Most Admired Companies
Respondents were asked to name the companies they most admire
Apple and Amazon are named by respondents as the most admired companies they have heard or read about, in any industry. Google was close behind, with Microsoft rounding out the top four companies.
These results are based on a national online survey of 1,030 American adults conducted by Researchscape from September 8 to 30, 2012. Respondents were asked to name, without prompting, the company they admired the most and the company they admired the second most.
The most admired companies tend to hail from the technology industry: besides the four tech leaders already mentioned, rounding out the list of the top 12 were Sony, IBM and Valve, a video-game distribution company.
Retailers made up the next biggest category: with Walmart, Target, Starbucks and Costco all making the top 12.
The only two companies to make the top 12 that weren’t technology firms were Ford and Coca-Cola.
Here are the Top 30 companies that were mentioned, covering every company mentioned by at least 1% of respondents.
| Rank | Company | % Mentioning |
|---|---|---|
| 1t | Amazon | 29.4% |
| 1t | Apple | 29.3% |
| 3 | 25.6% | |
| 4 | Microsoft | 11.5% |
| 5t | Sony | 3.3% |
| 5t | Ford | 3.3% |
| 7 | Walmart | 2.6% |
| 8 | Coca-Cola | 2.3% |
| 9t | Target | 2.2% |
| 9t | Valve | 2.2% |
| 9t | IBM | 2.2% |
| 12t | Starbucks | 2.1% |
| 12t | Costco | 2.0% |
| 1.9% | ||
| eBay | 1.8% | |
| Zappos | 1.8% | |
| TOMS Shoes | 1.7% | |
| Ben & Jerry’s | 1.7% | |
| Samsung | 1.7% | |
| Nintendo | 1.5% | |
| Dell | 1.3% | |
| Whole Foods Market | 1.3% | |
| Barnes & Noble | 1.2% | |
| Disney | 1.1% | |
| Honda | 1.0% | |
| General Electric | 1.0% | |
| McDonalds | 1.0% | |
| Chick Fil A | 1.0% | |
| Nike | 1.0% | |
| Toyota | 0.9% |
While the most admired companies are Apple and Amazon in a dead heat, due to sampling error there’s a 22% chance that they are less admired than the third most-mentioned company, Google. (Other forms of survey error increase this percentage.) There’s no chance, due to sampling error alone, that Microsoft, at 11.5%, is more admired than these three companies. Similarly, there’s no chance that any of the other companies lower on the list are more admired than Microsoft.
As the percentage of mentions decreases, any of the remaining companies might in fact be less admired than a company that no respondent mentioned, again due to sampling error. (Respondents mentioned over 400 unique firms.) As a result, comparisons between the lower list companies should be taken with a grain of salt. For instance, there’s a 30% chance due to sampling error that more Americans, in actuality, admire Toyota more than Ford.
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