Small Business Prices has revealed the top 10 best brands for customers and employees. The study highlights which brands offer the highest average salary, which companies are the most followed on social media, as well as how positively these companies have been reviewed by their customers and employees. You can view the full campaign here.

Across the globe are renowned brands that we all recognise and love, from Apple to McDonald’s. But how good are these brands according to their customers and employees?

The top five brands for customers and employees are:

Rank Best Companies for Customers Best Companies for Employees
1. Lego Google
2. Amazon Facebook
3 Lexus Microsoft
4. Nivea Mastercard
5. Sap Cisco

Analysing the data to find the world’s best brands for employees vs. customers, Facebook is the only brand appearing in both rankings. Despite Google being reviewed almost four times as much by their employees with 16.K reviews, Facebook comes a close second to them with just 4.8K reviews.

In terms of social following, Facebook leads the way with over 200M followers on Facebook, and Adobe ranks as the second most followed brand on Twitter.

The top ten brands for the average annual salary

A large part of employee satisfaction comes from the amount they are paid by their employers. All brands included in the research are known globally for being worth billions and yet some have an average salary of under 45K.

Here are ten of the brands that are the most generous with their pay and bonuses.

Brand Average Salary Avg Bonus
Ebay $124,000.00 $12,000.00
Apple $123,000.00 $4,000.00
Facebook $120,000.00 $13,000.00
Microsoft $119,000.00 $14,000.00
Google $115,000.00 $16,000.00
PayPal $111,000.00 $10,000.00
Oracle $109,000.00 $9,000.00
Visa $109,000.00 $11,000.00
Cisco $106,000.00 $12,000.00
Adobe $104,000.00 $10,000.00

Huawei ranks first for average annual salary, followed by Ebay and Apple. Cisco, one of the best companies for employees, ranks 10th amongst the companies paying the highest salary ($106K average). Microsoft is also one of the best brands to work for, with eight stars out of ten according to employees’ reviews.

Brands like McDonald’s, Zara and Budweiser appear amongst the companies with the lowest annual average salary (ranging between $50K and $56K).

According to the data analysing how women and men compare in terms of average salary, Adobe is the only company where women earn more than men 126K vs 105.5K.

The best paying company for men is Facebook (129K average annual salary).

The best company for gender equality in the workplace is Ebay, with men earning $199.5K, and women earning $114.5K, followed by Microsoft ($119K men vs. $113.5K). Facebook shows one of the highest inequality rates, with a gap of 17K between men and women’s salaries.

Ian Wright from Small Business Prices comments:

‘At Small Business Prices we help small businesses across the UK to find the best pricing information to compare the different products and services for them to acquire to grow their businesses. In a world where big brands leading the way, we want to make sure we build a better understanding of which specific assets to rely on to help businesses to grow.

But what specific characteristics make these big brands outstanding and where can their success be found? How important is customers’ satisfaction and employees’ happiness to them? We’ve measured the success of these companies analysing people’s reviews, for our customers to recognise what makes a company successful and loved .’