The Walt Disney Company tops the list of the 100 Most Loved Companies followed by Yahoo!, Google and Sony, according to APCO Insight, the global opinion research consultancy at APCO Worldwide, which used its “Emotional Linking” model that measures consumers' emotional attachment to brands along eight dimensions.

"The best brands are those that build a strong, enduring emotional attachment with consumers," says Bryan Dumont, president, APCO Insight. "In addition to acting as a highly predictive tool for consumers' purchase choices, the Emotional Linking model has proven to be an excellent way to help companies retool their campaigns to build stronger emotional attachments between their key audiences and their brands."

The rankings are the result of a decade-long research project including a global survey of more than 600 of the world's largest corporate brands among more than 70,000 individuals in 15 key markets around the world. The Emotional Linking model identified eight emotions that are critical to effective brand communication. These eight critical emotions are: understanding, approachability, relevance, admiration, curiosity, identification, empowerment and pride.

Trends in key industries:
• Tech (devices and web services) outperforms across all emotions, and especially well on Relevance. Success in this area equates to people thinking a brand "fits" them well, speaks to them and plays a meaningful role in their lives. Compared to other dimensions, the computer industry does less well on curiosity, meaning the industry could work to better pique consumer interest.
• Retail performs especially well on approachability, people feel like the industry as a whole is accessible. Conversely, it performs less well on pride. A company rates high on pride when people want to be associated with the brand.
• Restaurants are largely seen as approachable, but perform less well on empowerment, defined as making the consumer feel confident or self-assured.
• Food and beverage processing performs the best on instilling a sense of pride. Compared to other emotions, the industry performs less well on Curiosity and Empowerment.