Scale for Rating Reputation

Q: Wouldn’t it work better if you ask people to rate – XYZ company’s reputation is: Excellent, Good, Okay, Poor, Non-existent?

A: Yes, I would use a five-point scale to rate the reputation, but instead of “non-existent” I would use “Very bad” or something like that. But I would also add an option for “I have never heard of this company,” and then calculate the percentages for the five evaluative options based only on those who have heard of the company. That gives you two separate insights on two different problems: 1) how many don’t know of your company, and 2) how many know of it but think badly of it.