Swiss brands on the rise

The representative study identifies the most trusted brands in various product categories across Europe - without specifying brands.

Swiss brands emerged as winners in 19 of 35 product categories - that's proof of trust in two more categories than last year. Swisscom was particularly successful in the 2015 survey and, as in the previous year, emerged as the clear winner in three categories: "Mobile communications provider," "Internet provider" and "TV/cable network provider. Satisfaction also reigns at Migros, which is in first place in the reintroduced category "Food Retail" in the favor of the respondents. V-Zug also contributed to the very good result for domestic brands, again overtaking Miele in the "Household/kitchen appliances" category.

All other Swiss brands were able to hold on to the top spot this year: Bico ("Mattresses"), Ricola ("Candies"), Die Mobiliar ("Property Insurance"), Lindt ("Chocolate"), Kuoni ("Tour Operator"), Elmex ("Toothpaste/Mouth Care"), Nespresso ("Coffee"), Raiffeisen ("Banks"), Coop ("Gas Stations/Petrol"), Charles Vögele ("Clothing"), Swiss Life ("Life Insurance"), Total ("Detergents"), CSS ("Health Insurance") and - in the newly created product category "Beer" - Feldschlösschen.

A replacement has taken place in the "Mobile Phones/Smartphones" category: Last year's winner Nokia is now only number one in its home market of Finland - in all other countries, including Switzerland, the brand has now been overtaken by Samsung. VW has been overtaken by Toyota ("Automobiles") and Mastercard by Visa ("Credit Cards").

For all the power of domestic brands - one German brand has shone like no other for years. In all seven countries in which the survey was conducted (Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Romania and Russia), consumers agree: Nivea is and remains No. 1 in the "Skin Care" category. In addition, Nivea tops the rankings in the "Hair Care" category in three out of seven countries (including Switzerland). In Switzerland, Nivea ranks first in both the skin care and hair care categories across all fifteen study years.

The 2015 winning brands in 35 product categories

- Soft drinks: Coca-Cola
- Automobiles: Toyota
- Banks/financial service providers: Raiffeisen
- Clothing: Charles Vögele
- Beer: Feldschlösschen
- Candies: Ricola
- Decorative cosmetics: Gemey Maybelline
- Cold remedy: Neo Citran
- TV/cable network provider: Swisscom
- Photo devices: Canon
- Breakfast cereals: Kellogg's
- Hair care products: Nivea
- Household/kitchen appliances: V-Zug
- Household cleaner: Meister Proper
- Skin care products: Nivea
- Internet provider: Swisscom
- Coffee: Nespresso
- Health insurance companies: CSS
- Credit cards: Visa
- Retail food trade: Migros
- Life insurance: SwissLife
- Mattresses: Bico
- Mobile network provider: Swisscom
- Mobile phones/Smartphones: Samsung
- Natural remedies/homeopathy: Similasan
- Opticians/brands of glasses: Fielmann
- Personal Computer: Hewlett Packard
- Tour operator: Kuoni
- Property insurance: The Mobiliar
- Painkiller: Dafalgan
- Chocolate: Lindt
- Gas stations/petrol: Coop
- Vitamin products: Burgerstein
- Detergent: Total
- Toothpaste / Oral Care: Elmex

"Brand trust is the greatest guarantor of the long-lasting success of a company's brand. And it is not only in product quality, but precisely in the cultivation of customer relationships that the greatest fertile field lies in which brands can convince and retain their customers," says Werner Neunzig, Managing Director of Reader's Digest Germany, Switzerland, Austria. "If personal recommendation is a strong driver of the purchase decision, then a brand itself can achieve a lot by addressing its customers in a very personal way. It's not without reason that the topic of relationship management has come increasingly into focus in many companies." This is especially true in view of the fact that consumers share negative brand and product experiences with their environment more intensively than positive ones.

To the Reader's Digest study "European Trusted Brands

"European Trusted Brands" (ETB) is an independent study and has been measuring consumer brand trust annually since 2001; it is one of the best established and largest consumer studies in Europe. Reader's Digest surveyed 15,822 consumers across Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Romania and Russia) for the study. In Switzerland alone, the 1867 respondents named a total of 2851 different brands this year that they personally consider particularly trustworthy. The study is a pioneer for other studies of this kind and is recognized as a brand monitor. The approach of asking the brand question openly, i.e. without any brand specification, remains unique. Consumers alone reveal which trusted brand is at the top of their list. They also rate their brands according to the criteria of quality, knowledge of customer needs, price-performance ratio, image and sustainability.

Every year, Reader's Digest awards the Pegasus Award to the most trustworthy brands in Switzerland on the basis of this study.

You can find the detailed Swiss results here. An international overview of the study is available at Rdtrustedbrands.com available