The Online Perception of the World’s Richest Brands

At Feefo, we’re invested in supporting brands by understanding what their customers care about. In fact, we carried out our Brand Perceptions Report to get customers' views on the brands they buy from, what they consider before they purchase and how they behave when they don’t like something. It revealed that 74% of Brits always consider a brand’s values before purchasing from them.

With this in mind, we’ve used an API sentiment analysis tool to scrape over 50,000 tweets on X (formerly Twitter) that mentioned the current richest 200 companies in the world.

We wanted to dig deeper into what the perceptions of these brands are across the globe, so we used the tool to calculate what percentage of tweets about each company were positive or negative. We then categorised the tweets by topics such as “sustainability” and “equality and diversity” to see how each company was regarded in different areas.

It’s important that we call out that reviews on X, any other social media sites or even TrustPilot are not verified. Verified reviews are the real window into what people think about a brand following a proven interaction, experience, or after purchasing a product they’re reviewing. You can read more about verified reviews and the importance of them here.

Look at how each company ranked based on their total number of positive tweets, to give an idea of which of the world’s richest businesses are perceived most positively by the public.

Look at how we ranked each company based on their total number of positive tweets, to assess which of the world’s richest businesses are perceived most positively by the public.

Which companies had the best brand perception?

To see the full table showcasing the rankings for all 200 brands, see the bottom of this article.

As you can see, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, an oil and gas enterprise based in Beijing, came top of the leaderboard with 100% of the tweets mentioning them being positive ones. Most of the tweets came from positive claims about products and services offered by the company.

Also in joint first were Patroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras and Saudi Aramco; both energy companies based in Brazil and Saudi Arabia respectively.

Based on these top results, you’d be led to think that the energy sector is likely the most positively talked about industry online but, maybe surprisingly, they were pipped to the post by the real estate industry. They had the highest public perception of any industry we analysed, with 87% of tweets being positive.

• The company with the best overall online perception was China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Patroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras and Saudi Aramco, each with 100% of tweets mentioning them being positive.
• The company with the best environmental perception was TJX Companies Inc. with 69.23% positive tweets.
• The company with the best perception based on how they treat their employees was Adobe with 100% of tweets about them being positive.
• The company with the best perception on topics around equality, diversity and inclusion was Linde PLC with 100% positive tweets.
• The company with the best philanthropic perception was Eli Lilly & Co. with 96.67% positive tweets.
• The company with the best perception for customer service was Salesforce Inc. with 97.10% of tweets mentioning them being positive.
• The real estate sector had the best public perception online of all sectors, with 87.63% being positive.
• The energy industry had the worst public perception of any sector, with 65% of tweets online being positive.
  
  

Which companies had the best environmental perception?

Almost 60% of people agree that companies should be socially and environmentally responsible* and, according to our Quest for Authenticity and Sustainability Report (2023), there’s also been a 116% increase in online reviews mentioning sustainability in 2023 vs. a decade ago.

It’s clear that it’s more important than ever for companies to be sustainable as it’s one of the biggest concerns for consumers. With that in mind, many companies are introducing more rigorous environmental standards.

TJX Companies Inc., which received the highest score, has a range of strong sustainability initiatives. They have a target to achieve net zero GHG emissions in their operations by 2024, aim to be using 100% renewable energy by 2030 and divert 85% of their operational waste from landfill by 2027.

We offer a Sustainability Awareness Solution which provides analysis and accreditation to help brands understand and highlight their sustainability credentials. With over a third of consumers

stating they would trust a brand more if they were recognised as an ethical or sustainable provider (Deloitte: The Sustainable Consumer Report 2023), showcasing the positive impact your business makes across a range of areas, as well as understanding how well that message lands with your customers, is more important than ever before.

Which companies had the best perception of how they treat employees?

Once again, a lot of technology-led businesses make the top-20 cut when it comes down to brand perception in relation to how they treat their employees. With a staggering 100% of tweets about Adobe being positive, there can be a lot to learn from the America-based computer software company.

We just have to take a look at the many changes CEO Elon Musk has made at X to see how the treatment of employees can affect the perception of a brand, either directly or indirectly. Following him laying off over 6,000 Twitter employees, and insulting them online, just 40% of Tesla’s tweets were positive when it came to employee protection.

This has also been reflected in Tesla's shares. Tesla stock plummeted following Musk’s investment in X back in January 2022, falling more than 65% over the subsequent 12 months.

Which companies had the best perception for equality and diversity?

According to our research, 26% of consumers would stop buying from their favourite brand if they got into an ethical scandal* and, if disappointed by a company’s words or actions on a social or political issue, almost three-quarters (74%) of consumers say they would be less likely to purchase from them.

This was shown in 2019 when the fast-food chain, Chick-fil-A, came under fire for its donations to anti-LGBTQ organisations. According to the 2020 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report, Chick-fil-A's brand value dropped by 5% in 2019 following the controversy.

By taking a different approach, UK-based chemicals company, Linde PLC, had one of the highest number of positive tweets of any company we analysed according to the data, with 100% of tweets about them being positive in relation to equality and diversity.

David Strauss, Chief Human Resources Officer at Linde PLC said: "Inclusion is one of Linde’s core values. It is an active process to welcome and include diverse perspectives, experiences and backgrounds in our company, which is critically important to employee engagement, contribution and performance.”

“Our goal is to foster diversity and inclusion within the company by providing equal employment opportunities for all and recruiting, hiring, promoting and compensating people solely based on merit and qualification."

Which companies had the best perception for philanthropy?

It is clear that a lot of the conversations around philanthropy or corporate social responsibility (CSR) online are generally positive and we see this most prominently with American pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly & Co.

In 1986, they launched The Eli Lilly & Co. Foundation which is a private, tax-exempt organisation that makes strategic and philanthropic investments in line with Lilly’s purpose. They extend their reach and impact by supporting initiatives to improve global health and strengthen communities in and around Indianapolis.

As you can see from the list, while they may not rank highly for their equality and diversity, Budweiser makes great philanthropic contributions. Since 2011, Anheuser-Busch, the conglomerate behind Budweiser, have donated more than $221 million to charitable organisations across the US that help individuals and communities thrive – including support of disaster preparedness and relief, environmental sustainability, and responsible drinking.

Which companies had the best perception of their customer service?

Salesforce Inc. hit the top spot with 97.10% of the tweets about them being positive.

Customers are more likely to have a negative opinion of your brand if you have poor customer service, as only 58% of tweets referring to brand customer service were positive.

This ties in with research we previously completed around the importance of being responsive to customers. It showed 47% of people believe that businesses should always respond to negative reviews and 29% of people say that slow responses to inquiries is their biggest brand turn-off.

By listening to feedback, you can spot customer service issues as they arise. Feefo can help you identify trends in your reviews, making it easier for you to address any problem areas and improve your service.

How can you improve your brand image?

It goes without saying that understanding and improving the public's perception of a brand is essential to the success of any business, and brand storytelling should be an integral part of your strategy going forward if it isn’t already.

There is often a discrepancy between a brand owner and senior leaders feeling like they understand what their brand represents, and the reality of public opinion, so it’s worth bearing in mind that brand perception is owned by the customers, and not by you as the brand.

One of the best ways to bridge this gap is through market research and social listening, so we have pulled together our top three pieces of advice to help you improve your brand perception.

1. Identify your audience

It is no longer enough just to understand the demographic of your audience. You need to go beyond this to get an understanding of their behaviours and passions; what do they truly care about?

You can use market research and social listening to get this information, as well as to get a better understanding of your online reputation. There are a multitude of options to get this information, such as running surveys, reading forums and existing online reviews and monitoring what people are talking about or saying about you on social media.

2. Develop and maintain positive connections

Showing off your brand personality and values through personalised (and fast) customer service and engaging with them on social media are all important ways to build a positive relationship with your customers.

This is particularly the case when it comes to connecting with your audiences emotionally, as we have seen through our data collection that taking the time to build trust with them and making a conscious effort not to break that trust is crucial.

3. Be open to feedback and be humble

Give your customers a reason to stick around by showing how you are continuously trying to improve. Feefo’s CMO, Kerry Leighton-Bailey, said:

“Three-quarters of consumers say they avoid advertising altogether, so make customer feedback the strongest tool in your arsenal. You can use online reviews to your advantage by supporting other customers and improving their experiences.”

“Writing a review or providing feedback takes time and effort, so make sure you are responding to each one, good or bad, in a timely manner, even if it’s just to say ‘thank you’.”

The importance of verified reviews

Although online storytelling is important, we need to remember that open platforms like X (Twitter) and Trustpilot are not verified, meaning many of the comments and claims made about your brand are not monitored and may be inaccurate. The claims being made might also be from the brands themselves, making them biassed.

The tweets we used to scrape this data give an overall sense of how well brands are perceived, but the results would be even more accurate if we were able to filter out false or biassed claims.

In order to ensure that you aren’t being targeted by fake reviews, scams or inaccurate claims, we always recommend using a verified review platform like Feefo.

Download Feefo’s Brand Perception Report

For further information on the impact that possessing a positive brand perception can have on your business, download our Brand Perception Report below.