“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” Warren Buffett 

The Reputation Institute recently published its list of the world’s most reputable brands as rated by consumers. The Global RepTrak 100 measures the reputation of the most highly regarded companies across 15 countries including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Spain, UK and US. Each company receives a reputation score out of 100, based on trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling.

Reputation is “defined by the level of trust, admiration, respect and good feeling stakeholders have towards a company,” Anthony Johndrow, managing partner at Reputation Institute told Forbes. “Consumers are more and more interested in issues such as transparency, corporate governance and social responsibility.”

Here's how the top five brands made it to the top of the ranking.Continue reading...

Best in Shanghai Auto Show: Hebei Zhongxing's "Libyan Model" pickup truck, as used by rebels flic.kr/p/eczWLZ

— Pete Sweeney (@petesweeneypro) April 22, 2013

The Shanghai Auto Show is well on its way, with exciting announcements and reveals rolling in, but already it's hard to imagine any attendee out-crazying China's Hebei Zhongxing Automobile Co. Ltd or "ZX Auto."

For starters, the automaker presented a "Libyan Model" of its Grand Tiger truck, complete with rear heavy weapons mount, Arabic stenciling and an accompanying photo gallery showing the model in action against Muammar Gaddafi. That was just the beginning.

A Taiwan-mainland joint venture, ZX Auto has manufactured SUVs and light trucks for the last decade, largely aiming its 100,00-plus-a-year output at the export market. While the brand has sought entry to developed nations, ZX's customers have largely been developing economies in South America, Africa and the Middle East. In 2011, several thousand ZX trucks found their way into the hands of the Libyan rebels who outfitted them with all manners of combat equipment from rocket launchers to heavy machine guns.Continue reading...

As Chinese consumers begin filtering into the Shanghai Auto Show this week, their desires and intentions are being dissected in every possible way by auto brands from around the globe that don't want to blow it in the world's largest auto market.

Behind the phalanx of new sheet metal, new brands, larger and more luxurious vehicles than before and, of course, ubiquitous, western-style fashion models adorning the platforms where the cars are displayed, European, American, Korean, Japanese and domestic Chinese brands are grappling with various approaches to a handful of key issues about the market in China.Continue reading...

Global automakers—including home-owned ones—will be showing off their wares at the press preview of the Shanghai Auto Show on Saturday. What they display will reflect the brands' various crucial strategies for stoking sales and market-share growth in the world's largest auto market, which is only getting bigger.

Analysts and auto executives alike have shown up in Shanghai predicting that the national market will balloon to 30 to 35 million vehicles within several years, or as much as a doubling of last year's sales of 19.3 million vehicles (in a year in which US sales were 14.5 million). That kind of expansion would make the Chinese market as big as the projected European and American markets put together.

"There's lots of competition here and everyone wants a piece of this pie," GM China President Bob Socia told Channel News Asia. "As competitive as it is, it's probably the only market in the world that offers the type of opportunities this market offers."Continue reading...

There remain obstacles in doing it, but there's no denying the strong rush of foreign upscale automakers that are announcing plans to expand production in the United States these days.

Toyota is expected to confirm on Friday morning that it is moving production of its Lexus ES from southern Japan to Georgetown, Ky.; Nissan is looking to build a second US plant for its Infiniti brand, which already makes the JX SUV in Tennessee; and German luxury automakers each in their own ways are expanding American manufacturing footprints that used to be mainly afterthoughts. Mainstream players are participating in the trend too, such as Subaru, which is set to expand US production, presumably at its existing plant in Indiana.

For Toyota, one of the keys to its Lexus decision was several years of appreciation in the value of the yen, which made Japan manufacturing cost-prohibitive. Another key in the Lexus decision was recognition that, after decades of closing the gap, the quality standards apparent in US manufacturing by all brands, and by American workers, finally rivaled those established by Japan in the 80s.Continue reading...

Volvo owners always knew they were different from other consumers. Now, the brand is launching a new, integrated advertising campaign in the US that explicitly appeals to the non-materialistic, minimalist ethos which differentiates Volvo aficionados from buyers of other luxury and near-luxury brands.

In the process, Volvo brand stewards hope to finally begin turning around the sales of a franchise whose US results peaked a decade ago, when the company was owned by Ford, and have kept on sliding over the last few years as Ford lost interest and then, in 2010, sold Volvo to Geely, a large Chinese automaker, for $1.5 billion.

Volvo owners' "interpretation of luxury is different but very real," Tassos Panas, vice president of marketing and product planning for Volvo of North America, told brandchannel. "They're more into life's experiences, and more into a Scandinavian simple design [of vehicles] versus a lot of clutter. They are very much luxury customers and love luxury products, but they don't feel a need to impress others."Continue reading...

Aereo TV streaming service from Barry Diller faces showdown with News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, who threatens to take FOX cable-only, as Intel cooks up its vision of future of TV.

Apple, which can now trademark iPad mini in U.S. and captured 74% of mobile app revenue in Q1, reportedly will release new iPhone 5S in "at least" two screen sizes.

Billabong in talks to sell out for $300 million.

Airbus juggles order book to meet record demand for A320neo Jet.

AT&T joins Boeing in backing U.S. cyber bill facing privacy fight.

Audi promotes in-vehicle Wi-Fi in new TV campaign.Continue reading...

BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi each badly wants to be the brand at the top of the global automotive-luxury mountain, and each has a strategy for attaining or retaining that pinnacle over the next few years.

But the main action won't be their old stomping grounds in Europe; the sales picture there, even for premium brands, just keeps getting worse as the eurozone slips further into recession.

Instead, it'll be their performances in China and the United States that largely determine which of the three German-bred brands might gain enough traction to put the other two firmly in its rear-view mirror by the end of the decade.Continue reading...