The RepTrak™ model not only measures the health of a company's reputation across stakeholders, countries and industries, but also examines which of 7 key driver dimensions most influences the company's reputation – as well as the level of support stakeholders provide companies.
RepTrak™ is a proprietary tool that was developed by Reputation Institute to measure corporate reputations. It is grounded on the theory that reputations are emotional attitudes stakeholders have towards companies, and can be measured by assessing their degree of Admiration, Trust, 'Good Feeling' and 'Overall Esteem' for companies.
Our extensive international fieldwork shows that a company's reputation is influenced by:
- 1. Products & Services
- 2. Innovation
- 3. Workplace
- 4. Governance
- 5. Citizenship
- 6. Leadership
- 7. Performance
Reputation Institute is committed to ongoing projects that track of the reputations of companies around the world. In particular, the Global RepTrak™ Pulse project that Reputation Institute conducts annually measures the reputations of the world's largest 2,500+ companies by surveying consumers in 40 countries using the RepTrak™ model.
Reputation Institute helps leaders make strategic decisions that build and protect reputational capital and drive competitive advantage. We rely on rigorous research and analytics to develop actionable strategies that leaders in the private and public sectors can implement. However, what people expect of companies and institutions varies from place to place and across stakeholder groups. Reputation Institute therefore developed the RepTrak™ System as a global standard for reputation measurement designed to help leaders gain insight into what drives reputation and support across stakeholder groups and around the world.
Each year Reputation Institute carries out detailed research with consumers in over 30 countries to examine public perceptions about the world's largest companies. At the same time, we also examine public perceptions of leaders, cities, countries, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). We do so because we understand that personal beliefs develop from a complex web of interactions that link stakeholders into a global ecosystem. Our extensive research sheds light on the factors that shape stakeholder perceptions and behaviors across that ecosystem.
- The Global RepTrak™ project examines public attitudes towards the world's largest companies and the underlying factors that drive consumer preference.
- The Country RepTrak™ project identifies the factors that make some countries more appealing than others -and clarifies how companies can benefit from adapting their global initiatives to local expectations.
- The City RepTrak™ project examines how cities differentiate themselves with consumers to attract tourism and investment.
- The NGO RepTrak™ project identifies the opinion-making institutions that consumers are most likely to trust and enables leaders to gain insight about the world's largest opinion-making institutions.
- The Leader RepTrak™ takes a close look at the personal reputations of some of the world's most prominent public personalities in the worlds of politics, culture, sports, and entertainment.
These projects position Reputation Institute at the forefront of thought leadership about the reputations of individuals and institutions around the world. The unique knowledge they provide enhances Reputation Institute's ability to help clients develop sustainable value-creating strategies around the world.
The Global RepTrak™ Pulse is a study developed by Reputation Institute to assess the reputations of the world's largest and most visible companies and rank the companies with the 'best corporate reputations'. The study is also designed to measure the health of a company's overall reputation and identify what drives perceptions of corporate reputation from the viewpoint of the general public
The insights generated through the Global RepTrak™ Pulse study can help organizations
- Improve the efficiency of communication strategies
- Understand what matters most to consumers across global markets
- Strengthen their ability to make strategic business decisions
The Global RepTrak™ Pulse was designed to measure perceptions of the general public around the world and has been administered in two waves:
Wave 1 — Country-Specific Studies: More than 100,000 respondents in 41 countries were asked about 2,500+ companies. In total, more than 250,000 ratings were collected to develop reliable measurements of the corporate reputation within each of the 41 countries involved. This wave was conducted at the country level and results were derived from a country-specific respondent pool.
Wave 2 — Global Measure: This wave of the study called The Global RepTrak™ 100 was designed to create a true global study which measures the general public's perceptions of the same 100 most highly regarded companies across 15 countries. Over 47, 000 global consumers were interviewed online and the global scores produced are the results of the average scores obtained across the 15 countries.
Wave 1 — Country-Specific Studies: This wave was conducted at the country level and results were derived from a country-specific respondent pool. The data obtained from this wave represents consumer perceptions from 41 different countries, which resulted in country-specific conclusions. The data from this wave of the study was collected in January - February of 2011, and the results of this study were released to the media in April 2011.
Wave 2 — Global Measure: This wave of the study called The Global RepTrak™ 100 measured 100 of the most highly regarded companies across 15 countries in order to obtain a global data average. The data from this wave of the study was collected in April of 2011, and the results of this study were released to the media in June 2011.
Reputation Institute identified a set of companies who qualified as candidates for inclusion in The Global RepTrak™ 100: The World's Most Reputable Companies study. Qualification criteria included:
- Company size based on annual revenue
- "Above Average" reputation scores in their home market, derived from Reputation Institute's global database of RepTrak™ scores, spanning 2006-2010
- Multinational presence and global footprint
Wave 1: Respondents were surveyed from January through February, 2011.
Wave 2: Respondents were surveyed from April, 2011.
The first phase of the 2011 RepTrak™ Pulse study was conducted in 41 countries:
- Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom
- Asia Pacific: Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and New Zealand
- North America: United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico
- Latin/South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru
- Africa: South Africa
The second phase of the 2011 Global RepTrak™ Pulse study was conducted in 15 countries:
- Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and United Kingdom
- Asia Pacific: Australia, China, India, Japan, and South Korea
- North America: United States and Canada
- Latin America: Brazil and Mexico
The RepTrak™ Pulse score is a measure of corporate reputation calculated by averaging perceptions of trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling obtained from a representative sample of at least 100 local respondents who were familiar with the company.
All scores are globally adjusted to correct for cross-country biases based calculation using RI's longitudinal database of more than 400,000 respondents interviewed in 31 countries since 2006.
*Reputation Institute's 2011 data partners are SSI and Toluna.
Yes. All people have more or less favorable perceptions of companies they are familiar. Reputation Institute can therefore measure the reputations of any company and with any stakeholder group.
Email RepTrak@reputationInstitute.com to learn more about how we do this in more detail.
Reputation Institute recommends using the following description and boilerplate language when citing your company’s results from either Wave 1 or 2 of the Global RepTrak™ Pulse studies:
Wave 1 - Country-Specific Studies:
"In a recent survey of [COUNTRY] consumers conducted by Reputation Institute, [YOUR COMPANY] earned a RepTrak™ Pulse score of [X], placing it [# Y] on a list of the largest companies in [COUNTRY]. [YOUR COMPANY]'s reputation score is considered [STRONG, EXCELLENT] against a normative database of all companies rated by consumers in 41 countries, indicating the company enjoys a high level of trust, admiration and esteem with the general public."
Wave 2 – Global Measure:
"In a recent survey of global consumers conducted by Reputation Institute, [YOUR COMPANY] earned a Global RepTrak™ Pulse score of [SCORE] placing it [RANK] on the list of The Global RepTrak™ 100: The World's Most Reputable Companies. This rating indicates that [YOUR COMPANY] has a [LEVEL] reputation with global consumers across 15 international markets."
*Rating Indication Key:
Excellent/Top Tier
Above 80
Strong/Robust
70-79
Average/Moderate
60-69
Weak/Vulnerable
40-59
Poor/Bottom Tier
Below 40
Ratings are shorthand descriptions of how stakeholders feel about a company, and influence their support for the company's activities. The first phase of Reputation Institute's 'reputing process' therefore involves building a Reputation Landscape by asking the fundamental question: "How do stakeholders feel about your company?"
Armed with answers to that basic question, Reputation Institute's Advice practice helps managers develop coherent reputing strategies designed to build economic value. When well-articulated, reputing strategies deliver improved valuations by:
- Enhancing competitive advantage
- Reducing operating costs
- Enabling premium pricing
- Helping to weather market downturns
- Increasing trust, confidence, support, and investment from key stakeholders
- Recruiting and retaining the best talent
- Building distinctiveness in the marketplace