Intel and Huawei Top Reputation Institute's 2018 China RepTrak® 100 – China's Largest Corporate Reputation Study

Boston, MA, May 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reputation Institute (RI), the world's leading provider of reputation measurement and management services, today announced the 2018 China RepTrak® 100 rankings. The largest corporate reputation study of its kind, the China RepTrak® 100 is based on more than 29,500 individual ratings collected in the first quarter of 2018. It includes comparative rankings, demographic trends, and unique insights into the dynamics behind reputational impact on business performance. The China RepTrak® shows what drives trust and confidence and identifies supportive behaviors such as intent to purchase a company's products, willingness to invest in, or even work for, the company.

The study revealed that the two most important reputation drivers for all companies in China for 2018 are Products/Services and Leadership, accounting for 32.8% of reputation.

The top 10 companies in the 2018 China RepTrak® 100 are:

1.   Intel INTC
2.   Huawei
3.   Rolex
4.   Google GOOGL
5.   Haier [SHA: 600690]
6.   SF Express [SHE: 002352]
7.   Michelin ML
8.   Nokia NOK
9.   Lufthansa Group LHA
10. Gree [SHE: 000651]

In the 2018 China RepTrak® study, Intel is the most reputable multi-national company and Huawei is the most reputable Chinese company.

Amidst the achievements of the most successful organizations in managing their reputation and engaging stakeholder support, trends in the 2018 results indicate rising challenges for many companies.

"The resultant intangibles of reputation increasingly underscore how companies are evaluated in China," said Nicolas Georges Trad, Executive Partner, Reputation Institute. "The reputation bubble has globally burst with an overall decline in the reputation of companies worldwide. In China, we are seeing an even more significant decline resulting in an erosion of confidence in companies, with reputation decline of -2.7 points compared with 2017."

The greatest challenge for Chinese companies is in the dimension of Innovation, which experienced the largest year-on-year decline across all dimensions of -4.4 points. By contrast, multi-national companies outperformed Chinese companies in Innovation by 1.8 points. This indicates a unique opportunity for Chinese companies to differentiate and enhance reputation, on the merits of Innovation.

Additional challenges for Chinese companies include brand strength and communication, where Chinese companies are 2 points behind multi-national companies.

While multi-national companies are generally ahead of Chinese firms (0.6 points), challenges for multi-national companies include the lack of perceived emotional connection with the Chinese public. In comparing Chinese and multi-national companies, Chinese companies benefit from a stronger emotional connection.

 "In China, it is imperative for companies to inspire confidence in order to drive a high level of reputation and stakeholder support," said Trad. "While it is key for all companies in China to focus on world-class products and services and visible leadership, Chinese companies can further enhance reputation through innovation and more effective brand communication. Multi-national firms need to focus more on building more empathy with the Chinese public."

Learn More and Get Your Company's Pulse Score:

On an annual basis, RI measures the reputation of thousands of companies using its RepTrak® framework. Its Global RepTrak® 100 study measures the most highly regarded and familiar multinational companies in 15 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

To access the full list of the most reputable companies in China please visit:
https://www.reputationinstitute.com/china-reptrak_2018

To hear perspectives from RI experts on key trends, what they mean and how you can leverage RI insights to build and protect reputation capital, view webinars at: http://www.reputationinstitute.com/events

To get your company's 2018 score and learn how to improve your ranking and grow stakeholder support, visit: https://www.reputationinstitute.com/about/contact-us

About Reputation Institute

Reputation Institute powers the world's most reputable companies. By tracking and analyzing stakeholder perceptions, we unleash the power of reputation to enable leaders to build better companies. Our RepTrak® model analyzes the reputations of companies and is best known as the Forbes-published Global RepTrak®100. Underlying the model is the RepTrak® methodology, the global gold standard for measuring reputation. Learn more at:

http://www.reputationinstitute.com.

Reputation Institute
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