A newly released global reputation study of more than 100,000 consumers revealed that who you are as a company is more important than what you sell.

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"In today's reputation economy, what you stand for matters more than what you produce and sell," says Reputation Institute's Executive Partner Kasper Ulf Nielsen. "People's willingness to buy, recommend, work for and invest in a company is driven 60 per cent by their perceptions of the company and only 40 per cent by their perceptions of their products."

The third annual Global RepTrak^TM 100, by reputation consultancy firm Reputation Institute, identifies how stakeholders perceive companies and how those perceptions affect purchasing behaviour.

According to the study, in order to win support and recommendations, a company needs to tell its story in a way that connects with stakeholders on a global level. This is a challenge that even the best companies struggle with.

Tech giant Apple, who had to deal with the loss of its iconic leader Steve Jobs, knows this only too well - and passed. It maintained its high, albeit, lower ranking in the list.

Last year's leader, Google, also fell in the rankings, finding itself at only the sixth position.

Results from the 2012 Global RepTrak^TM 100 study showed a strong correlation between a company's reputation and consumers' willingness to recommend it. For the top companies, 55 per cent of consumers said they would definitely recommend their products to others, compared with only 22 per cent for the companies at the bottom of the list.

"We live in a time where word-of-mouth is the number one driver of sales and competitive advantage," says Trad. "Investing in reputation will pay off on the bottom line."