Mazda, Toyota and Hyundai in Australia’s top 15 most reputable companies

A trio of Australia’s favourite carmakers are keeping company among the top 15 most reputable businesses on red dirt, as identified by the annual AMR Corporate Reputation Index.

Mazda was the highest ranked car brand sitting overall in position two of the top 60, Toyota was close behind in fourth place, while Hyundai rounded out the three most trusted car brands in 15th place. All three earned recognition as ‘Strong’ performers among 26 organisations that scored the same result.

The top award was taken out by Air New Zealand and the only business to be rated ‘Excellent’.

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Reputation is determined through consumer surveys and research in partnership with the Reputation Institute. The report looks at Australia’s top 60 businesses each year.

Just two other car makers were assessed in the list of 60 companies, with Ford and GM Holden sitting at positions 32 and 34 respectively, earning the reputation rating of ‘Average’.

No car brands appeared in the list of 10 companies that were deemed to have a ‘Weak’ reputation.

Mazda earned extra praise for having scaled the ladder three places since last year’s survey, Hyundai remained in its unchanged spot, while Toyota slipped two places. Holden climbed one place while the Blue Oval fell by two positions.

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In addition to reputation, each brand was measured against seven “drivers” including products and services, innovation, workplace, citizenship, governance, leadership and financial performance.

Interestingly, the report highlights that its key focus of reputation is not exclusively pegged to company profitability with airline Qantas slipping one place to 5th overall, despite a record year of profit in 2016.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung’s result is more cut and dried, dropping from 3rd to 14th place almost certainly as a result of the battery fire crisis that plagued the company last year.

The 60 companies under the spotlight are sourced from the IBIS World Top 200 Company list, but where other performance reports use information provided by the organisations, the AMR survey relies on direct consumer insight.

All reputation survey results are weighted to ensure they represent appropriate gender and age groups, says AMR.