Companies with the highest reputation - and what they have to do for it

Switzerland RepTrak, produced by the Reputation Institute, is the largest reputation survey conducted in Switzerland. In over 5,500 interviews over the past few months, Swiss people were asked about their attitudes towards selected SMI companies. The overall assessment is based on the general public's "emotional bond" with the company, which can be expressed in terms of "extent of trust," "admiration," "appreciation" and a "generally good feeling.

Reputation increased overall

In 2018, almost all of the companies surveyed (97%) suffered a decline in their reputation scores. For Switzerland, on the other hand, Reputation Institute notes an upward trend over the last five years. Apparently, respondents continue to place their trust in companies in Switzerland, even in a world that is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.

According to this year's survey, new recipes are needed to build and strengthen reputation. Mere brand awareness is no longer enough; quality and depth in customer relationships are needed. Companiesmen must create engagement with their target groups and a broad understanding of their role in society - and communicate this as far as possible via all available channels.

The 2018 Reputation Ranking of SMI Companies

The first-place companies, Geberit and Swatch Group, have a RepTrak Pulse of over 70 points, which is considered "strong." The third place on the podium goes to Richemont, with 69.7 points. The ranking in detail:

1. Geberit (76.2)
2. Swatch Group (75.6)
3. Richemont (69.7)
4. Swiss Re (69.0)
5. Swisscom (66.5)
6. Givaudan (65.7)
7. Roche (65.3)
8. ABB (64.5)
9. Sika (64.3)
10. SGS (64.3)
11. Swiss Life (63.2)
12. Zurich Insurance (60.9)
13. Nestlé (60.6)
14. Julius Baer (56.1)
15. Adecco (55.5)
16. Lonza (55.2)
17. Novartis (54.6)
18. Credit Suisse (52.2)
19. LafargeHolcim (50.2)
20. UBS (48.9)

Technology sector makes biggest leap forward

Across all industries, "Technology" shows the best score in 2018, 10.3 points above the Swiss average. Compared to last year, the techsector also made the biggest leap forward (2017: rank 7). The sector is apparently positioning itself successfully as an innovation driver for digitization and is consolidating its communication activities more and more effectively. The Consumer and Food & Beverage sectors follow in second and third place.

It is striking that there are sectors in which the difference between the companies is very large or very small. For example, both industry and retail show a gap of over 31 points between the highest and lowest scores. This is an indicator of how much upward potential the companies at the bottom of the rankings have. - but also how much the leaders can lose. In the pharmaceuticals and services sectors, on the other hand, the companies are closer together - a clear indication of having to think "out of the box" to stand out from the competition.

The depth and quality of relationships is crucial

However, the most relevant difference for communication is found in the comparison of customers versus non-customers. Existing customers give significantly better ratings than non-customers (75.2 points vs. 61.6 points). This leads to the conclusion that the depth and quality of the relationship, the so-called familiarity with the company, has the greatest relevance for reputation. The better the respective stakeholders know a company, the better they perform in terms of reputation scores. - up to 19 points better. In terms of content, therefore, companies must communicate more and better around the question "Who am I?" than around the product ("What do I sell?"). It also shows that there is no correlation between awareness and reputation alone. It is true that a high level of familiarity leads to a more robust reputation and thus smaller reputational risks. However, the key insight is that companies need to work on familiarity with their target groups and intensify engagement with their stakeholders if they want to gain reputation.

CEO and management have ever greater influence on reputation

Companies need to make sure they are getting the right content out there. According to the Reputation Institute, the strongest content reputation drivers in Switzerland across all industries and regions are "Products/Services" with 21% (the products meet genuine customer needs, are of high quality and are available at a reasonable price), "Governance" with 17% (the company acts ethically, fairly and transparently) and "Citizenship" with 16.4% (the company makes a positive impact on society). Thus, "Citizenship" overtook "Governance" within the top 3. Leadership" appears for the first time as the fourth most influential driver (12.8%), a trend that can be observed globally: CEOs and management have an ever greater influence on reputation as a whole. The number 4 from the previous year, "Workplace", is now in last place with 10.7%.

Multi-channel strategy leads to domino effect

In addition to content, the channel strategy and the corresponding budget allocation have a major influence on reputation. A multi-channel strategy, i.e., the use of all channels - Paid, Earned, Owned and Direct - can account for up to 20.8 points in the reputation measurement. Companies that reach their stakeholders via all four channels are therefore rated 20.8 points better on average.

In today's multi-channel world, it is also crucial to take advantage of the domino effect of the multi-channel strategy. The use of channels must be coordinated and strategically planned. For Switzerland, it can be seen that the owned channels (owned media) have the greatest impact. The paid media channels with the greatest reach should therefore be used to direct stakeholders to the company's own channels. These, in turn, should emphasize the most relevant core messages so that these are picked up by the paid channels.

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