Exploring the Perceived Innovation of Top Brands
In today’s competitive business environment, U.S. companies are striving harder than ever to keep up with their customers’ continuously evolving preferences and demands while simultaneously driving innovation. The American Innovation Index, now in its eighth year of providing insights into the mindset of the American consumer, scores which companies consumers consider the most innovative within their sector (the study looks across 16 industries).
According to the study, consumers perceive and associate innovation with real, tangible experiences such as excellent products, ease of doing business, and responsiveness that make their lives simpler. For brands, that means focusing on innovation where customers feel it most.
The index is based upon research that is conducted and compiled by Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, Radius Global Market Research, and the Norwegian School of Economics. Those companies that stand out from their competitors in the minds of consumers do so because of their products and services (including continually introducing new ones, offering variety and stylish design, striving for excellence) and being first to market with new ideas. In the minds of consumers, these brands consistently deliver on these qualities.
“The Aii is the only index that ranks the level of innovation based upon consumer perceptions and interactions with a company. It is unique in that it measures innovation from the customer point of view rather than on expert opinions, which often ignore customers’ experiences,” says Barbara Porco, managing director at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business’ Responsible Business Center. “While the index measures innovation, consumers also favor companies that are secure, easy to do business with, have a strong web presence, and have a customer-friendly website and app that makes it easy to conduct business.”
“This study captures consumer sentiment in a variety of ways,” says Gina Woodall, vice president and study lead at Radius. “Companies that are seen as innovative by their customers are overall more appealing and garner greater loyalty, ultimately achieving higher success than others.”
Two observations gleaned from the index include the fact that, while it is often assumed value for the money and reward programs are most important to consumers, these factors are not key in determining whether a company is considered innovative. In addition, the use of AI by a company does not seem to be a major factor in the ways in which consumers perceive it as being innovative or not.
The American Innovation Index Top 10
The Aii 2025 top 10 most innovative companies as chosen by consumers include:
- IKEA
- Apple
- John Deere
- Amazon
- Microsoft
- Honda
- Toyota
- Samsung
- Saks Fifth Avenue
- Victoria’s Secret/Pink
Through the combined research efforts of Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, market research company Radius, and the Norwegian School of Economics, the American Innovation Index scores and ranks the innovativeness of U.S. companies based upon customers’ experiences. The 8th annual study was conducted in May-June 2025, and covers 164 firms from 16 industries, spanning travel, financial services, technology, communications, retailing and manufacturing.
The study surveyed 5,145 consumers and covered 24,236 customer-company relationships. The study is part of the Innovation Index Coalition (IIC), which includes parallel studies in 9 countries.
Insights into the Innovation Index
The study aims to explore how customer-perceived innovation drives brand loyalty, financial performance, and social impact. It’s also not necessarily just about brands and technology (think, Apple), points out Leigh Anne Statuto, executive director of the Responsible Business Center at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, in a related webinar.
“While we believe Apple’s innovation is about cutting-edge technology, it’s also about thinking about the customer,” says Statuto. “And when we start to think about that, we think, well, is innovation only linked to the technology industry? You can really bring innovation into so many different industries. . . But when you go down the list, you see automotive industries really leading the way. A lot of that comes from the electric vehicle industry that’s really been pioneered. It really shows that across different industries you can have customer-perceived innovation at the top where you’re really driving the bottom line as well. . . Innovation, in my view, is really thinking differently, and putting customers at the forefront.”
Woodall points out, “The index is really a program of research that is designed to understand, quantify, and compare innovativeness of U.S. brands across industries to identify ways to guide innovation efforts and firm growth. . . So why is customer-perceived innovation important? What our research with our partners has really discovered is that when a company innovates and it has an impact on the customer experience, in terms of the types of products and services offered, changes in the value that’s delivered, how they’re treated as a customer, how they interact—when those things happen and they notice those changes, it elicits positive emotions.”
She adds, “We see consumers feel excited and pleased that they’re doing business with this company, and that leads to brand attractiveness, and ultimately, we’ve proven links to customer loyalty. So, how does it directly impact these key metrics? We took a look at the companies in our index—and there’s over 200 brands in the index—and we’ve broken them up by the least innovative companies, to the moderate, to the most innovative companies.”
The study also determines to show how brand attractiveness is higher among those most innovative companies, their associated NPS scores, and ultimately their share of business.
“A brand’s perceived innovativeness in a market can have a major impact on its success in converting prospects to users,” asserts Woodall. “Consumers like to work with innovative companies. That means that each customer’s rating up to five brands that they do business with on the key metrics in our study, which are innovation, social innovation, customer loyalty, and brand attractiveness. The American Innovation Index is the degree to which customers view a brand as innovative, creative, pioneering and changing the marketplace.”
Social innovation, another key metric of the study, is the degree to which customers view a brand as innovating on behalf of society and the environment.
“When we look at social innovation, you can see that many of the industries that were high on innovation are also high on social innovation, particularly automotive and consumer durables. I think it’s interesting, but not surprising, that we see tech has moved down a little bit further in terms of social innovation,” adds Woodall. “It’s important—a company like Amazon that we just exemplified here—they’re number six on innovation, but they’re number 39 on social innovation. It’s important for brands to think not only about innovation, but also about social innovation, if they want to be truly, what we call transformative, and get the benefit of increased loyalty by being strong in both.”
Download the American Innovation Index report at Radius Insights.
Video: “The American Innovation Index: Making Innovation Drive the Bottom Line,” a webinar featuring Gina Woodall of Illuminas/Radius, and Leigh Anne Statuto, Fordham University. They explore how the American Innovation Index ranks nearly 200 U.S. brands on innovation and social innovation—based entirely on customer perceptions. Video courtesy of Radius Insights.
