By definition, a strong brand is one that a large segment of the consumer population recognizes, trusts and appreciates. But there is a special place reserved in branding history for companies that are able to turn their brand into a verb.
Google, the search engine of choice for consumers around the world, is one of the few companies that can boast of this achievement. Less than a decade and a half after the World Wide Web first penetrated mass consciousness, Google has essentially rendered redundant the term “Internet search.” Consumers don’t search online for information. They “Google” it.
“It has become the Kleenex of online search tools,” says Dave Scholz, vice-president at research firm Leger Marketing in Toronto. “Whether they use Google or MSN or Yahoo… they’ve really gotten that word space.”
In making its name synonymous with online search, Google has also captured the respect and admiration of Canadian consumers, who awarded the company the top spot in the 2009 Marketing/Leger Corporate Reputation Survey. In its first year of inclusion in the survey, Google shot past perennial favourites such as Sony, Tim Hortons and last year’s winner, Staples Business Depot.
And it wasn’t even close—at least not by the standards of previous years. In 2008, Staples topped the list with a reputation score of 83 (calculated by subtracting the percentage of respondents who registered a negative opinion of a company from the percentage with a favourable opinion), one point ahead of second-place Sony. This year, Google posted a score of 91—eight points better than its closest competitors—and only 1.7% of respondents reported a negative opinion of the company.
Google’s success can’t truly be attributed to marketing, as the company doesn’t do any, at least not in any traditional sense. Nor are the good feelings Canadians have about the company generated by a decades-long history or a uniquely Canadian identity; Google is a relatively young company and a fundamentally global entity. As Jonathan Lister, managing director and head of Google Canada explains, the company tops this year’s list for one simple reason.
“The thing that Google does best in terms of promoting its own brand is putting out great products,” says Lister. “It’s literally as simple and as difficult as that. Google spends an incredible amount of time and energy and resources putting out products that ultimately make life easier for consumers.”
Lister, whose appointment to head up Google Canada’s operations earlier this year signified the company’s increasing dedication to the Canadian market, says the organization’s pace of product innovation is almost too dizzying to keep track of. A short list of relatively recent application launches includes the Canadian debut of Google Finance, which delivers content from the Toronto Stock Exchange, and Google Ocean, which provides images and information about the underwater world. In addition to new products, Google continually upgrades existing applications such as Google Earth and Google Maps.
Lister notes these product launches and upgrades are spurred in large part by consumers, which he feels is a key reason they feel so strongly about the company. For example, Google Transit, a sub-application of Google Maps, was the result of consumers wanting information about how to get around various cities.
“We consider ourselves to be collaborative with consumers,” says Lister. “We’re releasing products early and often and there are a lot of feedback loops that consumers can take advantage of, and they can see tangible changes in the products because of their feedback. That’s quite different and quite unique.”
Lister acknowledges the company has benefited from press coverage of its product launches. Conversely, Leger’s Scholz points out that Google has also managed to avoid the kind of attention that tarnishes a brand. “If you think about it, what have they done wrong? It’s hard to come up with any clear thing where they made a mistake or did something to make us think we should be leery of this company,” says Scholz.
As for the other companies in the survey’s top 10, they haven’t done much wrong either. Sony, Tim Hortons and President’s Choice filled the second, third and fourth places on the report. It’s familiar territory for Sony and Tim Hortons, while President’s Choice owes its climb up the rankings to a change in nomenclature. Last year, the brand was represented in the survey under the PC Financial banner and earned 79th place.
“This is a less restricted definition,” explains Scholz. “I think their ranking at number four is where they deserve to be in terms of what we as Canadians understand and believe about them, and fits with other research we’ve seen.”
David Morelli, director of public affairs at Tim Hortons, says the consistency of promotions such as Roll Up the Rim to Win and charitable endeavours such as the Tim Hortons Children’s Foundation, along with a strong value proposition, has allowed the brand to remain one of Canada’s favourites. “We’re trusted, not trendy,” says Morelli.
At Sony, meanwhile, Tony Smith, VP of marketing communication, says his company has retained its high standing in consumers’ eyes by effectively shaping its marketing campaigns to appeal to finely targeted consumer groups. “It’s critical to our success—buying the right media to reach the right people,” says Smith, who cites Sony’s contest campaign for Bravia flat-screen televisions, which used YouTube as a primary media driver, as an example of the company’s marketing evolution.
In the fifth spot sits Shoppers Drug Mart, which moved up one position after rocketing into the top 10 last year. The pharmacy chain’s score of 81 is three points higher than last year, and senior VP John Caplice believes the pattern of improvement is due to the company’s continued expansion—140 new stores opened in Canada in the past year—as well as increasing leadership in the beauty and lifestyle categories. That leadership, says Caplice, has been enhanced by the addition of exclusive product lines and private-label brands, such as the EasyPix photo products and Everyday Market food offerings, to go alongside Life Brand pharmaceutical products.
“As opposed to taking an approach to private label where in the past we were a branded house, if you will, with Life Brand, now we’re a house of brands,” says Caplice.
Last year’s list-topper Staples fell to No. 6 this year and lost three points from its reputation score, proving that staying on top requires more than just an easy button. But the brand is still firmly ensconced in the top 10 with a score of 79, and president Steve Matyas says Staples’ own research shows customer satisfaction levels are at all-time highs. “Nothing speaks louder than customers saying we’ve exceeded their expectations and have done so by a huge margin over last year,” he says.
Rounding out the top 10, in order, are Panasonic, Kraft, Toyota and Canadian Tire, all of which are top 10 mainstays. Subway, last year’s No. 7, fell to 11th spot but actually improved its score by one point to 77.
The brands at the top of the list reflect the consistent performance of the companies further down, but there was some notable movement. CTV, which was included in last year’s survey as CTVglobemedia, jumped 16 spots to No.15, likely due to the separation of the CTV and The Globe and Mail brands.
Other bright spots included Petro-Canada and Imperial Oil, which jumped six and eight spots, respectively—a performance Scholz ties to decreasing gas prices—as well as Canada’s banks, which showed a collective improvement in a climate of global financial uncertainty. Scholz says the banks can be grateful for the favourable publicity that Canada’s banking system has earned in the past several months.
“Anything positive that’s said about the banking industry will benefit not only the industry itself, but the individual banks as well,” he says. “Our banks are generally grouped somewhat together, so where one goes, several of them get painted with the same brushstrokes.”
In contrast, Maple Leaf Foods, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler are all companies that could use a new coat of paint after difficult years. Maple Leaf, of course, battled negative publicity resulting from tainted meat products, an issue that almost certainly accounts for its 55-point drop in the rankings and 33-point plummet to a reputation score of 33 (see “Damage Control,”).
Scholz believes Maple Leaf can extricate itself from its predicament and reclaim its reputation in time, but isn’t so certain about the automakers. General Motors and Daimler Chrysler both fell out of the top 100, with the former losing 35 reputation points and sliding 52 spots in the rankings, while the latter lost 23 points and 33 places.
Notably, Ford didn’t suffer the same fate, losing only a single reputation point. Scholz attributes this to Ford’s refusal to enter the bailout sweepstakes its competitors are engaged in. “They’ve come out with a communication that said, ‘okay, we’re going to try and do this on our own’ and obviously Canadians are rewarding them for that,” says Scholz. “Whereas GM and Chrysler have taken a more confrontational attitude and a handout attitude and [consumers] don’t think much of that.”
The road out of the basement will be a long one for these companies, while the bar for reaching No. 1 status is now higher than ever. Any company ranked No. 2 or lower looking to improve their score on the 2010 edition of the survey will at least know where to begin their search for answers.
After all, if you want to know about something, you Google it.
Marketing/Leger Corporate Reputation Survey
Once again, Leger Marketing investigated the reputation of more than 100 companies across key industries. This year’s list has a number of new companies we didn’t evaluate last year, including L’Oréal, Cineplex, Yahoo and Google. Most new entrants were companies Canadians said were reputable in separate studies, while others (namely Google) were added to the list by Leger and Marketing magazine based on their significance in the marketplace. All companies listed are required to be a national organization and have a significant place within their industry based on presence in the marketplace and consumer awareness. The scores equal the good opinion minus the bad opinion rounded to the nearest whole number.
The Top 100 is based on a survey of 1,500 Canadians and is representative of the Canadian population. -DAVE SCHOLZ
| 2009 RANK |
COMPANY | SCORE* | % GOOD OPINION | % BAD OPINION | 2008 RANK |
| 1 | 91 | 92.6 | 1.7 | – | |
| 2 | Sony | 83 | 87.3 | 4.3 | 3 |
| 3 | Tim Hortons | 83 | 89.9 | 7.4 | 2 |
| 4 | President’s Choice | 83 | 87.5 | 5.0 | – |
| 5 | Shoppers Drug Mart | 81 | 85.8 | 4.5 | 6 |
| 6 | Staples Business Depot | 79 | 84.8 | 5.5 | 1 |
| 7 | Panasonic | 79 | 82.4 | 3.1 | 5 |
| 8 | Kraft | 78 | 86.0 | 7.8 | 8 |
| 9 | Toyota | 77 | 80.2 | 2.9 | 10 |
| 10 | Canadian Tire | 77 | 86.1 | 9.1 | 4 |
| 11 | Subway | 77 | 83.5 | 6.7 | 7 |
| 12 | Rona | 74 | 77.5 | 3.5 | 15 |
| 13 | The Home Depot | 73 | 79.7 | 6.9 | 17 |
| 14 | Honda | 72 | 76.2 | 3.7 | 9 |
| 15 | CTV | 72 | 77.5 | 6.0 | 31 |
| 16 | Sears | 71 | 82.6 | 11.6 | 11 |
| 17 | Purolator | 70 | 76.6 | 6.9 | 18 |
| 18 | Samsung | 69 | 71.9 | 2.6 | 22 |
| 19 | Home Hardware | 69 | 73.1 | 3.8 | 16 |
| 20 | CBC | 69 | 80.5 | 11.8 | 20 |
| 21 | WestJet | 69 | 71.6 | 2.9 | 29 |
| 22 | General Electric (GE) | 69 | 75.5 | 6.9 | 13 |
| 23 | McCain | 68 | 76.6 | 8.7 | 19 |
| 24 | The Bay | 68 | 78.8 | 11.2 | – |
| 25 | FedEx | 67 | 71.7 | 4.4 | 25 |
| 26 | Nestlé | 67 | 77.2 | 10.2 | 12 |
| 27 | IBM | 66 | 72.2 | 5.9 | 24 |
| 28 | Apple | 65 | 71.9 | 6.8 | 23 |
| 29 | Costco/Price Club | 65 | 74.2 | 9.5 | 26 |
| 30 | Zellers | 64 | 78.4 | 14.7 | – |
| 31 | Microsoft | 64 | 78.8 | 15.2 | 30 |
| 32 | Procter & Gamble | 63 | 68.9 | 6.1 | 33 |
| 33 | Canada Post | 63 | 79.0 | 16.5 | 28 |
| 34 | Yahoo | 62 | 69.0 | 7.0 | – |
| 35 | Molson | 61 | 69.4 | 8.8 | 34 |
| 36 | Mazda | 60 | 65.5 | 5.5 | – |
| 37 | Cineplex | 60 | 67.7 | 7.8 | – |
| 38 | Labatt | 58 | 67.4 | 9.0 | 32 |
| 39 | Nissan | 57 | 63.3 | 6.0 | 27 |
| 40 | Via Rail | 57 | 66.4 | 9.4 | 35 |
| 41 | Bayer | 56 | 61.2 | 4.9 | 36 |
| 42 | Pepsi-Cola | 56 | 72.9 | 17.2 | 38 |
| 43 | Coca-Cola | 56 | 74.9 | 19.2 | 40 |
| 44 | Mac’s Convenience Stores | 55 | 62.7 | 7.9 | 43 |
| 45 | LG | 54 | 58.5 | 4.8 | 39 |
| 46 | Bombardier | 53 | 61.6 | 8.8 | 49 |
| 47 | Future Shop | 52 | 70.2 | 17.7 | 44 |
| 48 | Canadian National (CN) | 52 | 60.6 | 8.5 | – |
| 49 | TD Canada Trust | 52 | 61.2 | 9.3 | 47 |
| 50 | The Globe and Mail | 52 | 59.2 | 7.4 | – |
| 51 | UPS | 52 | 61.2 | 9.5 | 42 |
| 52 | Sleeman | 50 | 52.5 | 2.4 | 46 |
| 53 | Wendy’s | 50 | 63.6 | 13.6 | 41 |
| 54 | Second Cup | 49 | 55.7 | 6.7 | 48 |
| 55 | Motorola | 48 | 55.8 | 7.4 | 37 |
| 56 | L’Oréal Canada | 47 | 51.3 | 4.3 | – |
| 57 | Harvey’s | 47 | 61.3 | 14.3 | 51 |
| 58 | RBC/Royal Bank | 47 | 60.4 | 13.8 | 45 |
| 59 | BMO/Bank of Montreal | 46 | 59.2 | 12.8 | 56 |
| 60 | Alcan | 46 | 51.7 | 5.4 | 55 |
| 61 | Best Buy | 45 | 55.9 | 11.1 | 50 |
| 62 | Scotiabank | 45 | 56.0 | 11.4 | 57 |
| 63 | Rexall/Pharma Plus | 44 | 46.6 | 2.9 | 58 |
| 64 | 7-Eleven | 43 | 50.5 | 7.4 | 60 |
| 65 | Grand ‘n Toy | 41 | 44.5 | 3.9 | 61 |
| 66 | Quiznos | 41 | 50.5 | 9.9 | 54 |
| 67 | Hyundai | 39 | 53.7 | 14.5 | – |
| 68 | Research in Motion (RIM) | 38 | 40.0 | 2.2 | 69 |
| 69 | CIBC | 36 | 53.7 | 17.3 | 65 |
| 70 | Sun Life Financial | 36 | 45.4 | 9.1 | 63 |
| 71 | Petro Canada | 36 | 59.0 | 23.0 | 71 |
| 72 | Mr. Sub | 35 | 44.1 | 8.8 | 66 |
| 73 | Parmalat | 35 | 39.7 | 4.7 | 70 |
| 74 | PharmaSave | 34 | 36.7 | 3.0 | 62 |
| 75 | Shell Canada | 33 | 55.8 | 22.5 | 72 |
| 76 | Maple Leaf Foods | 33 | 60.7 | 27.5 | 21 |
| 77 | CanWest Global | 33 | 42.9 | 10.1 | 64 |
| 78 | Unilever | 32 | 36.1 | 3.7 | 76 |
| 79 | National Bank of Canada | 31 | 39.4 | 8.2 | 78 |
| 80 | Holt Renfrew | 30 | 36.0 | 6.0 | – |
| 81 | Starbucks | 30 | 51.0 | 21.2 | 74 |
| 82 | Manulife | 30 | 39.0 | 9.3 | 67 |
| 83 | Imperial Oil/Esso | 28 | 53.4 | 25.1 | 86 |
| 84 | Walmart Canada | 28 | 60.7 | 32.6 | 81 |
| 85 | Ford | 28 | 54.8 | 26.8 | 73 |
| 86 | Great West Life | 28 | 35.5 | 7.8 | 75 |
| 87 | Pfizer | 27 | 36.7 | 9.5 | 84 |
| 88 | McDonald’s | 27 | 60.5 | 33.4 | 85 |
| 89 | Burger King | 27 | 54.6 | 27.5 | 82 |
| 90 | American Express | 26 | 46.1 | 20.5 | 68 |
| 91 | National Post | 25 | 40.4 | 15.1 | – |
| 92 | Telus | 25 | 46.8 | 21.5 | 77 |
| 93 | Harry Rosen | 25 | 27.4 | 2.2 | – |
| 94 | Rogers | 24 | 50.9 | 27.2 | 89 |
| 95 | Metro News | 23 | 27.4 | 4.4 | – |
| 96 | Bristol Myers Squibb | 21 | 25.1 | 4.5 | 87 |
| 97 | Timothy’s | 19 | 22.7 | 3.6 | 88 |
| 98 | Merck Frosst | 17 | 22.1 | 5.6 | 94 |
| 99 | DHL | 16 | 20.1 | 4.4 | 92 |
| 100 | Country Style | 15 | 22.3 | 6.9 | 91 |
| *Final score is rounded up to the nearest whole number | |||||
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