If you're a fan of Costco or Trader Joe's, you're not alone: They're two of the most beloved brands in the U.S., according to the recently released 2023 Axios Harris Poll 100 reputation rankings.
To create the rankings, pollsters asked more than 16,000 people to list two brands with great reputations and two brands with terrible reputations, which they curated into a list of the 100 companies "most on the minds of Americans." They then asked respondents to rank those brands across nine reputation-gauging categories.
Here are the rankings' top seven brands with the best reputations in the country:
- Patagonia
- Costco
- John Deere
- Trader Joe's
- Chick-fil-A
- Toyota Motor Corporation
- Samsung
Quality products and favorable business ethics helped Patagonia snag the top spot, the report noted.
Patagonia's founder, Yvon Chouinard, relinquished ownership of the reportedly $3 billion brand in 2022, transferring it to the newly created Patagonia Purpose Trust and nonprofit Holdfast Collective. The unique legal setup is meant to ensure that the company's profits will forever be dedicated to combating climate change and protecting undeveloped land.
Costco, which took the second spot, ranked No. 1 among all listed companies in the "trust," "culture" and "growth" categories. Perhaps the retail giant can thank its $1.50 hot dog and soda combo for its high trust score: The combo's price has remained stagnant since 1985, and Costco CFO Richard Galanti suggested it'd stay that way "forever" last year.
John Deere rounded out the top three, ranking second among all listed companies in the "products and service" and "culture" categories. The agricultural machinery company's success is tied to its "commitment to tradition" and the nostalgia some customers experience when using its products, its website notes.
Tech giants Amazon and Apple barely missed the cut, respectively ranking eighth and 10th — but both still obtained an "excellent" overall score, the highest tier possible on the report.
Amazon's ranking is unchanged from last year's Axios Harris Poll. Apple rose 11 spots, most significantly improving in the "culture" and "trust" categories.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is a vocal proponent of data privacy and security, at a time when other tech companies — like Meta and TikTok — are paying users in class-action lawsuit settlements over those very issues.
Cook is also taking a 40% pay cut in 2023, and recently spoke out against layoffs at Apple despite significant job cuts at other large tech companies.
"I view that as a last resort and, so, mass layoffs is not something that we're talking about at this moment," Cook told CNBC earlier this month.
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