EDITED BY DIANE BRADY, WITH REPORTING FROM LAUREN DEBTER, JARED COUNCIL, JENA MCGREGOR AND MARTY SWANT
ILLUSTRATION BY KASIA SERAFIN FOR FORBES
We all value the brands we use for different reasons. Some offer incredible value and quality. Others are aligned with our values or personal identity, with messages that feel tailored to who we are or who we want to be. Forbes’ inaugural Halo 100 list highlights excellence in delivering the experience that customers want to have. It measures how well – and how responsibly — brands are serving their US customers. To do this, we partnered with HundredX, a Dallas-based data and analytics company that has developed an innovative way of collecting customer experience feedback. Consumers select up to 75 brands that matter to them from more than 2,000 options and share their opinions and experience with those brands; HundredX gives money to their favorite charity in return. The goal, says founder Rob Pace, is “to measure the outcomes you’re creating for customers versus their other options.” The list is the result of feedback from 110,000 customers on more than 2.8 million interactions with different brands over the past year, giving us insight into who’s doing well across different demographics. For more on the methodology click here. Topping the list is Costco, which has even chartered its own ocean vessels to keep a steady supply of low-cost products flowing to its 113 million members. That’s followed by In-N-Out Burger and Chick-fil-A, two fast-food brands that customers famously love for the food, cleanliness and stellar service. Each is also controversial in their own way.
In-N-Out’s longstanding embrace of Christian values—it prints biblical verses on its burger wrappers—has earned it fans and foes alike. And Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s past comments on gay marriage and support for anti-LGBTQ+ causes may explain why the otherwise top-scoring brand got lower ratings when it came to brand values and trust. And then there are those names that grab the spotlight less often but quietly outperform their flashier peers. Florida-based Publix comes in slightly ahead of Trader Joe’s to round out the top five, for example. Meanwhile, few brands evoke the triumph of function over fashion like Columbia Sportswear; CEO Tim Boyle is often still remembered as the guy whose mother (and then CEO) Gert pushed him through a carwash in the 1980s to demonstrate the durability of a coat that’s not unlike what Columbia still sells today. That value proposition, combined with price, may explain why the outdoor brand was No. 1 when it came to perceptions of brand values and trust across a broad demographic of consumers. In an interview with Forbes, Boyle attributes the results to his brand’s “approachability.” Trust and brand values are a core part of the calculation in how consumers feel about brands. It’s one reason Toyota comes in ahead of other auto brands on this year’s list; 80% of owners say they’d buy it again. Brands such as Netflix are doing especially well in serving non-white consumers—a fact that’s no doubt due to the diversity of content on the video-streaming service. Andre Benjamin, vice president of strategy at HundredX, explains that, when looking at customer feedback, “Asian people saying that they liked the fact that anime and Korean dramas were highlighted [and] some Black people highlighted Black comedies, Black movies.” For every consumer, after all, the relationship with brands is a personal one. When companies make you feel like their products are designed to serve you, you enjoy the experience of using them. When you feel like those brands are also a force for good, it adds to the halo that keeps you coming back.
