The world's most reputable companies

In tough times luxuries are the first to go. Still, people love their chocolate. More specifically, they still love the Italy-based chocolate producer Ferrero.

Reputation Institute ranks Ferrero as the most reputable company on the planet right now.

The company's pulse score, a 0 to 100 reputation rating, has moved from 83.52 last year up to 85.17. Not only does that bring Ferrero up from fourth place last year to first, but it puts it more than a full point ahead of second ranked IKEA.

A difference of more than 0.5 is considered significant.

Johnson & Johnson, which placed first in the U.S. for reputation, lands third globally. Kraft Foods places eighth, making the U.S. one of only two countries with two businesses in the global top ten.

Brazil is the other. Its Petrobras and Sadia landed fourth and fifth, respectively.

Reputation Institute collected survey data on 600 companies globally. Only people in a company's home country and familiar with the company could rate it. So Americans could only rate American companies they knew about. It seems they don't like their companies as much as Brazilians do.

Brazil had the second highest percentage of its participating companies ranked above the global average--76%--while 62% of American companies received pulse scores above the average.

However it's the people of India who love their companies the best. Of India's 27 corporations ranked by the institute, 24 (89%) placed above the average. Seventeen of them landed in the top third of the list.

Meanwhile, France and Germany (with 30 and 31 companies rated for the list) scored less than half their companies as above average--France 43% and Germany a sorry 32%. Not one of Germany's companies even made the top 50, and only one of France's did.

In terms of whole industries, consumer products still reign supreme--now more than ever. The average rating for consumer products companies is 75.76. That's 3.37 higher than the beverage industry, which came in second. Remember that anything more than 0.5 is significant.

Transport and logistics was the industry with the largest global change in reputation this year. Positive swings for companies like FedEx and Union Pacific Railroad moved the industry's average score up by 5.6 points. It still sits at 14th out of 25 industries, but that's a move in the right direction.

Electrical and electronic goods and services fell the most this year, declining two points. What's a bit surprising is that the diversified financials sector fell only a point and a half--though it started in the low 60s and electronics started in the low 70s.

Overall it has been a surprisingly quiet year for reputations, all things considered. Of the 600 companies measured, 65% had changes in their pulse scores of less than 5. Only 7% had changes of more than 10. In fact, the average pulse score globally is the same as it was last year at 64.22.

Reputation Institute has found that a good reputation definitely helps a company's bottom line. Business isn't always a popularity contest, but you might be surprised how often it is.

Methodology: The Reputation Institute's Global Pulse is a measure of corporate reputation calculated by averaging perceptions of four indicators--trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling--obtained from a representative sample of at least 100 respondents in the companies' home countries. The Global Pulse scores are on a scale of 0 to 100.