BOSTON: Rolex, the luxury Swiss watchmaker, is the brand with the best corporate reputation in the eyes of consumers, according to a new global survey.

Reputation Institute (RI), a reputation management consultancy, each year compiles a list of the top 100 most reputable companies in the world based on more than 170,000 ratings collected across 15 countries.

Using its proprietary RepTrak measurement system, RI tracks consumers' perceptions across seven key areas: products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance.

Rolex topped the 2017 rankings for the second year running, but this year also became the first company ever to be rated "excellent", which reflects an overall RepTrak score of 80 or more.

In terms of trends, the report said that 2017 saw the rise of heritage luxury brands, such as Rolex and Rolls-Royce, while consumer products took seven of the top 10 spots.

Other top performers in this year's rankings included Danish toymaker LEGO, which came in second, while the Walt Disney Company took third place.

The other seven spots in RI's top 10 went to Canon, the Japanese camera firm, Google, Bosch, Sony, Intel, Rolls-Royce and Adidas, the German sportswear brand.

"Looking at top performers, it's clear that offering high quality products, standing behind them, and meeting customer needs is foundational to delivering on the brand promise," said Allen Bonde, Chief Marketing Officer at Reputation Institute.

"But our data also shows that companies with a strong sense of purpose who are committed to improving on all dimensions of reputation – especially governance and citizenship – tend to be the most highly regarded."

Google and Intel were the two tech brands included in the top 10, but RI also noted that Microsoft dropped out of the top 10 to 11th place, while Apple slipped 10 spots to 20th.

Meanwhile, Samsung posted the most notable decline with its RepTrak score dropping four points compared to 2016, taking it down to 70th place overall.

Among auto brands, RI said both BMW (#12) and Daimler (#27) fell out of the top 10 this year, while Toyota, Honda, Ford and GM all showed “modest” gains on last year.

Data sourced from Reputation Institute; additional content by Warc staff