The “Ultimate Driving Machine” company has powered its way to the top of the list of the world’s most reputable companies.
The Reputation Institute says BMW Group recaptured the top spot on its annual global 100 list this year, after being unseated in 2014 by The Walt Disney Company. Disney ranked sixth on this year’s list, scoring 77.11. BMW, which scored a 77.21 in 2014, improved to a 78.98 this year.
Rankings are based on each company’s “Pulse,” which the Institute explains as “the emotional connection consumers have to a brand.” More than 61,000 consumers in 15 countries were surveyed at the beginning of the year on their perceptions of the most familiar brands.
“RepTrak Pulse scores,” the Institute adds, “are based on questions measuring Trust, Admiration & Respect, Good Feeling, and Overall Esteem (captured in the Pulse score on a 0-100 scale).” The difference in scores among the top 10 is slight; 10th place Intel scored a 76.16, less than 3 points off BMW. (A difference of .9 is considered a statistically significant difference.)
Bringing up the bottom of the list was Anheuser-Busch with a score of 65.36.
U.S. consumers, however, saw things differently. After conducting 50,000 interviews with American consumers, the Institute scored Amazon as the company with the best reputation for the second year in a row. Of the top 10, eight companies were inducted to the top of the list for the first time. Only Amazon and Kellogg made the top 10 in both 2014 and 2015.