Brand Trust Report 2019: Dell, Jeep, LIC top the charts; SBI debuts at 10

The Tata group drops off the list of top 20 most trusted brands, while group-owned Tanishq makes the cut at 14; SBI debuts at 10: Brand Trust Report 2019

American brand Dell is the most trusted brand in the country, with auto brand Jeep at second place and the insurance warhorse LIC at third spot according to Brand Trust Report 2019 by TRA. While Dell has moved up five spots to make it to the top and LIC has moved up from Rank 23 in 2018, Jeep that entered the country in 2016 with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has taken the biggest leap of all (Rank 553 in 2018). Interestingly trust in the auto brand comes even as sales have dipped almost 17 per cent in 2018-19 over 2017-18. 

Another big shift from the previous years is the omission of the Tata group in its list of top 20 most trusted brands even though the group brand Tanishq is firmly in at Rank 14. N Chandramouli, CEO TRA said, “In the improved methodology (used for the first time in 2019), a brand with many extensions may get recalled across categories. With Tata in 23 categories and leading in 10, it shows how its brand trust is now well distributed across its sub-brands.”

According to Chandramouli, TRA made some adjustments to the methodology this year to make the report more representative of the various categories and sub-categories of brands. In the fieldwork for the trust held in brands, the category of brands was also given by the respondents themselves, as against last year, when they only gave the brand names and the categories were decided by the TRA research team Chandramouli explained. There are at least 65 new categories this year due to this methodology change.  

The 2019 edition had 2,315 consumer-influencer respondents across 16 Indian cities. The fieldwork was conducted between December 2018 and March 2019 by more than 450 field personnel. “The consumer-influencers’ who were interviewed, are the 10 per cent of the population that typically influences the balance 90 per cent,” the report added. 

One of the new features in the 2019 report is the creation of a ‘super category’, which is a large group of brands and includes several categories within its fold. There are 39 super-categories (for example apparel, automobile, fast moving consumer goods, and banks and financial services institutions to name a few), and 289 categories (menswear, luxury four wheelers, soap, and public sector banks). While most super categories have gained at least some amount of consumer trust compared to 2018,  a few have seen a decline. The biggest drop in consumer trust is seen by logistics service providers. The category, which consists nine brands including both Indian and international names, saw consumer trust dip by 50 per cent year on year.  Other super-categories seeing diminished trust include fast moving electrical goods (-17 per cent), and branded fashion (-8 per cent). 

Among the super-categories that saw a surge in consumer trust, consumer appliances led the pack, with an increase of 110 per cent in BTI over the 2018 report numbers. Other significant gainers included BFSI (70 per cent), automobiles (41 per cent), and food and beverage (67 per cent). Interestingly, ICICI Bank continues to lead the list of private sector banks, despite the controversies last year. SBI appears in the top ten, but it is the only PSU in the top 100 brands overall. Media as a sector saw consumer trust increase by 43 per cent, with trust in TV as a medium specifically growing 12 per cent year on year. Given the rise in fake news and widespread disaffection with media, the increase in trust rankings runs contrary to popular logic. The report however is silent about such inconsistent and antithetical findings.