Google has risen to the top in a year where businesses were “characterised by reputation crisis”.
With Royal Commission proceedings exposing mispractice in Australia’s banking and aged care industries, the entire technology sector has benefitted in terms of reputation, according to the National Reputation Health Report 2019.
The report, which was compiled by The Brand Institute of Australia found Google has the strongest reputation among Australia’s 100 most recognisable brands.
Next is Bunnings, followed by Samsung, Apple and Qantas.
The report judges brands on the basis of product and services, social responsibility, innovation, communication, financial performance, customer value and operations.
“Google is the stand-out company, meeting a number of key healthy reputation drivers with very few unhealthy attributes,” said The Brand Institute of Australia.
“Many organisations liken reputation to credibility. While to some extent this is true, organisational reputation plays a much larger role in consumer perception and behaviour,” the report said. “Reputation is in many ways a decision-making platform with layers of credibility, usability and appeal all intertwined.”
Despite Google topping the list in terms of brand strength, it was Apple that was revealed to be the most top-of-mind organisation.
The iPhone-maker was followed by Telstra, Woolworths, Coles, Coca-Cola and BHP.
“Top-of-mind insights are valuable in ascertaining salience and familiarity. It’s always important to note, however, that being well-known and well-liked are worlds apart. Having a top-of-mind brand is a promising start, but it’s crucial to further examine whether the familiarity is positive or negative and identify causal factors behind perceptions,” the institute said.
