TRA’s Brand Trust Report (BTR) 2024 which lists India’s 1000 Most Trusted Brands every year, unveiled Dell Laptops at first place. It has maintained its status as India’s Most Trusted Brand for the fifth consecutive year. This year’s study, gathered insights from 2,500+ consumer-influencers across 16 cities. Honda Two Wheelers made a leap to second rank from rank 30. This was the most significant positive change among the top ten brands. There were 33 Super Categories and 323 Categories listed in the report. TRA measures the Consumer Buying Intention through its proprietary matrices of Brand Trust and Brand Desire and has conducted 90,000+ respondent interviews over the last 13 years it said.
Amazon, the omnipresent Online Retailer ranked third in BTR 2024, up by three places, continuing to solidify its dominance in online retail. Titan Watches at ranked fourth, with a slight drop of one place, yet with a trust quotient among consumers. Sony (Televisions), had a rise of 16 ranks, at fifth position, indicating a boost in consumer confidence.
Medianews4u.com caught up with N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research
What is the big challenge that brands face to meet the expectations of Indians consumers?
Most brands are centered around themselves and not around the consumer, and while the brand’s language is that of consumer centricity, they behave differently behind closed doors. This naturally causes a dissonance with the consumer, and they are less able to anticipate the consumer, leading to further dissonance. The consumer is changing fast and has limited patience and unless brands understand the Buying Intention of consumers, they will never be able to meet their needs*
What are the kinds of innovations that you would like to see brands grow consumer trust?
Innovations can be of any type, in product, in the service, in pricing, in channels of delivery, in communications. However, the only way to grow consumer trust is to understand what makes them trust or not trust brands, and try and meet that. This trust topography in the consumer mindset differs by geography, demographics and by the cultural mindset. Innovations have to be relevant, have a high value for the consumer and be positioned well.
If you look at the top 10 brands including Dell which in the recent past has kept topping the list what are things that they have in common to gain the trust of consumers?
Dell has been leading across the 1000 brands over the last five years successfully. The brand has a completely consumer centric view and that helps it keep the trust of consumers*
On the list which categories have improved their presence and which are lagging behind?
The FMCG Super-Category has the highest number of brands with 167, followed by Food & Beverage with 151, Consumer Electronics with 81, and Automobile with 76 brands. There are also some categories which just have a few brands due to the category itself, for example Airlines.
Only four homegrown brands are in the top 20. Do Indian brands have a lot of work to do to catch up with global brands like Honda, Amazon, Nike?
Indian brands are consistently improving their marketing, communications, product and service and are climbing up ranks. The work needed to be done for any brand to come up in TRA’s Most Trusted Brands lists is to get to understand the consumer’s mindset about trust of brands, and adapt to that completely.
When you speak to clients about brand management what are their concerns?
Brand management and measurement is unfortunately measured as a surrogate of sales, whereas it is quite independent of it. The management’s focus on sales numbers many times ends up diluting the brand.
Could you talk about tools that TRA Research offers clients like Brand Pulse?
TRA has been conducting syndicated research on the Consumer’s Buying Intention (which is Brand Trust + Brand Desire) for the last 13 years. Over time we have conducted over 90,000 interviews and have detailed data on consumer’s Buying Intention. We are now putting this consumer data on the cloud which can be accessed through an app. Every brand, every agency, and every researcher or student will have this tool at their hand and will be able to understand Consumer’s Buying Intention across 16 Indian cities and how it is changing over time.*
There is a lot of talk about AI influencing brand building. At the same time the spread of minsinformation is a threat. Your views on this?
AI is here to stay, as ChatGPT has already shown. The remarkable progress being made in AI is astounding. Naturally there are threats that accompany such new changes, and governance will have to stay one step ahead to ensure it is not misused.
Will advances in tech help brand marketers make more informed and quicker decisions?
Tech advances are already helping marketers, whether it is content, design, conceptualization or speed, all this is instantaneous now. Who would have imagined that creative aspects will be so easily available to everyone*
At the same CMOs sometimes complain that while there is lots of big data it doesn’t produce the required results. What is an effective way to tackle big data?
Lots of data does not mean good decision making, the right data does. A brand wants to understand what the Buying Intention of the consumer is, the consumers want to be fulfilled as per their buying intention. It is our belief that if brands leverage consumer Buying Intention data (i.e. Brand Trust and Brand Desire data), they will not need much else. When making important brand decisions, less data but more relevant data is the future*
One big issue for consumers is data privacy. The Government has come out with a data privacy protection bill. Is this a tricky area for brands?
Consumer data privacy is of prime importance, as technology has the ability to be all pervasive. Such omnipresent technology which the consumer often overlooks, needs the government to step in and ensure that consumers are treated fairly and their privacy protected.
Finally with the advent of social media has the job of brand building and reputation management become a 24/*7 task?
Brand Building and reputation management has always been a 24x7x365 task. Only the brands which work tireless towards their brand make the mark. However, social media has made even the small consumer’s voice be heard, and that is making brands wake up and listen.
