Top ranked companies by category
Community Involvement
1 Tim Hortons 2 Canadian Tire 3 MEC 4 BMO 5 TD Bank Despite contributing just 10% to the final scores, community involvement proved decisive for Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire, giving Tim’s a top five overall rank it might not otherwise have earned. Excellence here matters more than ever as consumers become more local in their thinking— something the two banks on this list understand as they rediscover the brand-building power of neighbourhood branches.
Product & Service Quality
1 Home Hardware 2 MEC 3 Loblaws 4 Saputo 5 Canadian Tire Cirque de Soleil ( t) Quality should be table stakes for any company, but it’s clear that brands with the stature of the ones on this year’s list are held to a higher standard. Respondents were tough to impress on this measure—a reminder that as important as great branding is, it’s no substitute for being good at what you do. Given that four of the top ranked brands here are primarily sellers of goods rather than manufacturers, their performance on this measure is all the more respectable.
Exceptional Customer Service
1 MEC 2 Home Hardware 3 WestJet 4 Tim Hortons 5 Loblaws Consumers are hard to impress on this measure, with average scores skewing low. Still, these brands managed to buck the trend: MEC, Home Hardware and WestJet built their businesses with service as a foundation and, although their scores are more middling, Tim Hortons and Loblaws could not have achieved dominance in their industries without it. If a young brand were looking to crash the Best Brands party, exceptional customer service wouldn’t be a bad door to go through.
Innovation
1 Cirque de Soleil 2 IMAX 3 MEC 4 Bombardier Recreational Products 5 WestJet Three of the brands in this top five are practically pillars of our national ambition. Each has been a revolutionary in its own way, and Cirque de Soleil, IMAX and BRP can all claim world-class status as innovators who have left maple leaf–shaped dents in the universe. But for Canadians, innovation isn’t limited to invention. Consumers are willing to credit any brand that breaks the rules if it means a better, more valuable experience for them. That’s clearly what MEC and WestJet are doing here, and it stands as an invitation to any brand to do the same, no matter what it sells.
Canadian-proud
1 Canadian Tire 2 Cirque de Soleil 3 WestJet 4 MEC IMAX ( t) Saputo ( t) In a year of slumping average scores, this measure declined the most, falling by nearly 9% across the Best 25 Brands compared to 2015. Doubtless, the six leaders leading by this patriotic measure deserve the recognition they’re getting here, but this isn’t the only top five list any of them is on. And they’d be the first to tell you that being a source of Canadian pride is about more than just being born here. In these nativist times, it’s a testament to the growing maturity of the Canadian consumer that nobody gets to be a Best Canadian Brand without first being a best business.