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Results of brand trust survey conducted by international collaboration of NSYSU published

JZN Brand Research Center and the College of Management of National Sun Yat-sen University were authorized to use the survey tools of Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, to conduct a brand trust survey covering 40 top consumer brands in Taiwan in 17 different sectors. According to the survey, Giant Manufacturing Co. ranked first for consumer trust. As for retail channels, Family Mart and PX Mart ranked high: 2nd and 5th respectively. Foreign brands such as Starbucks or Panasonic have also occupied a steady position in Taiwan, 3rd and 4th ranks, respectively.

The survey used "brand trust" as the overall indicator and then was subdivided into three types of trust, including value trust, functional trust, and relationship trust. It also conducted the brand ranking referring to word of mouth. Director of NSYSU JZN Brand Research Center and Professor of the Department of Information Management Fen-Hui Lin compared and ranked brands in 17 sectors; some of them are highly-reputed domestic brands, however, they lag far behind competitors. For example, 7-Eleven (President Chain Store Corporation) has over 5,000 convenience stores in Taiwan, which is the highest number of stores among chain retailers in Taiwan. However, it ranks last for brand trust among 4 brands of convenience stores, outranked by such brands as Family Mart and PX Mart. The results of this survey may be taken as a signal for 7-Eleven (President Chain Store Corporation) to strengthen the consumer-brand relationship.

It might come as a surprise that EVA Air outranked China Airlines for brand trust, despite last year’s strike that last from June 20th to July 10th. Professor Fen-Hui Lin said that EVA Air received rather negative news coverage despite managing the crisis and that Taiwanese consumers could rationally look at the dispute and this is why the survey demonstrates a comparatively high rank for brand trust.

Reputable long-established state-owned brands were outrun by new brands in two sectors. Professor Lin pointed out that one of such sectors are courier and postal services: President Transnet courier service outranked Chunghwa Post for brand trust. Chunghwa Post is partially state-owned and has over a hundred years of history; besides postal, it also provides banking services and life insurance. Despite recent overhaul to improve the efficiency and property activation, Chunghwa Post is outranked by President Transnet (under Uni President), which provides the convenience and efficiency of President Chain Store Corporation, after authorization by Yamato Transport. Another example is the sector of passenger transportation: the consumers put much more trust in Taiwan High Speed Rail than in Taiwan Railways. Taiwan Railways is a state-owned brand with a long-established reputation, providing public transportation services. However, its history became also a burden, as overhauling would be a difficult and burdensome task, especially in our fast-changing modern society, and require adequate management capacity.

The members of the brand trust survey team included Professor Fen-Hui Lin - Director of the JZN Brand Research Center, research assistant Ching-Chih Hsieh, master program student Yen-Pin Wang, and Associate Professor Linda Shi of the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria in Canada. The team conducted the survey online from July 23rd to September 15th, 2019, and collected information from 2,010 respondents aged above 18. Brands were evaluated in five major aspects: brand trust, values-based trust, functional trust, relationship trust, and word of mouth; the questionnaire included 17 questions. The team took into consideration up to top four businesses of 17 sectors that appeared in the 2019 ranking of 2,000 businesses with the highest revenues by CommonWealth Magazine. Then, the most representative brands of these businesses were chosen and this is how a ranking of 40 enterprises and brands was arranged.

Read more (Chinese version only): https://jzn.nsysu.edu.tw/p/404-1043-238780.php?Lang=zh-tw


Note:

The University of Victoria in Canada ranks 364th in the QS World University Ranking
published in May 2020 and 2nd in Canada’s Top Comprehensive Schools 2020. It is thus one of the top academic institutions in Canada. Starting from 2015, Gustavson School of Business begun to arrange rankings of over 300 domestic and foreign highly-reputed brands, conducting consumer trust surveys every year and assessing every brand’s performance. The survey results, besides raising consumers’ awareness, are a reference for businesses’ brand strategy.

The value-based trust index in this survey represents consumers’ acknowledgment of a brand’s values and its corporate social responsibility, and of how it treats its employees, the environment, and the community. Giant Manufacturing Co. is still the top-ranking business for value-based trust; the top ten ranks were dominated by retailers (PX Mart, Family Mart, Carrefour), a coffee shop (Starbucks), a telecommunications firm (Chunghwa Telecom), food brand (Quaker), home appliances brand (Panasonic), car brand (Toyota), and daily necessities brand (Kao).

Functional trust ranking displays the brands with the most reliable and innovative products and services that won customers’ trust for their functionality. The first ten ranks are similar to the value-based trust ranking. What is worth noticing, is that the 3rd position of Panasonic in the ranking, proving consumers’ trust in the functionality and reliability of their home and electrical appliances. In addition, the entering of ASUSTeK Computer and President Transnet into the top ten list indicatess consumers’ trust in the quality of the products and services of these brands.

The relationship trust index indicates the interaction of the consumers with the brand, including privacy policy, customer responsiveness, honesty in communication, and customer service that build up customer’s trust for the brand. The winner of this ranking is Starbucks, with Asus and Acer entering the top ten, which proves their excellent relationships with the customers.

The ranking by word of mouth indicates the willingness of customers to recommend a certain brand to other people, because of their satisfaction, brand’s promotions, or special offers. To a brand, such publicity is an additional advantage. The word of mouth ranking represents people’s willingness to promote a certain brand in one’s social circles; among the top ten are four major retailers, Chunghwa Post, and Taiwan High Speed Rail. Professor Lin said that this survey proved a relatively high consumers’ trust in the services of necessities brands - retailers, transportation and telecommunications service providers, food and drink, and electronics brands. Many brands of such industries as software, electronics, cars, housing brokers ranked rather low. It might be because the consumer does not have many opportunities to interact with such a brand and get to know it, and thus a relation of trust between brands and consumers is harder to establish.
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