Home Hardware and Porter Airlines were the highest-ranking local firms in the Reputation Institute’s 50 Most Reputable Companies of 2016, but experts said the failure of a single Canadian firm to crack the top 10 suggested how far brands here have to go in addressing the way they are perceived by consumers.
Lego emerged in the No. 1 spot on the rankings, which were presented in Toronto on Wednesday with The Reputation Management Institute and Argyle Public Relationships. Also known as the RepTrak 50, the rankings are based on ratings on more than 400,000 variables across a selection of more than 300 companies. Consumers needed to self-identify as being either somewhat or very familiar with company in order to participate.
While Home Hardware made 12 on the list, Porter was the second-highest Canadian firm at No. 20. The entire top 10 was composed of multinationals such as Campbell’s Soup, Google and Gillette.
As Dr. Charles Fombrun, founder and chairman of the Reputation Institute explained, the RepTrak scores are based on how consumers rate a company’s reputational drivers such as its products and services, degree of innovation, the quality of its workforce and so on. It also looks at supportive behaviours such as whether consumers would purchase from that company, recommend it to friends, invest in it or work there. This allows the organization to calculate a numerical score that shows breaks down reputation into degrees of esteem, admiration, trust and emotional connection.
While some Canadian firms in the top 50 fell into the “strong” quadrant, only two reached the status of “excellent” enjoyed by the multinationals, noted Bradley Hecht, the Reputation Institute’s vice-president and chief research officer.
“Canadians tend to be tougher graders,” he admitted, adding that brands could improve their position by paying greater attention to areas such as the quality of their workplace, their governance (how ethical and transparent they are) and corporate social responsibility activities.
“It’s not enough to think about the product experience. It’s also important to think about the company that stands behind the product.”
In a panel discussion following the rankings’ unveiling, Robert Deluce, president and CEO of Porter Airlines, reflected on how his firm has tried to manage its reputation following controversy over its attempts to introduce a jet service from Billy Bishop Airport.
“We haven’t pulled back from what we’d like to do eventually. It is one of those things where you can look at it as a sort of obstacle or barrier,” he said of the public criticism the company has endured. “We’ve regarded them more as speed bumps, or something we can navigate around.”
In some respects, the reputational challenges are not much different from when Porter launched 10 years ago, he said, when there was criticism against the idea of having regular flights the island airport at all.
Reputation management is particularly difficult for sectors such as financial services and energy, which typically score near the bottom, according to Hect. Neil Parmenter, SVP corporate and public affairs and chief communications officer, TD Bank Group, said firms like his have no choice but to make an extra effort wherever possible.
“If you look at the expectations, the banks are historically the first one to adopt new standards for employees or the environment . . . (In terms of governance), we feel that heat earlier,” he said. “When I started in my career a long time ago, success looked like getting some positive ink and trying to put out some fires. There’s an understanding now that you can’t operate a business that way.”
The full rankings of Canada’s 50 Most Reputable Companies is below.
