Which Companies in America Have the Best - and Worst - Growth Prospects Today?

Introduction

In this day and age, perception is everything. Whether we are talking about entertainment, the media, politics, or yes, marketing, how the public perceives you and what you are offering is the most important thing today. You can be viewed as a “hot” commodity - as an entertainer, a politician, a social influencer, or a company and its brands. On the flip side, you can be looked upon as something less than “hot” - a “has been” or even a “never was.” In other words, in the minds of the collective public, people, products, and even companies can be seen as being on the move forward, or alternatively, falling backward.

In business today, being publicly perceived as a growing, forward looking company is very important on a number of dimensions. Investors want to buy their stock and invest in the future of growing companies. Consumers want to buy their products and use their services, fueling even more growth. And for companies, the more they are regarded as a leading edge firm in whatever their field, the higher their - and their executives - profiles will be. All of this becomes almost a self-perpetuating growth machine for companies, heightening their sales, their profits, their market values and their prestige. And in an environment where brands and brand perception is more important than ever, being publicly perceived as a top growing company today is in and of itself a key strategic goal for companies to pursue, as “good things” tend to come to these firms from consumers and investors wanting to be associated with them. It is pure momentum play - and consumers, investors, and stakeholders all want to be associated with such firms.

Alternatively, companies that are perceived as not growing can - and do - have difficulties on multiple levels - in the consumer market, in the investment space, and in public relations - today. To be perceived as not growing, not evolving, not keeping up is a dangerous thing for any company, from the largest to the smallest of firms. For their management, it often becomes inverse momentum. In essence, the worse they are perceived as not keeping up with the times, the competition, technology, and changes in consumer tastes and in society, the less they will have the financial resources to do so. This often leads to an existential crisis for such companies. And if you want to see “Exhibit A,” just look to the many large, household retail names that have fallen by the wayside in the Retail Apocalypse, unable to keep up with the evolution of online shopping and with it, the growth of the Walmart’s, the Amazon’s, the Best Buy’s that dominate the entire retail sector today.

In short, growth - and the perception of being a growing, progressive, leading-edge company - is a key attribute - and a valuable one - that companies and their executive teams should aim for today, more so than ever before. So, which large companies do Americans being regarded as most posed for growth, and alternatively, which ones do the public see as having seen their better days? This is the focus of this article, as we list and discuss who the American public perceive to be the winners and the losers in the marketplace today on this important corporate attribute.

The Axios Harris Poll Survey on Corporate Reputation

Every year since 1999, the Harris Poll has conducted an annual survey of Americans to assess the public’s perceptions of companies and their brands. As such, their corporate reputation research work stands as one of the best assessments of both present and historical views of American consumers about major U.S. consumer-facing corporations. Partnering with the media firm, Axios, the 2021 survey results (2021 Axios Harris Poll 100) have recently been released.

Their methodology is actually quite interesting, as first they compile the rankings of the top 100 firms in terms of being the most visible, highest profile companies today. Each participant in their screening research was asked to name two companies that they believed had the best reputations in America today and the two firms that they felt had the worst reputations. Since those surveyed could name any company and any brand that came to the top of their minds in response to these two questions, there were a wide array of firms and products/services that were in the mix. The Axios/Harris Poll researchers then proceeded to refine the data to produce their list of the 100 most visible companies in America. This list is shown in Table 1 (The Most Visible Companies in America for 2021) below:

Table 1: The Most Visible Companies in America for 2021

Visibility Rank, Company, Reputation Rank

1. Amazon.com (#10 in Reputation Rankings).

2. Walmart (#83 in Reputation Rankings)

3. Apple (#16 in Reputation Rankings)

4. Facebook (#98 in Reputation Rankings)

5. Google (#60 in Reputation Rankings)

6. Target (#41 in Reputation Rankings)

7. Microsoft (#36 in Reputation Rankings)

8. Wells Fargo & Company (#95 in Reputation Rankings)

9. Nike (#62 in Reputation Rankings)

10. McDonald's (#73 in Reputation Rankings)

11. Chick-fil-A (#4 in Reputation Rankings)

12. Sears Holdings Corporation (#96 in Reputation Rankings)

13. AT&T (#86 in Reputation Rankings)

14. Ford Motor Company (#50 in Reputation Rankings)

15. Twitter (#93 in Reputation Rankings)

16. Costco (#9 in Reputation Rankings)

17. Samsung (#31 in Reputation Rankings)

18. Tesla Motors (#8 in Reputation Rankings)

19. Comcast (#92 in Reputation Rankings)

20. T-Mobile (#56 in Reputation Rankings)

21. Verizon Communications (#61 in Reputation Rankings)

22. The Trump Organization (#100 in Reputation Rankings)

23. The Coca-Cola Company (#58 in Reputation Rankings)

24. General Motors (#68 in Reputation Rankings)

25. The Home Depot (#45 in Reputation Rankings)

26. Best Buy (#48 in Reputation Rankings)

27. Toyota Motor Corporation (#18 in Reputation Rankings)

28. Bank of America (#77 in Reputation Rankings)

29. Yum! Brands (#70 in Reputation Rankings)

30. Lowe's (#22 in Reputation Rankings)

31. ExxonMobil (#80 in Reputation Rankings)

32. eBay (#66 in Reputation Rankings)

33. Starbucks Corporation (#65 in Reputation Rankings)

34. The Walt Disney Company (#37 in Reputation Rankings)

35. GameStop (#82 in Reputation Rankings)

36. Publix Supermarkets (#23 in Reputation Rankings)

37. The Kroger Company (#30 in Reputation Rankings)

38. Hobby Lobby (#53 in Reputation Rankings)

39. General Electric (#40 in Reputation Rankings)

40. IBM (#39 in Reputation Rankings)

41. Sony (#34 in Reputation Rankings)

42. Macy's (#64 in Reputation Rankings)

43. Fox Corporation (#99 in Reputation Rankings)

44. Johnson & Johnson (#72 in Reputation Rankings)

45. Burger King (#84 in Reputation Rankings)

46. Dollar General (#71 in Reputation Rankings)

47. Netflix (#38 in Reputation Rankings)

48. PepsiCo (#20 in Reputation Rankings)

49. Kohl's (#55 in Reputation Rankings)

50. Robinhood (#79 in Reputation Rankings)

51. CVS (CVS Health) (#24 in Reputation Rankings)

52. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (#54 in Reputation Rankings)

53. My Pillow (#91 in Reputation Rankings)

54. BP (#85 in Reputation Rankings)

55. JCPenney (#89 in Reputation Rankings)

56. HP, Inc. (#26 in Reputation Rankings)

57. Uber (#90 in Reputation Rankings)

58. USAA (#12 in Reputation Rankings)

59. Procter & Gamble Co. (#35 in Reputation Rankings)

60. Wish.com (#97 in Reputation Rankings)

61. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (#75 in Reputation Rankings)

62. Dollar Tree (#74 in Reputation Rankings)

63. Nordstrom (#63 in Reputation Rankings)

64. Walgreens (#46 in Reputation Rankings)

65. Adidas (#49 in Reputation Rankings)

66. Berkshire Hathaway (#27 in Reputation Rankings)

67. Nestle (#29 in Reputation Rankings)

68. Chipotle (#76 in Reputation Rankings)

69. State Farm Insurance (#52 in Reputation Rankings)

70. TikTok (#94 in Reputation Rankings)

71. United Airlines.87 (#1 in Reputation Rankings)

72. Wegmans.13 (#1 in Reputation Rankings)

73. Wendy's (#67 in Reputation Rankings)

74. Unilever (#15 in Reputation Rankings)

75. Honda Motor Company (#2 in Reputation Rankings)

76. American Express (#44 in Reputation Rankings)

77. UPS (#19 in Reputation Rankings)

78. Subaru (#14 in Reputation Rankings)

79. Citigroup (#43 in Reputation Rankings)

80. Pfizer (#7 in Reputation Rankings)

81. 3M Company (#25 in Reputation Rankings)

82. Chewy (#6 in Reputation Rankings)

83. Patagonia (#1 in Reputation Rankings)

84. REI (#11 in Reputation Rankings)

85. In-n-Out Burger (#17 in Reputation Rankings)

86. Electronic Arts, Inc. (#51 in Reputation Rankings)

87. FedEx Corporation (#33 in Reputation Rankings)

88. Reddit (#78 in Reputation Rankings)

89. Wayfair (#42 in Reputation Rankings)

90. SpaceX (#5 in Reputation Rankings)

91. Domino's Pizza (#57 in Reputation Rankings)

92. Delta Air Lines (#81 in Reputation Rankings)

93. IKEA (#21 in Reputation Rankings)

94. Paypal (#32 in Reputation Rankings)

95. Moderna (#3 in Reputation Rankings)

96. Huawei Technologies (#88 in Reputation Rankings)

97. Goya (#59 in Reputation Rankings)

98. Hulu (#28 in Reputation Rankings)

99. Kaiser Permanente (#47 in Reputation Rankings)

100. Royal Dutch Shell (#69 in Reputation Rankings)

Source Data: The Harris Poll, 2021 Axios Harris Poll 100.

As you can see, the 100 most visible companies were also ranked based on their corporate reputations. This was done by the Axios/Harris Poll researchers asking a much larger sample of the American public to assess how they regarded these 100 most visible companies on each of 7 dimensions that are integral to a company’s reputation. These were:

1. Trust – “Is this a company I trust?”

2. Ethics – “Does this company maintain high ethical standards?”

3. Citizenship – “Does this company share my values and support good causes?”

4. Culture – “Is this a good company to work for?”

5. Products and Services – “Does this company develop innovative products and services that I want and value?”

6. Vision – “Does this company have a clear vision for the future?”

7. Growth – “Is this a growing company?”

So, as you can see by examining Table 1, some of America’s most visible firms are not among the most highly regarded for their corporate reputations, and conversely, a number of the companies that consumers see as having the best corporate reputations today are far less known in the minds of the American public. In fact, there’s little correlation between the top 10 most visible companies (Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Facebook, Google, Target, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Nike and McDonald’s) and the top 10 most reputable companies (Patagonia, Honda, Moderna, Chick-fil-A, SpaceX, Chewy, Pfizer, Tesla, Costco and Amazon). That is a topic for another day and far more analysis, but it is safe to say that some of America’s best known companies and brands have a significant image problem in the minds of consumers, especially in the tech area.

The Highest and Lowest Regarded Companies for Growth Today

In this article, the focus is on the seventh dimension of corporate reputation - growth. To capture how Americans today regarded companies in regard to their growth, the survey respondents were asked to respond to a simple question and only on companies with which they were familiar from a subset of the 100 most visible companies, that being: “Is this a growing company?”

As can be seen in Table 2 (The 25 Companies in America in 2021 with the Best Growth Prospects and Their Growth Rating) below, the results of the Axios/Harris Poll research show that Amazon is regarded as the company with the highest growth prospects today by the American public, as the giant online retailer and online data services company scored the highest on its growth rating. There was also a strong influence of the “Musk Effect,” as two of Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX (ranked second) and Tesla Motors (ranked seventh) were among the top ten companies in America on the growth dimension of corporate reputation. There was also a “vaccine effect,” as two of the leading companies in developing COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer (ranked third) and Moderna (ranked sixth) garnered top ten rankings in the minds of the public. Quite interesting, the pet supply company Chewy was ranked fourth, and that firm experienced rapid growth in the wake of the pandemic and people’s focus on our pets during the pandemic. Apple, which has a strong brand presence and a history of unparalleled innovation in the area of consumer technology, was ranked eighth this year. However, the highest rated company for having the best corporate reputation, Patagonia, was only ranked ninth on the growth dimension.

Table 2: The 25 Companies in America in 2021 with the Best Growth Prospects and Their Growth Rating

NOTE: Index = 100

1. Amazon.com (86.5)

2. SpaceX (86)

3. Pfizer (85.8)

4. Chewy (84.9)

5. Chick-fil-A (84.8)

6. Moderna (84.4)

7. Tesla Motors (84.4)

8. Apple (84.1)

9. Patagonia (83.4)

10. Subaru (83.2)

11. Honda Motor Company (83.1)

12. USAA (82.9)

13. Hulu (82.4)

14. PepsiCo (82.1)

15. In-n-Out Burger (82)

16. IKEA (81.9)

17. CVS (CVS Health) (81.9)

18. FedEx Corporation (81.8)

19. Costco (81.6)

20. Unilever (81.4)

21. Publix Supermarkets (81.3)

22. Berkshire Hathaway (81)

23. Nestle (81)

24. Wegmans (80.9)

25. The Walt Disney Company (80.7)

Source Data: The Harris Poll, 2021 Axios Harris Poll 100.

On the flip side of the growth equation, Table 3 (The 25 Companies in America in 2021 with the Best Growth Prospects and Their Growth Rating) below shows the most visible firms in America today that the public collectively perceives as having the worst growth prospects at present. Sears Holdings - the parent of both Sears and Kmart (now known by the oddly-appropriate name “Transformco”) - was ranked as the company that had the worst prospect for growth as both chains rapidly closed stores across the country. Likewise, fellow struggling retail giant JCPenney came in at #97 out of the 100 companies assessed in the Axios/Harris Poll research. Large social media companies fared poorly (Facebook coming in at #95 and Twitter at #92), both out of concerns over data privacy and their role in the 2020 election. And the impact of the divisive politics of 2020 can be further seen in that three companies in the top 5 worst companies on this important dimension of corporate reputation, The Trump Organization (#99), Fox Corporation (parent of Fox News) (#98), and My Pillow (#96) were all poorly positioned for growth in the eyes of the American public due to their role in the Presidential election and its aftermath.

Table 3: The 25 Companies in America in 2021 with the Best Growth Prospects and Their Growth Rating

NOTE: Index = 100

100. Sears Holdings Corporation (54.1)

99. The Trump Organization (57.8)

98. Fox Corporation (60.2)

97. JCPenney (60.7)

96. My Pillow (63.4)

95. Facebook (63.9)

94. Wish.com (65.3)

93. Wells Fargo & Company (67)

92. Twitter (67.2)

91. Macy's (68.3)

90. AT&T (68.5)

89. United Airlines (68.8)

88. GameStop (69.4)

87. Huawei Technologies (69.5)

86. TikTok (70.2)

85. Comcast (70.6)

84. Delta Air Lines (71.4)

83. Nordstrom (72.1)

82. Samsung (72.6)

81. Burger King (72.6)

80. Reddit (72.8)

79. BP (72.8)

78. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (73.4)

77. General Motors (73.5)

76. Goya (73.6)

Source Data: The Harris Poll, 2021 Axios Harris Poll 100.

Analysis

So, what are the implications for management from these findings in regard to the growth dimension of corporate reputation? It is essential for companies today to do a good (read better) job of communicating their value - and their values - to the public at large today. The American public is paying attention, and so the perception of being a growing company is very important to both consumers and investors, who in many cases, are exactly the same audience. For companies that have a good story to tell in regards to their growth prospects, they should be very engaged in public relations and paid advertising efforts as well to make Americans aware of who they are and what they are doing - both now and into the future. Such investments will pay significant dividends, both in terms of sales of their products/services and investor interest in their companies. And yes, this is a momentum play, as such actions to increase the company’s visibility will work to build the image of the firm and the strength of their brand(s) up even further.

But what do you do if you are Sears, or Wells Fargo, or AT&T or Facebook or Twitter? If you are being negatively perceived by the public in regards to your growth prospects, what are your real options? As a seasoned strategic management consultant and professor, my best advice would be one of two options. First, if you have self-generated negative publicity (i.e. Fox News, My Pillow, and the Trump Organization), you will really need to think about radical actions - i.e. executive changes, rebranding your products/services, or even being open to acquisition by a more favorably regarded brand to subsume your branded products/services under. For instance, while many Americans may not want to stay at a Trump property because of their feelings toward the former President, they would have no objection to staying at a former Trump hotel if it was under a brand such as Marriott, Hilton, or Hyatt. Secondly, this is a moment that requires some really tough questions to be asked and soul-searching to be done, as companies and brands that are perceived highly negatively may need radical actions. For instance, the Sears and JCPenney brand names do have value and resonance with the public - particularly with older Americans - and as such, they might have potential for use in a variety of ways, perhaps even outside of the retail store realm. When a company faces an existential crisis, such bold thinking is often required, and sadly, as the littered landscape of failed retailers alone shows, executives often fail these tests and their companies fail with them. Lastly, for any of the companies that are in the bottom quartile of the 100 most visible firms in terms of growth as shown in Table 3, their executives must be mindful that they do have a great asset - their visibility - and how they can use that to their advantage in rebuilding their reputation - both for growth and for the other dimensions of corporate success - will be key in bettering their long-term survival prospects.

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About David Wyld

David Wyld is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. You can view all of his work at https://authory.com/DavidWyld.

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