NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ – BrandSpark International, a leading market research and consulting firm, released their 2024 BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards winners, in collaboration with Newsweek Magazine.
Now in its 11th edition, BrandSpark’s annual survey gathered top-of-mind unaided responses from qualified American shoppers on the brands they trust most for product, retail, and services categories they shop and use.
Brand trust plays a pivotal role in the choices made by consumers.
“BrandSpark’s highly credible list of brands that are most trusted by American shoppers helps consumers make more informed shopping decisions, while enabling brands to leverage and communicate their hard-earned trust,” says Adam Bellisario, Associate Vice-President of the BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards.
In the 2024 edition, BrandSpark broadened the scope of the Program by recognizing not only the #1 brand consumers trust the most, but in addition the Program now recognizes the second and third ranked brands that are also most trusted by consumers in their respective category, where sufficient votes allowed.
“We felt consumers and brands could benefit from knowing the top 3 brands in each category,” says Robert Levy, Founder and President of BrandSpark International. “Despite the challenges posed on shopping households nationwide, numerous brands have maintained their coveted #1 trust position in our survey. Trust resilience allows these top brands to uphold their leading positions, and challenge competing brands,” Levy continued.
Top 3 and the Vulnerability of Winners
Within the framework of the BrandSpark American Trust Study, trust resilience and trust share are core elements. Trust share denotes which brand a consumer trusts the most, while trust resilience gauges how much more those consumers trust the brand compared to its competition.
“The interplay between these two factors reveals opportunities for brands to gain trust share and capitalize on any vulnerabilities in the trust of a leading brand,” says Philip Scrutton, VP Shopper Insights at BrandSpark.
“BrandSpark hopes that this knowledge empowers brands to incorporate trust drivers strategically into their product and marketing efforts to strengthen relationships with consumers and establish a meaningful differentiation,” says Scrutton.
Trust Trends: Significant Results from the 2024 BrandSpark American Trust Study
1. While Americans are turning increasingly to discount retail they are sticking with the top brands they love in certain categories: the top ten brands by trust share in the 2024 American Trust Study is a resilient roster of name brands so strong they are almost synonymous with their respective categories:
- Bandages: Band-Aid
- Canned Soups & Broths: Campbell’s
- Dish Soap: Dawn
- Disinfectant Spray: Lysol
- Drain Cleaner: Drano
- Glass Cleaner: Windex
- Hazelnut Spread: Nutella
- Insect Repellant (for use on body): OFF!
- Ketchup: Heinz
- Oatmeal: Quaker
2. In the current landscape of heightened inflation in the grocery sector, discount grocery giant Aldi BB #:116756 stands out, securing three first-rank and one second-rank mentions in various regional categories under the Grocery Store umbrella. This underscores the potential of a strong private label strategy and commitment to providing cost-effective solutions to the challenges consumers face. Aldi builds trust by offering innovative new products and brands to attract and loyalize consumers. Aldi’s wins are:
- Rank 1: Grocery Store For Low Prices / Affordability – (Midwest): Aldi
- Rank 1: Grocery Store For Low Prices / Affordability (Northeast): Aldi
- Rank 1: Small Format Grocery Store: Aldi
- Rank 2: Grocery Store For Low Prices / Affordability (South): Aldi
3. Procter & Gamble continues to dominate the first place mentions with 37 category wins concentrated in Household & Cleaning and Beauty & Personal Care. Procter & Gamble’s long history of research and innovation, and strategy of communicating product superiority, continues to prove effective at maintaining trust share levels of their leading brands. Philip Scrutton, VP of Consumer & Shopper Insight at BrandSpark remarked that “The BrandSpark American Trust Study reveals again that product or service quality, fair price, consistency, and transparency have the strongest impact on building trust with consumers. We encourage marketers to prioritize these factors to increase consumer resilience and gain share over time.”
4. Other manufacturers with a significant number of category wins:
- Haleon: 6 wins
- Kenvue: 13 wins
- L’Oréal: 5 wins
- Nestlé: 12 wins
- PepsiCo: 5 wins
- Reckitt: 11 wins
- S.C. Johnson: 8 wins
- Unilever, Church & Dwight, General Mills, , Kraft Heinz, Mondelez, J.M Smucker Company: 4 wins each
The 2024 BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards Restaurant and Retail winners are listed below. In order to appear on the trust list, each brand had to earn at least 10% trust share.
See details at www.BrandSparkMostTrusted.com.*
| RESTAURANTS & RETAIL | ||||
| # | CATEGORY | RANK #1 | RANK #2 | RANK #3 |
| 205 | Convenience Store | 7-Eleven | ||
| 206 | Conventional Grocery Store (Midwest) | Kroger | Walmart / Meijer (Tie) | |
| 207 | Conventional Grocery Store (Northeast) | ShopRite | Stop & Shop | |
| 208 | Conventional Grocery Store (South) | Kroger / Publix (Tie) | Walmart | |
| 209 | Conventional Grocery Store (West) | Safeway | ||
| 210 | Department Store for Fashion | Kohl’s/ Macy’s (Tie) | ||
| 211 | Dollar Store | Dollar Tree | Dollar General | Family Dollar |
| 212 | Grocery Store for Affordable Baby Products | Walmart | ||
| 213 | Grocery Store for Affordable Gluten Free Products | Walmart | ||
| 214 | Grocery Store for Affordable Natural & Organic Products | Whole Foods Market / Trader Joe’s (Tie) | Walmart | |
| 215 | Grocery Store for Affordable Wine | Walmart | ||
| 216 | Grocery Store for Low Prices / Affordability – (Midwest) | Aldi | Walmart | Kroger |
| 217 | Grocery Store for Low Prices / Affordability (Northeast) | Aldi | Walmart | Shoprite |
| 218 | Grocery Store for Low Prices / Affordability (South) | Walmart | Aldi | Kroger |
| 219 | Grocery Store for Low Prices / Affordability (West) | Walmart | Winco | |
| 220 | Grocery Store for Natural & Organic Food | Whole Foods Market | Trader Joe’s | Sprouts Farmers Market |
| 221 | Grocery Store for Pickup and Delivery (Midwest) | Walmart | Kroger | |
| 222 | Grocery Store for Pickup and Delivery (Northeast) | Walmart | ||
| 223 | Grocery Store for Pickup and Delivery (South) | Walmart | Kroger | |
| 224 | Grocery Store for Pickup and Delivery (West) | Walmart | ||
| 225 | Juice and Smoothie Bar | Jamba | Smoothie King / Tropical Smoothie Cafe (Tie) | |
| 226 | Mattress Retailer | Mattress Firm | ||
| 227 | Online Retailer for Pet Supplies | Chewy | Amazon / PetSmart (Tie) | |
| 228 | Quick Service Restaurant for Burgers | McDonald’s | Burger King | Wendy’s |
| 229 | Quick Service Restaurant for Pizza | Domino’s | Pizza Hut | Little Caesars |
| 230 | Quick Service Restaurant for Sandwiches | Subway | Mcdonald’s | |
| 231 | Restaurant Chain for Chicken | KFC | Chick-fil-A | Popeyes |
| 232 | Retailer of Camping Gear | REI | Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s | |
| 233 | Retailer of Hunting & Fishing Gear | Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s | ||
| 234 | Small Format Grocery Store | Aldi |
How winners are determined
26,646 qualified American shoppers determined the 2024 BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards winners in 256 individual categories, through 182,080 top-of-mind unaided responses for the brand they trust most in product categories they shop, retailers they shop, and services they use. The brand voted most trusted is listed as Rank #1 and any brand Ranked 1-3 is considered a “Top 3 Trust Leader”. Ties are declared when the margin of trust share is less than 3% from another brand. Brands must exceed a minimum threshold of 10% of unaided citations to be included in the list.
The Program is in its 11th year in the United States and Canada, and this is the second year of UK results. The BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards continue to set the standard for highly credible consumer-voted awards.
About BrandSpark International
Founded in 2001, BrandSpark International is a research and consulting firm that provides brands with the insights they need to understand the omnichannel shopper, refine their strategic brand positioning, build consumer trust and improve the success of their new product launches.
