Shoppers Drug Mart lands top spot on reputation survey

Shoppers Drug Mart is the most reputable company in Canada, according to the 2022 Reputation study by Leger. Now in its 25th year, the study ranks the most reputable companies based on a survey of 38,000 Canadians who are asked about 288 companies across 30 sectors.

Shoppers Drug Mart was No. 1 on the reputation ranking in 2020 and number two in 2021. In this year’s survey, 80% of Canadians said they have a good opinion of Shoppers Drug Mart, 7% said they had a bad opinion, 12% indicated they didn’t know enough about the company to rate it, and 1% said they didn’t know it at all. The results earned Shoppers a score of 73, down from 78 last year.

“Even with a drop of five points, they’re back up to number one, and it could be our reliance on drug stores and feeling like we need them in this pandemic,” said Lisa Covens, vice-president, communications and public affairs, on a webinar that unveiled the results.

Following Shoppers on the top 10 list are: Sony, Samsung, Canadian Tire, Interac, Google, Campbell’s, Microsoft, A&W and Netflix.

According to Leger, overall reputation scores have dropped this year, consistent with a downward trend over the last decade. This year, the 10 most reputable companies have an average score of 71. Ten years ago, the average score of the top 10 list was 83, with Google in the top spot at 91.

Dave Scholz, executive vice-president at Leger, noted there is a decline in “good opinion,” but those scores aren’t going to “bad opinion.” More respondents are indicating they don’t know the company well enough to have an opinion.

“If you've done good work at building a reputation, people don’t flip flop from good to bad. [They] don't wake up one day and hate a company that [they] felt really positive about before,” said Scholz. However, Canadians may not feel as good about organizations, or may be more cautious about saying they have a positive opinion.

“We’re seeing an overarching reputation decrease over time because [Canadians] aren’t as engaged with organizations as [they] used to be,” said Scholz. “This isn’t just [related to the] pandemic... it’s been something that’s coming on strong over the last 10 years.”

With media, social media and misinformation, Scholz said people’s capacity to engage with organizations has changed.

“We’re moving into an area where these organizations could lose that ‘good opinion’ to ‘I don't know them enough’ if companies don’t start to reengage, rebuild relationships, and find out what’s [important to] stakeholders,” he said. “And stakeholders are very different now than they were at the beginning of the pandemic. So if there's any time to understand more about your customers... now is the time to do it.”

In the Reputation study’s grocery/convenience category, Sobeys is the top company by sector, with an overall ranking of 27 and a score of 60.

Other grocery and mass-market retailers on the list are: Costco (No. 13 overall, score of 66), Loblaws (No. 39 overall, score of 55) and Walmart (No. 72 overall, score of 42).

Costco also made Leger’s top 10 employers list based on reputation, landing at No. 2 behind Google. Shoppers Drug Mart is at No. 5.