Patagonia and Costco have best reputations in annual ranking

A retailer  known for its activist environmental and social agenda has the best reputation in an annual ranking of “the most visible” U.S. companies. 

Patagonia ranked as the most reputable company among all industries surveyed (16 in all) in the 2023 Axios Harris Poll 100, which ranks the reputations of the 100 most visible companies in the United States. The brand has a “reputational quotient,” or RQ score, of 83.5.  (See end of article for methodology.) 

Three other retailers also cracked the top 10: Costco Wholesale (No. 2, with a 82.1 RQ), Trader’s Joe’s (No. 4, 81.7 RQ) and Amazon (No. 8, 80.7 RQ). (A RQ of 80 and above is considered excellent.). The complete Top 100 listing can be found here. 

In addition to its No. 1 ranking overall, Patagonia took the top spot in ethics, citizenship and products/services.  Costco placed first in culture, growth and trust. 

Large tech companies crowd both ends of the rankings in the Axios Harris Poll reputation survey, with those that provide tangible products and useful services clustered near the top and those that trade in social-media messages banished to the bottom.   The highest-scoring tech companies are Samsung   Amazon and Apple, all of which had a RQ of 80 or above.

Lowest Scores   

Social media platforms had some of the lowest scores. No social media platform ranked higher than No. 94.    

The survey found TikTok (No. 94) and Twitter (No. 97) in a close race with Fox, failed crypto exchange FTX (No.99 and the Trump Organization (No. 100, with a score of 52.9) for the worst reputation among the top 100 brands. 

More Survey Highlights 

 The rankings of the 2023 Axiox Harris Poll 

•Meta was the company least trusted by women (only 21% gave the company a top trust rating), and the second-least trusted by Gen Z (16%), ahead of only the Trump Organization.

•Millennials ranked Google highest, though the company ranked only 35th overall.

•J.P. Morgan Chase beat out Apple and Paypal to receive the highest data privacy protection scores.

•Tesla's reputation dropped 50 places from 12th in 2022 to 62nd place this year. No other company dropped more than 22 places.

•Three-quarters of surveyed American adults said they are concerned about deep fakes and other generative AI content. 

•Made in the U.S.A. brands soared in 2023, with third-ranked John Deere leaning into “high-tech field management technologies, such as a robotic-based fertilizer system and a new electric excavator,” per Harris, to harvest a better reputation. 

Methodology

The rankings of the Axios Harris Poll 100 are based on a survey of 16, 310 Americans from a nationally representative sample conducted March 13-28. 

Americans are asked which two – in their opinion – stand out as having the best reputation and which two have the worst reputation in America today. All nominations – best and worst – are compiled into an aggregate list to determine the “Most Visible” companies. Subsidiaries and brands are tallied within the parent company to create a total number of nominations for each company.

Respondents rated the 100 most visible companies on seven dimensions of reputation to calculate the company’s reputational quotient, or RQ score,  score for inclusion in the Axios Harris Poll 100. The seven dimensions include culture, ethics, trust, citizenship, vision, growth and products/services.

Score ranges: 80 & above: Excellent | 75-79: Very Good | 70-74: Good | 65-69: Fair | 55-64: Poor | 50-54: Very Poor | Below 50: Critical