Indians trust Dell, Jeep, and LIC the most

Climbing up five ranks from last year, American PC maker Dell has emerged as the most trusted brand in India, according to the latest edition of the Brand Trust Report released by research firm TRA.

The report—currently in its ninth edition—named automaker Jeep, famed for its rugged, military vehicles, as the second most trusted brand in the country. Ranked 553 in 2018, the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA)-owned company which entered India four years ago has made the biggest jump on the list. The third position was bagged by insurance major LIC— the first and the only Indian company to feature in the top-seven brands studied by the research firm. It has also moved up from rank 23, last year. E-commerce giant Amazon was ranked fourth.

The report conducted across 16 Indian cities on 2,315 consumers and influencers between 21 to 50 years of age used a total 61-attribute trust matrix to rank these brands.

“Without trust, the entire engagement of a brand becomes ineffectual. The trust a brand generates is the basis of all transactions that consumers have with the brand. The act of trust involves a voluntary transfer of resources – emotional, physical, financial or material – with no immediately visible, tangible or quantifiable commitment back to the trust or consumer," said N. Chandramouli, chief executive, TRA Research.

Among mobile phones, the study found that Apple’s iPhone rose from 116th rank in 2018 to the fifth place, this year. While rival Samsung was placed sixth on the ranking. The South Korean conglomerate, which was the most trusted brand in last two editions of the report, fell this year. Following Samsung was another South Korean major LG which was ranked seventh by the influencers. In previous reports, LG has been one of the top five.

Meanwhile, India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, occupied the ninth place this year.

Amongst major conglomerates, the Tata group had 23 brands among the top 1000 brands in the list, the largest in comparison to other groups. While Godrej had 15 brands, Amul had 11 and Samsung featured in eight categories. Dabur's brands emerged as leaders in each of the categories they were a part of. Also, LG, Honda, Cadbury’s, Nestle, Parle and Dabur were represented by seven brands each.

“Among India's 1,000 most trusted brands, the categories with the maximum brands were food and beverage and fast-moving consumer goods contributing to 26.8 percent of the total brands in the listings,” the study said.

The Statistical Institute was TRA’s statistical partner for research methodology.