Shoppers Drug Mart and Sony are the most reputable brands, according to the 25th iteration of Leger’s annual reputation study, which also reveals that overall reputation scores have slipped again.

Leger surveyed more than 38,000 Canadians to get their perspectives on more than 285 companies in 30 different sectors for its 2022 study, which also now includes professional sports teams and an expanded airport category.

Shoppers is up one spot from last year’s survey, while Sony is up from fourth. They displace Canadian Tire as the country’s most reputable brand, falling to number four.

However, according to Leger, after the uncertainty brought on by lockdowns, overall reputation has taken a hit. Even the top brands secured their spots despite slipping scores: Shoppers is down five points from the year prior, with Sony down one.

This year, the top 10 most reputable companies have an average score of 71 out of 100, while a decade ago, the average score of the top ten list was 83.

The downward trend is driven by a slump in good opinion ratings and an increase in the percentage of respondents who say they “know the company, but not well enough to rate it.” The hardest hit sectors in 2022 are breweries, drugstores, hospitality and bookstores.

The companies in the top ten, however, remain consistent, with five of the companies in the top 10 list in 2013 – Google, Sony, Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire and Samsung – still present in the top ten this year. Three other notable brands that were in the top ten – Kellogg, Staples and Kraft Heinz – are still in the top 20, but their overall scores have decreased as well.

The industries with the largest growth in reputation are the industrial category and the insurance industry, led by Canada Life (which ran its first ever mass campaign in 2020), The Co-operators (which did a rebrand last fall), Wawanesa and CAA.

While taken as a whole, pharmaceuticals didn’t move the needle, but individually, Pfizer and Astra Zeneca saw reputation score boosts of ten and seven points, respectively, revealing the impact of public goodwill towards vaccines.

As noted by Dave Scholz, EVP at Leger, the challenge companies are faced with is learning as much as they can about their stakeholders’ perceptions of them and to rebuild the relationships that have led to reputation declines.

“Canadians are open to feeling positive again, but what organizations do next will affect if these one-time positive perceptions can be rekindled,” Scholz says.

The maximum possible reputation score is 100, and this year, according to Canadians, the most reputable companies are:

Shoppers Drug Mart (Reputation Score: 73)
Sony (Reputation Score: 73)
Samsung (Reputation Score: 72)
Canadian Tire (Reputation Score: 71)
Interac (Reputation Score: 71)
Google (Reputation Score: 70)
Campbell (Reputation Score: 70)
Microsoft (Reputation Score: 69)
A & W (Reputation Score: 69)
Netflix (Reputation Score: 69)

For the first time, Canadians were surveyed about the sports teams in each team’s respective market.

This year, according to Canadians, the most reputable professional sports teams are:

Toronto Raptors (Reputation Score: 59)
Toronto Blue Jays (Reputation Score: 57)
Winnipeg Jets (Reputation Score: 55)
Montreal Alouettes (Reputation Score: 51)
Calgary Stampeders (Reputation Score: 50)
Toronto Maple Leafs (Reputation Score: 48)
Calgary Flames (Reputation Score: 47)
Edmonton Oilers (Reputation Score: 46)
Vancouver Canucks (Reputation Score: 46)
Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Reputation Score: 45)

Finally, with an expanded airport sector, Leger’s most reputable Canadian airports for 2022 include:

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) (Reputation Score: 71)
Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) (Reputation Score: 65)
YUL Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (Reputation Score: 64)
Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) (Reputation Score: 59)
Calgary International Airport (YYC) (Reputation Score: 55)
Winnipeg International Airport (YWG) (Reputation Score: 48)
Edmonton International Airport (YEG) (Reputation Score: 40)
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTO) (Reputation Score: 31)
Abbotsford International Airport (YXX) (Reputation Score: 25)
Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB) (Reputation Score: 25)