24/7 Wall St.

A company’s reputation can have a meaningful impact on its bottom line, and vice versa. Companies with the best reputations, such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Tesla, often benefit significantly from word of mouth about the quality of their products. With strong sales and healthy profits, these companies can spend more on customer service, product quality and employee satisfaction, creating a positive feedback loop that can boost reputation in the long term.

The Harris Poll Reputation Quotient measures public opinion on the nation’s most recognizable companies. Respondents were asked to rate companies based on six components: emotional appeal, products and services, vision and leadership, workplace environment, social responsibility, and financial performance. 24/7 Wall St. recently reviewed the companies with the highest and lowest reputation quotients.

The reputation of e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) remains the best among the nation’s 100 most recognizable companies:

1. Amazon.com
> 2017 reputation score: 86.27
> 2016 reputation score: 83.96
> Industry: Internet retail
> CEO: Jeff Bezos

Of the six dimensions of corporate reputation, Amazon outshines all other companies in financial performance, vision and leadership, products and services, and emotional appeal. One reason behind Amazon’s widespread emotional appeal may be the company’s customer service. For as long as ACSI has ranked Amazon, the company has had one of the highest customer satisfaction scores of any U.S. business. The company’s innovations in online retail have also likely contributed to its great reputation. Between 1-click ordering, Amazon Prime, and various experimental redesigns of the traditional brick-and-mortar store concept, the company has been behind some of the boldest innovations in retail in recent years. Amazon Studios also made history recently by winning three Academy Awards at this year’s Oscars — a first for online streaming studios.

Grocery store operator Wegmans was a close second on the list. Others in the top 10 included Apple and Google.

Furthermore, Seattle is one of the U.S. cities with the most high-tech jobs, due in part to Amazon being headquartered there. In another recent 24/7 Wall St. analysis, Amazon was one of the most innovative companies.

To determine America’s most and least reputable companies, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed reputation scores among the nation’s 100 most recognizable companies from the 2017 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient (RQ), produced by Harris Interactive. In addition, we considered company consumer satisfaction scores from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and company information from SEC filings.

For the full methodology and to see the other companies with the best and worst reputations, see the complete 24/7 Wall St. analysis.