Nokia, Tata among most trusted brands

Nokia, the global leader in mobile handsets, is the most trusted brand in the country, followed by the Tatas and Sony, according to a study by Trust Research Advisory(TRA)- a research company surveyed 2,310 respondents across nine cities.

In what came across as a major surprise, Korean brands Samsung (number five) and LG (number four), despite being more aggressive marketers, with a virtual stranglehold in the Indian television and consumer electronics market, were not able to shake off Sony.

The study was based on 61 questions and carried out over four months, covering cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, among others and involved 10, 000 hours of field work. N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA said, "As trust is a very subjective term, we developed a trust matrix which included 61 components defining trust which include empathy, non-threatening ambience, perceived competence, corporate altruism, commanding respect, shared interest, displaying sincerity, enthusiasm, outward appearance and accepting responsibility."

The study also throws up other surprises. In the airlines space for instance, Kingfisher Airlines and Air India appear among the top 300 brands, but Jet Airways doesn't. Pepsi has again proved to be much fizzier at the 36th rank, compared to its rival Coca Cola, which figures at the 60th slot. New brands like DoCoMo and Uninor also figure in the list.

Among telecom service operators, Airtel, at the ninth slot, is the most trusted brand, with Vodafone at number sixteen.

Among mobile handsets, Nokia is followed by Micromax, which ranks at number two (80th overall), closely followed by Blackberry (84th).

Only 3 personalities feature in the top 300 brands, with cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar at the 59th slot, the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at the 232nd slot and Bollywood actor Aamir Khan at the 242nd position.