Brand News: Monday, July 18, 2005
Reader's Digest European Trusted Brands 2005
by Reader's Digest
This site contains a summary of the results of year 5 of our unique survey "European Trusted Brands". A consumer study conducted in 12 languages across 14 countries in Europe.
As a global publisher of magazines, books, music and provider of financial services Reader’s Digest is itself one of the world’s most trusted brands. Founded in 1922 we publish 48 editions of the Reader’s Digest magazine in 19 countries around the world - each in local language. In every market our editors, researchers and customer service teams strive to maintain the high standards that our customers have come to expect over the years.
In every country we have an evolving database of active and loyal customers. The relationship we have with our customers is primarily built on trust - they trust us to deliver high quality products to their front door and in turn we value and trust their opinions. Our customers trust our integrity and are prepared to share with us valuable information about their household, families and purchasing habits.
For these reasons Reader’s Digest is ideally positioned to conduct a survey such as "European Trusted Brands" as a service to our customers, readers and advertisers.
The results represent the opinions of a respondent base of 24,832 adults from all walks of life in 14 European countries. Names were identified and results were weighted as far as possible to reflect each country’s population profile. Respondents were asked to nominate themselves the brand they believe most deserves to be called their "most trusted brand" across a wide range of different product categories. Having named a brand, respondents scored it on a range of criteria including "quality" and "value". In addition they were asked to indicate whether they were customers of the brand they had nominated (yes or no). As the respondents’ choice of brand was totally unprompted all brands (local and global) have an equal chance of winning in their category.
20 product categories are "common" to all 14 countries. However, because not all products are of equal relevance and interest everywhere, each country had the option of including up to 15 additional categories of their own choice. The categories are wide ranging and include items such as shampoo, banks and building societies, automotives, PCs, toothpaste, soft drinks and vitamins.
Within this site you’ll be able to see the winning brands by country (one country 20 "common" categories) or by category (across all countries). You’ll find these in our "Brands" pages. You can also see for each country the winning brands in each of their chosen local categories.
Many brands were nominated as "Most Trusted" in more than 3 countries - see what brands these are and where they’re strongest in the section marked "Multi Market Brand Winners"
Compare the winning brands results for the past 5 years in "2001 - 2005"
Our research in previous years has shown "personal recommendation" to be a major influence on brand purchase. This year we asked respondents to indicate the level of influence they believe they have on the purchasing habits of others, this can be found in the new section Influence.
Over the 5 years since the launch of this survey a wide range of brands (global and local) have actively promoted their status as most "Trusted Brand" amongst customers and staff. They have incorporated the logo onto their packaging, website, promotional literature, PR activity, customer statements and above the line advertising. Examples can be seen in the section of this site called Using Trusted Brand Status.
The brands that have been nominated "The most trusted" in each of 14 countries
In every country respondents were invited to nominate the brand "that you trust the most" across 20 "common" categories ranging from cars to soap powder. In addition there were up to 15 categories specific to each country.
Having named their most trusted brand, respondents scored it on the criteria of: "quality", "excellent value", "strong image", "understand customer needs".
Finally they were asked to indicate whether they were a customer of the brand they had nominated (yes or no).
In each category/country "The Most Trusted Brand" award goes to the brand receiving the highest number of votes in answer to the question "Tell us about the brand you believe most deserves to be called your most trusted brand".
The winning brands (by country) for each of the 20 "common" categories can be seen here.
Categories where the winning brand was the same across 10 or more countries are: mobile phones, credit cards, skin care and cameras
Nivea was nominated the most trusted brand of skin care in all 14 countries and Nokia is the most trusted brand of mobile phone. Visa comes top amongst credit cards in 13 countries only losing out to Barclaycard in the UK.
Canon is the most trusted brand of camera in 9 countries across Europe.
Most trusted brands of banks, insurance companies and cold remedies
remain strictly local - for the moment anyway!
Here is the Reader`s Digest Trusted Brands 2005 chart.
Found at:
http://www.rdtrustedbrands.com/index.shtml
If you would like to understand the value of your brand, please
contact AbsoluteBrand at 
.