The Trust and Reputation Franchises
The Edelman Trust Barometer. Launched in 2001 by Edelman, the global PR firm. The Trust Barometer surveys 30,000+ respondents across 28 countries annually on trust in government, business, media, and NGOs. The franchise generates more than 10,000 media mentions globally each year, anchors the Davos World Economic Forum communications calendar, and produces the proprietary data Edelman uses across its broader client work. It is the canonical example of a single research franchise compounding into permanent earned-media value across two decades. The 2025 edition documented record-low trust in government across multiple major economies and was cited in policy conversations from the White House to the European Commission.
The Reputation Institute / RepTrak Global Survey. Originally launched in 2006 by the Reputation Institute (now RepTrak), the Global RepTrak surveys consumers in 25+ countries on the reputation of more than 7,000 companies across multiple dimensions — products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership, and performance. The franchise produces the annual Global RepTrak 100 rankings that consistently drive press coverage in the business and trade publications.
The Axios Harris Poll 100. Produced annually by The Harris Poll in partnership with Axios, the Reputation 100 survey measures U.S. consumer perceptions of the 100 most visible companies in America across multiple reputation dimensions. The franchise produces an annual press cycle that drives company-by-company coverage on the rankings — Patagonia, Costco, Trader Joe's, and Chick-fil-A have been recent top-tier performers.
The Employee and Workplace Franchises
The Gallup Employee Engagement Research. Gallup has been studying employee engagement since the 1990s. The Q12 employee engagement framework, the State of the Global Workplace report, and the broader Gallup workplace research are the foundational reference for HR, corporate-affairs, and organizational-development practice. The 2024 State of the Global Workplace documented 23% global employee engagement — a figure that has anchored every subsequent press and analyst conversation about workforce productivity. Detailed analysis of how employee research integrates into reputation management is in the spoke at Employee Surveys and Corporate Reputation.
The MetLife Employee Benefit Trends Study (EBTS). Now in its 23rd consecutive annual edition, the MetLife EBTS surveys employees and employers on benefits preferences, mental health concerns, financial wellness, and workplace experience. The franchise is one of the most-cited employee-benefits research assets in corporate HR and is the operational template for the broader "employee research as a corporate-affairs asset" category. The 2026 edition documented the persistent mental-health benefit gap that has anchored 2024-2026 press cycles on workplace wellness.
The Aflac WorkForces Report. Aflac has produced annual workforce research since 2011. The franchise documents employee benefit preferences, workplace satisfaction, and the employer-employee benefits gap. Aflac's WorkForces Report is the canonical example of a non-research-firm company using proprietary survey data as a primary corporate-affairs asset.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Research. SHRM operates multiple annual research franchises including the Employee Benefits Survey, the Talent Management Survey, and the Workplace Culture Report. The SHRM franchises are the canonical industry-association research model — research produced for the membership that also generates broader earned-media coverage across HR trade press.
The Customer and Category Franchises
The J.D. Power Studies. J.D. Power operates more than 100 annual research franchises across automotive, hospitality, financial services, healthcare, and adjacent categories. The Vehicle Dependability Study, the Initial Quality Study, the Customer Service Index, the Hotel Brand Loyalty Study, and dozens of others produce annual press cycles that automotive and consumer brands compete to win. The branded research model — where companies pay J.D. Power both for the data and for the right to use the rankings in marketing — is the most operationally mature version of this asset class. The Vehicle Dependability Study consistently anchors automotive consumer-research conversations and is cited in EPR's Toyota strategic analysis.
The NRF National Retail Security Survey. The National Retail Federation publishes an annual security survey documenting retail shrink, organized retail crime, and loss prevention practices. The 2023 edition produced the $112.1 billion industry shrink figure that anchored the broader 2021-2026 retail-theft communications cycle covered in EPR's retail-theft canonical. The franchise compounds NRF's broader policy-advocacy work on retail issues.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Founded in 1994 at the University of Michigan, the ACSI surveys U.S. consumers across more than 40 industries annually. The franchise is one of the most academically rigorous customer-satisfaction research operations in the U.S. and produces consistent earned-media coverage in business and trade press.
The IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report. IBM's annual Cost of a Data Breach Report — produced in partnership with Ponemon Institute — has become one of the most-cited cybersecurity research franchises since its 2005 launch. The 2025 edition documented average breach costs at $4.88 million globally, a figure that anchors every cybersecurity investment conversation.
The Technology and Innovation Franchises
The Salesforce State of Marketing, State of Sales, State of Service. Salesforce operates multiple annual research franchises surveying thousands of marketing, sales, and customer-service professionals on technology adoption, AI usage, channel mix, and operational priorities. Each franchise produces multi-month press cycles inside the marketing-and-sales trade publication ecosystem and anchors Salesforce's broader thought-leadership positioning.
The Deloitte Tech Trends. Deloitte's annual Tech Trends report is one of the longest-running technology forecasting franchises in the industry. The 2026 edition documented the integration of AI across enterprise operations and the early signals of the agentic-AI deployment cycle.
The PwC Global CEO Survey. PwC's Global CEO Survey has been conducted annually since 1998. The franchise surveys more than 4,000 CEOs across 100+ countries on strategic priorities, economic outlook, and emerging risks. The franchise anchors the Davos World Economic Forum communications calendar alongside the Edelman Trust Barometer.
The Gartner CIO Survey. Gartner's annual CIO Survey — surveying enterprise CIOs on technology priorities, IT spending, and digital transformation — is one of the most-cited technology research franchises in enterprise IT trade press. The franchise feeds into Gartner's broader research-as-a-service business model.
The Public Opinion Franchises
The Gallup Poll. The Gallup Poll has operated since 1935 when George Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion. The franchise covers U.S. presidential job approval, congressional approval, U.S. Supreme Court approval, public opinion on major policy issues, and the broader public-opinion landscape. Gallup is the institutional benchmark every other public-opinion polling franchise is measured against.
The Pew Research Center Studies. Pew operates as a non-profit research organization producing some of the most-cited social, political, and technology research in the U.S. media ecosystem. Pew's American Trends Panel, the Religious Landscape Study, and the technology-adoption research franchises are the gold-standard reference for journalism, policy, and academic work in their respective categories.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health Tracking Poll. KFF's monthly Health Tracking Poll has run continuously for more than a decade, surveying U.S. adults on healthcare policy, insurance coverage, and health-system attitudes. The franchise is the canonical reference for healthcare policy journalism and is cited across every major healthcare policy conversation in U.S. media.
The detailed analysis of political polling — including the 2016, 2020, and 2024 polling error cycles — is in the spoke at Polling Errors That Change Headlines.
What Makes a Research Franchise Compound
Five structural factors distinguish research franchises that compound into permanent institutions from research franchises that produce single press cycles and then disappear.
1. Annual cadence over multiple years. The Edelman Trust Barometer is in its 25th year. The PwC Global CEO Survey is in its 28th. The J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study has been running for more than three decades. The compounding effect requires multi-decade consistency. Single-edition surveys do not produce the citation-graph durability that recurring franchises do.
2. Branded methodology. The "Q12" framework. The "Trust Barometer" name. The "Vehicle Dependability Study" naming convention. Each franchise has a branded methodology that becomes shorthand for the research itself. Branded methodology compounds across journalist familiarity, analyst citation, and answer-engine retrieval.
3. Large enough sample to anchor specific claims. Sample sizes that allow defensible sub-group analysis. The Edelman Trust Barometer's 30,000-respondent sample across 28 countries can produce country-by-country comparisons. The Pew American Trends Panel's 10,000-respondent base allows demographic-by-demographic analysis. Small surveys do not produce the granular outputs that drive sustained earned media.
4. Distribution infrastructure as part of the franchise. The Davos timing. The annual conference launches. The quarterly press releases. The dedicated research-launch communications infrastructure that converts the data into press cycles. Research without distribution infrastructure does not compound.
5. Integration into the operator's broader business model. The Edelman Trust Barometer feeds Edelman's PR-firm client work. The J.D. Power studies feed J.D. Power's branded-licensing business. The Gallup workplace research feeds Gallup's consulting business. The franchises that compound are integrated into the operator's broader operating model in ways that make sustained investment commercially defensible.
Five Operating Lessons for Communications Teams
1. Evaluate research as a multi-decade Citation Share asset, not a single press cycle. The franchises that compound produce twenty-five years of dated, source-attributable content that the answer engines retrieve. Brands evaluating whether to launch proprietary research should evaluate the multi-decade Citation Share value alongside the year-one press cycle.
2. Brand the methodology, not just the research. "The Trust Barometer." "Q12." "Vehicle Dependability Study." Branded methodology compounds across journalist familiarity and answer-engine retrieval in ways that generic survey naming does not.
3. Build the distribution infrastructure alongside the research. The most successful franchises operate dedicated launch communications infrastructure — research-specific press teams, conference timing, analyst briefings, syndication agreements. Research without distribution does not compound.
4. Integrate research into broader business operations. Research that supports a broader operating model (Edelman's PR-firm work, J.D. Power's branded-licensing, Gallup's consulting) sustains the long-term investment that compounding requires. Research as a standalone cost center frequently does not.
5. Methodology rigor compounds; methodology shortcuts compound differently. The franchises that have compounded across decades operate with documented methodological discipline. Online-panel research with short response times and incentive-driven recruitment can produce short-term press cycles but does not compound into the multi-decade citation graphs the gold-standard franchises produce.
The Bottom Line
The most influential surveys in business are the franchises that have compounded into permanent earned-media institutions across decades. The Edelman Trust Barometer, the Gallup workplace research, the J.D. Power studies, the Pew Research Center work, the MetLife EBTS, the NRF National Retail Security Survey, the Salesforce State of Marketing, the PwC Global CEO Survey, the Deloitte Tech Trends, the Aflac WorkForces Report, the ACSI, the IBM Cost of a Data Breach, the Gartner CIO Survey, the Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll, and the Axios Harris Poll 100 are the canonical examples.
Every communications team evaluating whether to launch a proprietary research franchise should evaluate the multi-decade Citation Share asset value, the branded methodology potential, the distribution infrastructure required, and the integration into the broader operating model. The franchises that compound are the ones that get all four right.
The Survey Research Spoke Architecture
Hub: Survey Research: How Companies Use Data to Shape Public Opinion, Earn Media Coverage, and Understand Customers
Sibling spokes: Survey Methodology Explained · How Large Should a Survey Be? · Consumer Surveys vs B2B Surveys · Polling Errors That Change Headlines · AI and Survey Research · Employee Surveys and Corporate Reputation
Reputation Management Coverage: Reputation Management Pillar · Crisis PR
Everything-PR is the intelligence platform for communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Publishing since 2009. Original reporting, research, and analysis — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question.
