Kiwi icon Wattie’s has been voted New Zealand’s number one trusted brand in the annual Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Survey, released Monday with the July issue of Reader’s Digest New Zealand.

But the real shock comes from the demise of last year's chart topper.


The sixth annual Trust Survey confirms some solid favourite category brands, but heralds a change at the top for 2010. After six years at number one, confectionery giant Cadbury has been knocked from its perch as Overall Most Trusted Brand and winner of the food category to 36the equal place out of 133 brands surveyed.

The fall from grace follows a downgrading of packaging materials in Australasia and an international controversy over the company's use of palm oil in its products, a move which environmentalists say is endangering orangutans.

Rival, local brand Whittaker’s has benefited from Cadbury's marketing mayhem - it made an impressive debut at number five. Ice cream maker Tip Top was fourth.

Runner-up to Wattie's was Toyota, with Sony third and winning both the electronics categories and the computer categories.

The brands that made the biggest moves up the charts in 2010 were Sony Ericsson, up 26 places to 34=; Lexus, up 33 places to 36 and ASB up 20 places to 60.

OVERALL MOST TRUSTED BRANDS

(Last year's place in brackets)

1. Wattie’s (9)
2. Toyota (4)
3. Sony (3)
4. Tip Top (2)
5. Whittaker’s (na)
6. Panadol (5)
7. Fisher & Paykel (7)
8. Panasonic (9)
9. Colgate (8)
10. New Zealand Post (13)


Other category winners included:

Beauty and Cosmetics: Gillette
Credit Cards: Visa
Fast food: Subway
Health and wellbeing: Panadol

The 2010 Reader’s Digest Trust Survey was commissioned to independent research firm The Digital Edge, which surveyed a representative sample of 500 New Zealand adults aged over 18 years old on their trust of 133 brands across 15 categories.
The July issue of New Zealand’s Reader’s Digest also includes the result of the 2010 Most Trusted People Survey, which asked Kiwis to rank 85 well known people on a scale of one to ten, rank a list of professions and everyday relationships according to the level of trust attributed to those people.