Despite a wave of goodwill and positive PR from its decision to stop selling cigarettes, CVS Caremark is now among the 10 least respected brands, according to an annual ranking by brand marketing firm TenetPartners.
TP's Brand Respect report found that Delta Air Lines led the top five least respected brands, followed by H&R Block, Big Lots, Papa John's and Denny's. The top three were unchanged from a year ago. The firm said Papa Joun's, Footlocker (#9) and CVS are newcomers to the top 10.
TP noted that while CVS' decision to drop tobacco products garnered praise from consumers, Wall Street analysts were quick to raise concerns and the company reported that lost tobacco sales caused retail-operating profit to slip by 1.3% in Q4 of 2014.
The firm crunches data from a survey of about 10,000 business "decision-makers" and "opinion elites" to gauge brands on familiarity and favorability. Profit margins emerged as a key differentiator between the most and least respected brands.
2015 Least Respected Brands
1. Delta Air Lines
2. H&R Block
3. Big Lots
4. Papa John’s
5. Denny’s
6. Rite Aid
7. JCPenney
8. Best Buy
9. Foot Locker
10. CVS Health
At the other end of the scale, The Coca-Cola Company led the pack of most respected brands for 2015, as it has for the past three years, followed by archrival PepsiCo, The Hershey Company, Bayer and Johnson & Johnson.
Microsoft entered the top 10 this year and Apple climbed two slots to No. 6.
2015 Most Respected Brands
1. The Coca-Cola Company
2. PepsiCo
3. The Hershey Company
4. Bayer
5. Johnson & Johnson
6. Apple
7. Harley-Davidson
8. IBM
9. Microsoft
10. GE
TP, which also compiles a list of the most powerful brands, noted the top respected brands all showed "slow, stable, but consistent growth" in their share prices, as well.
Full report is at Tenet Partners' site.
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