[akhilesh51]

The Brand Trust Report is out and quite comforting for Indian Automobile Manufacturers as 4 of the Top 15 Brands are automobile manufacturers in whole or part.

The biggest pie here goes to Tata (No. 2) which continues to be a trusted brand in India through its diversified interests from salt to power. Maruti (No. 7) is the top solely automobile brand closely followed by 2 wheeler giants Bajaj (No. 12) and Hero Honda (No. 13)

Premium segment is lead by BMW (No. 33) which comes ahead of volume player Hyundai and (surprise, surprise!) arch-rival Mercedes Benz (No. 81). The BMW brand reputation is backed by increasing domination in market and will be a cause of concern for mercedes which has maintained itself as the face of luxury India.

There is clearly an indication in the report that automobiles are slowly becoming a part of everyday life of consumers rather than mere symbol of status and luxury providing stiff competition to beverage and electronics brands.

In a study published by ‘Trust Research Advisory (TRA)’, a leading research organization dedicated to understanding and simplifying concepts related to Trust, Nokia stands at No 1 position, followed by Tata and then by the Japanese electronics giant, Sony at the third spot. The Korean duo of LG and Samsung plugged in at the fourth and the fifth positions respectively, while Reliance brand stands sixth. Maruti drives in at the seventh position, followed by the state insurance agency, LIC. Airtel, India's largest telecom services company dialed in at the ninth position, with Titan rounded up the Top 10 of India's Most Trusted Brands at the tenth position.


The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2011 is the result of years of detailed research to understand trust which included several hundred hours of discussions with communication experts and behavioural scientists. On this basis TRA created a proprietary Trust Matrix comprising 61 different components. Based on this proprietary Trust Matrix, TRA launched a syndicated primary research on Brand Trust across 9 cities in India covering 2310 respondents who were classified into the 'influencer' category.

The most intensive study on Brand Trust undertaken in the country, the study generated nearly 10,00,000 data-points and 16,000 brands. Indian Statistical Institute helped create a statistically robust Brand Trust Index which has been used to hierarchically rank India's Most Trusted Brands.

Auto Manufacturers in Top 100 Brands:
Tata Motors (2)
Maruti (7)
Bajaj (12)
Hero Honda (13)
BMW (33)
Hyundai (43)
TVS (54)
Toyota (66)
Mahindra (68)
Ford (74)
Yamaha (75)
Mercedes (81)

[libranof1987]

Well, it is TATA Sons that is No. 2 so its the entire portfolio, right from Salt to Safari that stands there.

I'm actually a little surprised to find Nokia at 1 and Maruti at 7; Nokia hasn't done much of late to deserve that and Maruti couldn't do more!

True about BMW, Mercedes has some major work to do to be "the" thing in luxury in India again. It has even overtaken Hyundai (despite the Santros, i10s and i20s).

[maxbhp]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Well, it is TATA Sons that is No. 2 so its the entire portfolio, right from Salt to Safari that stands there.

I'm actually a little surprised to find Nokia at 1 and Maruti at 7; Nokia hasn't done much of late to deserve that and Maruti couldn't do more!

True about BMW, Mercedes has some major work to do to be "the" thing in luxury in India again. It has even overtaken Hyundai (despite the Santros, i10s and i20s).

This report never speaks about success about a brand , Its more or less related to common awareness among the people.

Had this exercise been done in relation to Target audience of specific brand and product, comparison would have been sensible.

[vasudeva]

Publish some report with enough interest/headline matter to get picked up by some in the media, and with search engines, crap (???) of this sort gets passed on, and eventually becomes gospel. For the source company, the purpose is to sell the report and/or generate publicity/awareness for itself, which comes in handy both now and later on. No mention at all about the credibility or reputation of the company.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by maxbhp

This report never speaks about success about a brand , Its more or less related to common awareness among the people.

Had this exercise been done in relation to Target audience of specific brand and product, comparison would have been sensible.

"In a study published by ‘Trust Research Advisory (TRA)’, a leading research organization dedicated to understanding and simplifying concepts related to Trust...."

If it were about general awareness, Mercedes would have been far ahead BMW going by the no. of years it has been in India.

I'm comparing based on the "Trust" these brands are evoking. Hence, the surprise about BMW and Nokia (BB, HTC and Apple are overtaking it in the premium segment and other fringe players in the entry-level and Symbian is just getting them criticism).

[HammerHead]

Sachin Tendulkar is the only human being in the list of brands, companies and business houses. They should have listed top 10 trusted Auto. companies, top 10 trusted Consumer electronics companies and so on.

[julupani]

This study is more about how much basic trust is there among the people of India for a brand, and not in any particular product. It is not at all about any amount of success in the market place in terms of revenue or market share. Its not about any products. Which is why Tata is there as a brand in itself and not of any particular company, because anything with the Tata name has the same overall brand value.

It is no-surprise that Nokia and Tata feature at the top. Nokia phones have a cult following among the masses of cellphone users in India. They may not have the best phones in all market ranges. At the end of the day we do associate Nokia phone with reliability and solidity, ready for the rough and tumble.

Similarly in the case of Tata, the feeling that the company cares about what is right, what is good for the customers, share-holders, employees and everybody in general. Which is probably why you have the stories of the employees of the Taj during 26/11. It is that trust, that confidence that the people have in the Tata brand which this study shows.

Similarly, the brand image of BMW is definitely better than that of Mercedes. Even among the elite sometimes a 3-series is more high-class than a C-class. BMW definiltely has more awe factor today than a Merc.

The brand-image, the trust or awe of a brand may not always be based on rational fact, in-fact it very rarely is.

[Sahil]

I wouldn't take this particular survey report to seriously. I spoke to the someone at their management to learn about it and it seems to be more of muscle power of big corporates to get a listing rather than true trust reports.
Besides it seems their surveys are very south-india based too.

[julupani]

Ranking brands is always a very tough job as it is, especially such cross-market brands. All such reports about brands are always to be taken with a pinch of salt as it is.

Though I doubt, companies like Tata and Nokia need to influence such studies in any way at all to improve their brand image.

[greenhorn]

that LG is above samsung, I find rather puzzling

[julupani]

LG is probably over Samsung, because they provide the cheapest product, while not going too bad on the quality. Probably the image of a cheap, but still cheerful enough puts it over Samsung.

Of course all this is conjecture, its nearly impossible to analyse a brand image.

[San Phrangmung]

I have doubts on a report simply based on just 2310 individuals in a country of billions. Would rather go for the sales graph of each segment which shows the best result of all.

If the company is topping the sales chart that means they are trusted, simple.
These so called surveys are merely money making tools.

Most things with top 10, top 50 listing types are for the benefit of the list makers, not consumers.

[julupani]

But the thing is sales graphs don't show the complete picture behind a brand and its perception in people's minds.

We don't just buy a product looking at it's brand, consumers take in a lot of things into consideration.

[n.devdath]

The automobile specific brands in the list are Maruti, Hero Honda, BMW, Hyundai, TVS, Toyota, Ford and MBIL respectively.

I do not think this gives a fair idea of what the consumers think.

[designersf]

Maybe you guys forgot Mahindra at 68, Ford at No 74 and Yamaha at 75!