RANK A BRAND IN A NUTSHELL
What is the objective of Rank a Brand?
How does Rank a Brand want to create change?
There are a lot of CSR-‘ranking’ initiatives already. What makes Rank a Brand so unique?
How transparent, green and fair is Rank a Brand?
The current Rank a Brand website is labelled ‘Beta’. What does this mean?

THE EVALUATION QUESTIONS
Rank a Brand assesses companies based on a list of 10 to 30 questions. What are these questions based on?
Rank a Brand assess whether companies show ‘best practices’ of the given sector. What does this mean?
Do the questions Rank a Brand uses to evaluate companies always remain the same?

THE SCORING SYSTEM
The score of each company is captured in a score bar. How does the score bar work?
How are brands ranked?
How do the answers to questions lead to scores?
Why does Rank a Brand only have ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘?’ as only possible answers and not a point scale, e.g. from 0 to 10?

VALIDITY OF THE SCORING SYSTEM
Isn’t the ranking procedure subjective and open to interpretation?
Is a set of 10 to 30 questions sufficient to make a proper evaluation of a brand?
Why does Rank a Brand only use information from companies’ websites and not from other sources such as surveys and independent research reports?
How can Rank a Brand be sure that the information presented on brand websites is accurate?

INTERACTION BETWEEN RANK A BRAND AND THE BRANDS
The image of a company may be damaged if someone makes a ranking mistake. How does Rank a Brand assure the quality of the Rankers?
Hoe garandeert Rank a Brand de kwaliteit van de Rankers?
Does Rank a Brand give companies the chance to react to the results?

THE RANKED BRANDS
Why does Rank a Brand only rank four sectors?
How are brands selected?
Why rank brands and not products or corporations?

MONEY
Does Rank a Brand make a profit?
How is Rank a Brand funded?
Are you sponsored by brands?

RANK A BRAND IN A NUTSHELL

Q: What is the objective of Rank a Brand?
A: The general objective of Rank a Brand is to promote an economically, ecologically and socially sustainable and fair world. More specifically, we aim to encourage brands to show the best practices of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in a transparent way. CSR means that companies consider the (potential) effects their activities have on the environment and on people.

Q: How does Rank a Brand want to create change?
A: Research across many countries perpetually states that the majority of consumers is actually willing to buy green, but they don’t. One core issue here is that you as a consumer lack clear public information regarding the CSR policies of products and brands. By offering this information in a straightforward way, Rank a Brand empowers you to choose brands that show best practices. Companies depend on image and sales, and when our information changes your brand preferences, companies will improve their CSR-policies and level of transparency.

Q: There are a lot of CSR-‘ranking’ initiatives already. What makes Rank a Brand so unique?
A: Rank a Brand is unique for a number of reasons, most importantly because:
1) We are unaffiliated to the brands we rank, therefore ensuring our independence
2) Our methods are completely transparent and accessible
3) Our database covers hundreds of brands in various sectors spanning many countries, representing a rich sample of the global consumer market
4) Rank a Brand is community based, bottom up, for consumers by consumers, and therefore appealing to brand holders to respond and take action.

Q: How transparent, green and fair is Rank a Brand?

A: We try to set an example for the companies we rank. We chose an office location close to a public transport node, so everyone can get here by tram, train or bicycle (and most of our volunteers also work from home). We use green energy in our building and our website is hosted on a CO2 neutral server. We are nearly at our target of being a paperless office (subsidy requests hamper this), and have furnished the place with nice second hand furniture and materials. We also refrain from flying by using videoconferencing as an alternative method of communication. Finally, for office use, we purchase products which are produced in a sustainable way, like Fair Trade certified coffee.

Q: The current Rank a Brand website is labelled ‘Beta’. What does this mean?
A: We have called the current version of the website a Beta for two reasons.
1) Technically, this release is the first version outside our community, and therefore the first real-world, black-box software test. The current website is still relatively new and so you may come across minor bugs.
2) Rank a Brand is in many ways an innovative and bold concept, just beginning to prove its usefulness in society.

THE EVALUATION QUESTIONS

Q: Rank a Brand assesses companies based on a list of 10 to 30 questions. What are these questions based on?
A: For every sector we formulated a set of questions based on background research. These questions consider the fields of climate change, environmental impact and human rights/labor conditions. For instance, we ask questions gauging the political support of a given company, the company’s short-term goals, promises and achievements regarding select CSR themes. The questions relate to best practices in the sector. To read more about our questions, please see the online Manual for Rankers.

Q: Rank a Brand assess whether companies show ‘best practices’ of the given sector. What does this mean?
A: The term ‘best practices’ refers to the most progressive elements in current CSR policies. The term does not imply that a company manifesting best practice is necessarily 100% ‘good’; best practices change and get more progressive over time. Therefore, companies must continually adapt their policies to stay up-to-date.

Q: Do the questions Rank a Brand uses to evaluate companies always remain the same?
A: The selection of questions may change according to input from our Rankers’ community and developments in the sector. When performances generally increase, Rank a Brand will update the questions to reflect this change. For example, if a certain percentage of brands has reached the goal of 20% energy reduction by 2012, we will update our questions to further challenge brands. Moreover, we can also increase the number of our questions to further refine our results.

THE SCORING SYSTEM

Q: The score of each company is captured in a score bar. How does the score bar work?
A: The performances of a given brand are reflected on a score bar ranging from shades of red to orange to yellow to green – the higher the score, the longer and greener the score bar. A scorebar with the maximum score looks like this:

Q: How are brands ranked?
A: Rankers analyze a brand with a set of questions customized to the given sector of the brand, seeking to answer each question with ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘?’:

The questions are answered by surfing the public websites of companies. Our Rankers only respond with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if the given brand website provides concrete evidence that justifies the response. If the information is ambiguous or not found, then the brand receives a ‘?’ for that question.
The Ranker must fortify his or her answer to each question by indicating a citation or reference to where this information was found or should have been found. On the Rank a Brand website, visitors are able to trace this evidence by following the link provided. Moreover, the Ranker must also offer an explanation on why the specific response was given. This ensures transparency and accuracy.

Q: How do the answers to questions lead to scores?
A: Each ‘yes’ gets one point. Each ‘no’ and each ‘?’ get zero points. After the question list is completed, we tally up the points to get the frequency of ‘yes’. This is used as a brand’s score.

Q: Why does Rank a Brand only have ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘?’ as only possible answers and not a point scale, e.g. from 0 to 10?
A: After testing a variety of different ranking scales and systems, we found ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘?’  to be the most robust, clear and transparent method where Rankers cannot arbitrarily choose a number on a point system. So we have chosen to avoid these methods.

VALIDITY OF THE SCORING SYSTEM

Q: Isn’t the ranking procedure subjective and open to interpretation?
A: Doing research and analyzing qualitative data can never be completely objective. We want to be as unbiased as possible. Therefore, we have created questions that are easy to verify and seek answers that are measurable. Moreover, our Rankers are trained in a rigorous way and provided with clear guidelines on how to assess company data. And most importantly, the Rank a Brand website is transparent about the methods followed.

Q: Is a set of 10 to 30 questions sufficient to make a proper evaluation of a brand?
A: We acknowledge that the Rank a Brand method is currently rather basic, and the questions asked cover a select area of priorities. Despite this, the method is sufficiently sensitive in separating the CSR laggards from the average performers and the front-runners.

Q: Why does Rank a Brand only use information from companies’ websites and not from other sources such as surveys and independent research reports?
A: Rank a Brand represents consumers in search of information. When consumers want to know more about the performance of a given brand, they would typically visit the brand website. Therefore, Rank a Brand encourages brands to be open and transparent by publishing their CSR information on their websites.

Q: How can Rank a Brand be sure that the information presented on brand websites is accurate?
A: We rely on brands to present accurate information and data on their websites. Where possible we refer to external verification, for example, we ask companies to support their claims with independent certifications and memberships of Multi Stakeholder Initiatives. Moreover, we believe that brands would severely risk damaging their image if they provide false information, as social media spreads scandals quicker than ever these days.

INTERACTION BETWEEN RANK A BRAND AND THE BRANDS

Q: The image of a company may be damaged if someone makes a ranking mistake. How does Rank a Brand assure the quality of the Rankers?
A: There are several measures in place to assure that brands are assessed correctly:
1) Every Ranker works along a clear, strict and well structured manual, which outlines explicit instructions on how to rank, coupled with detailed explanations for each question. We require Rankers to always provide links to the websites of the companies in order to justify the answer they gave. As such, the reason behind a ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘?’ is always traceable and identifiable.
2) Every ranker enters our community through a profile check performed by our core staff members. Subsequently the ranker has to go through a test phase, where he or she must rank five brands accurately before being allowed to freely rank brands. If it appears that the ranker has not produced solid work, he or she will be further trained or declined, dependent on the performance level.

Q: Does Rank a Brand give companies the chance to react to the results?
A: When Rankers create or change a profile and a score for companies, the system sends an notification by email to the companies’ CSR representative (if name and email address can be found on the website). The company can choose to respond by email if they wish. Our core staff members handle these responses and, where and if applicable, adjust the score results in case a score was not attributed correctly.

THE RANKED BRANDS

Q: Why does Rank a Brand only rank four sectors?
A:  Despite our rather limited resources, we have already ranked brands in four sectors in the Netherlands that are sold in the Netherlands. As Rank a Brand matures and expands, the number of sectors we rank will also undoubtedly expand.

Q: How are brands selected?
A: We select brands that are requested by visitors of our website. If we are unable to handle all of the requests, we choose to start with the largest brands, in line with our mission to change the mainstream and maximize impact.

Q: Why rank brands and not products or corporations?
A: There is a difference between products, brands, and corporations. We believe that it is the best to approach the consumer market at the level of brands for several reasons:
1) Most product types are replaced every season while brand names don’t change as often, so we can monitor our data better.
2) There are many more products than there are brands. Brands represent each and every product they sell. Ranking brands thus allows us to review more companies, and subsequently more products.
3) Ranking brands is more effective because the reputation of a brand is more important to a company than the reputation of single products. Brands are very valuable business assets and a company will do a lot to safeguard or boost that asset.
4) We refrain from ranking corporations (e.g. Unilever or Proctor and Gamble) because consumers are not aware of what brands, let alone which products, a given corporation is associated with.

MONEY

Q: Does Rank a Brand make a profit?
A: No, Rank a Brand is a non-profit foundation.

Q: How is Rank a Brand funded?
A: We currently work with a 50k EUR grant from the Dutch agency ‘the National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development’ (NCDO). As we are in the first year, we have not published a financial report yet, but we’ll certainly follow up on this in due time.

Q: Are you sponsored by brands?
A: No. There is no financial relationship between the ranked companies and us.

Do you have more questions, ideas, opinions? We’d love to hear from you! You can find our contact information here.