Brands - How they scored

When it comes to trusting brands, it’s all about functionality. Our top five most trusted brands reflect this, with Cadbury coming up trumps, followed by Tip Top (2), Sanitarium (3), Fisher & Paykel (4) and Heinz Watties (5). “People need to trust any product that is ingested into, introduced into, or inserted within, the body,” says demographer Bernard Salt. “We’re at our most vulnerable with these products, so we need to trust them.”

Past performance and brand image also motivate allegiance, says marketing Professor Philip Gendall of Massey University, and in most cases is built up over a long period of time.

“Brands provide reassurance to consumers; the assurance that good experiences they have had with a product in the past will be repeated in the future, or that they can be confident about a product they have never used because it has a reliable brand name.” Brands that have lost trust are most likely to have failed to live up to performance on more than one occasion, he says.

THE TOP 25 BRANDS

1.           Cadbury

2.           Tip Top

3.            Sanitarium

3.            Fisher & Paykel

5.            Heinz Watties

6.            Panadol

7.            Colgate

8.            Griffins

9.            Sony

10.         Johnson & Johnson

11.           Nestlé

12.           Toyota

13.           Maggi

14.           Nokia

14.           NZ Post

16.           Pak ‘n Save

17.           Mitre 10

18.           Schweppes

19.           Gillette

20.           Panasonic

21.           Kellogg’s

22.           Arnott’s

23.           Subway

24.           Farmers

25.           Philips

25.           Palmolive