For the past 14 years the New Zealand Reader’s Digest most trusted brands survey has uncovered the products and services New Zealander’s reach for and have come to depend upon to enrich their lives.
This is not a reader’s poll but an independent survey.
Reader’s Digest commissioned market research company Catalyst Marketing & Research to survey a representative sample of 1,211 NZ adults on their most trusted brands in 40 categories of products and services across a wide range of industries.
It determined that the top 10 brands are as follows: Whittaker’s, Dettol, Toyota, Sony, Panadol, Tip Top ice cream, Yates, Resene, Sleepyhead and Janola.
Of note is that Whittaker’s has won the award for the fourth year in a row while Watties and Sanitarium have dropped from the top 10.
Cadbury’s use of palm oil and Nestle’s changing of its Milo recipe clearly had repercussions as neither cracks the nod. The ones that crack the nod are well-known Kiwi brands.
These are some of the qualities that were attributed to a top brand: premium quality at an affordable price; everlasting, reliable and cost-effective; top quality and innovative; well-known brand; positive reputation; business longevity; and owned or made in NZ.
Following are retailers who won their specific categories:
Supermarkets: Pak’n Save
Retailers excluding supermarkets: Farmers
Sports stores: Kathmandu
Paints: Resene
Carpets: Cavalier Bremworth
Supermarket home brand: Pams
Brewers: Heineken
Banks: Kiwibank
Petrol companies: Z
New World, Rebel Sports, The Warehouse, Countdown, BP, AMI Insurance, Caltex and Noel Leeming received highly commended in the survey
Of note is that The Warehouse’s Noel Leeming and red sheds did not get winner status and that Mitre 10, which had winner status last year, did not even crack the nod.
Of note also is that the size of a company does not predict its reputation as family-sized companies continue to win consumers’ trust as much as multinationals.
Discovering the most trusted Brands in NZ involved an initial scoping survey to build brand lists for each category via an open-ended questionnaire and after analysis of the scoping results, the main survey was deployed to Kiwis who rated brands on a trust scale of one to 10.
Data was post-weighted to NZ’s population estimates to ensure the data is representative of the NZ population.
Each year the number of brands in NZ grows, and any corporation that owns a trusted brand is certain to enjoy commercial success. For consumers, knowing they can trust a brand means there is one less thing to worry about.
According to research, when humans place their trust in something their brain releases oxytocin, a hormone that produces pleasurable feelings. It also triggers a herding instinct that leads sheep to flock together for safety and prompts humans to connect with one another.
The trademarks of trust are as follows: reliable, socially responsible, high quality and coming from a company that understood needs. These are the cornerstones of what it means to be a NZ Reader’s Digest most trusted brand. Regardless of sales channels available, be they instore or online, most decisions are still made through the heart the survey reveals.
Catalyst is a boutique research agency with an Australasian focus, which has been servicing the information needs of blue-chip clients such as Coca-Cola Amatil, Unilever and Kraft since 1998. It is an independent company, tailoring projects to meet the specific business needs of its clients.
