, Hallmark, and Fruit of the Loom,” noted Allen Bonde, Reputation Institute’s chief marketing officer, in an article for Marketing Daily. “Especially appealing to Millennials, we see these types of brands equally focused on good citizenship, active on social media and great at demonstrating their brand purpose across all media channels.”

 While most people know a “brand” when they see one, it’s important to point out the term “brand” is actually a complicated concept through which organizations (and sometimes, individuals) become widely known. Most Americans would instantly recognize most of the brands listed on the Top 100 because they’ve become well-established through advertising, marketing, and retail presence. Most (but not all) dominate their particular market niches, and many are internationally known.

Of course, no brand is immune from reputation damage, and in the social-media-intense world we live in today, a carefully built image can be crushed overnight by many things, including one bad decision by an employee, poor corporate decision-making or just plain bad luck.

There were significant “winners” and “losers” in this year’s report. For example, Rolex edged out Amazon to take first place this year, and Kimberly-Clark (which makes a variety of consumer products, but is best known for its paper products such as Kleenex) broke into the Top 10 for the first time. South Korea-based Samsung took a precipitous drop from No. 3 in 2016 to No. 63 this year after being hit hard by the Galaxy Note 7 recall (but, as the survey authors noted, its previous brand strength helped inoculate it from an even-more disastrous fall.) Yahoo’s reputation dropped after a spate of bad news including a major data breach, and American Express’ iconic image took a hit after a number of recent issues, including ending its exclusive contract with Costco and concerns about its leadership.

The survey also included rankings by industry, categorizing companies into 16 industries by reputation. At the top of the industry rankings were Consumer goods and services, followed by Food and Beverage, Transport, Automotive and Airlines. At the bottom of the list was Energy, followed by Telecommunication, Health care and Financial.

To download the complete report (it’s free, but you’ll need to provide your name, email address and other information), visit http://bit.ly/2nAvLzk.