Photographs: Aly Song/Reuters
Reputation Institute, a global private consulting firm based in New York, has identified 100 companies that have successfully established strong international reputations.
The firm invited about 47,000 consumers across 15 markets to participate in a study to rank those 100 by their reputations. They are all multinational businesses with global presence.
Here are the 25 companies that top the list.
NOTE: Courtesy, Forbes
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
BMW
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 80.08
Global rank: 1
It is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1917. BMW is headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands.
In 2010, the BMW group produced 1,481,253 automobiles and 112,271 motorcycles across all its brands.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters
Sony
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 79.31
Global rank: 2
It is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Konan Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It ranked 73 on the 2011 list of Fortune Global 500.
Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics products for the consumer and professional markets.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Bobby Yip/Reuters
The Walt Disney Company
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 78.92
Global rank: 3
The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational diversified mass media company headquartered in Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California, United States.
It is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and travel.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Jason Lee/Reuters
Daimler
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 78.54
Global rank: 4
Daimler is a German multinational automotive corporation. It is headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
By unit sales, it is the 13th-largest car manufacturer and second-largest truck manufacturer in the world. In addition to automobiles, Daimler manufactures buses and provides financial services through its Daimler Financial Services arm.
Daimler produces cars and trucks under the brands of Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Smart, Freightliner and many others.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Darley Shen/Reuters
Apple
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 78.49
Global rank: 5
It is an American multinational corporation that designs and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers.
The company's best-known hardware products are the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.
Its software includes the Mac OS X operating system; the iTunes media browser; the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software; the iWork suite of productivity software; Aperture, a professional photography package and Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio and film-industry software products; Logic Studio, a suite of music production tools; the Safari web browser; and iOS, a mobile operating system.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 78.05
Global rank: 6
Google is an American multinational corporation which provides Internet-related products and services, including Internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies.
Advertising revenues from AdWords generate almost all of the company's profits.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Steve Marcus/Reuters
Microsoft
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 77.98
Global rank: 7
Microsoft is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions.
Established on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell Basic interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems.
Microsoft is one of the largest software corporations in the world.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters
Volkswagen
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 77.04
Global rank: 8
Volkswagen Group is a German multinational automotive manufacturing group headquartered in Wolfsburg. It is the world's second-largest motor vehicle manufacturer by 2011 unit sales and the largest based in Europe.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Toru Hanai/Reuters
Canon
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 76.98
Global rank: 9
Canon is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers.
Its headquarters are located in Ota, Tokyo, Japan.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Scanpix/Reuters
Lego Group
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 76.35
Global rank: 10
The Lego Group is a family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark, and best known for the manufacture of Lego brand toys.
The company was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Christian Hartmann/Reuters
Adidas Group
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 76.00
Global rank: 11
Adidas is a German sports clothing manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company (including Ashworth), and Rockport.
Besides sports footwear, the company also produces other products such as bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, and other sports- and clothing-related goods.
The company is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second-biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Nestle
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 75.88
Global rank: 12
It is the world's largest nutrition, health and wellness company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestle originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactee Henri Nestle, founded in 1866 by Henri Nestle.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Jeff Christensen/Reuters
Colgate-Palmolive
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 75.75
Global rank: 13
It is an American multinational consumer products company focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products (including toothpaste and toothbrushes).
Under its "Hill's" brand, it is also a manufacturer of veterinary products. The company's corporate offices are on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters
Panasonic
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 75.71
Global rank: 14
It is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Japan. Its main business is in electronics manufacturing.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Nike
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 75.43
Global rank: 15
Nike is a major publicly traded clothing, footwear, sportswear, and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area.
It is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Steve Marcus/Reuters
Intel
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 75.42
Global rank: 16
Intel is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest and highest valued semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue.
It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Regis Duvignau/Reuters
Michelin
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 75.32
Global rank: 17
Michelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne region of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone.
In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal (in North America) tyre brands.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters
Johnson & Johnson
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 75.17
Global rank: 18
It is an American multinational medical devices, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500.
Johnson & Johnson consistently ranks at the top of Harris Interactive's National Corporate Reputation Survey, ranking as the world's most respected company by Barron's Magazine, and was the first corporation awarded the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy by the US State Department for its funding of international education programmes.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Nir Elias/Reuters
IBM
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 75.08
Global rank: 19
It is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States.
IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters
Ferrero
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 74.90
Global rank: 20
Ferrero is an Italian manufacturer of chocolate and other confectionery products. It was founded by confectioner Pietro Ferrero in 1946 in Alba, Piedmont, Italy.
The company saw a period of tremendous growth and success under Pietro's son Michele Ferrero, who in turn handed over the daily operations to his sons.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Samsung Electronics
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 74.81
Global rank: 21
It is a South Korean multinational corporation, specialising in electronics and information-technology and is headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul.
SEC is the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group and comprises assembly plants and sales networks in 61 countries across the world, employing about 160,000.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Mike Cassese/Reuters
Honda Motor
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 74.80
Global rank: 22
It is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Ints Kalnins/Reuters
LOreal
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 74.35
Global rank: 23
The LOreal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics.
Concentrating on hair colour, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumes and hair care, the company is active in the dermatological, tissue engineering and pharmaceutical fields and is the top nanotechnology patent-holder in the United States.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Lehtikuva Lehtikuva/Reuters
Nokia
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 74.33
Global rank: 24
It is a multinational communications corporation headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, Finland. Its principal products are mobile electronic devices, primarily mobile telephones and other communications devices.
It also offers Internet services such as applications, games, music, maps, media and messaging through its Ovi platform, and free-of-charge digital map information and navigation services through its wholly owned subsidiary Navteq.
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25 most reputable companies in the world
Photographs: Thomas Peter/Reuters
Philips Electronics
2012 RepTrak Pulse Score: 74.33
Global rank: 25
It is a Dutch multinational electronics company headquartered in Amsterdam. It was founded in Eindhoven in 1891 by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik.
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