Gustavson Brand Trust Index in the News
Please note that 2023 is the final year of the Gustavson Brand Trust Index. While there will not be a new report available this year, our website will remain accessible until August 1, 2024. We appreciate the incredible engagement over the Gustavson Brand Trust Index’s successful 8 years.
Questions? Please contact gustavsontrust@uvic.ca.
Which brands do Canadians trust? Look up 2022 rankings here
Want to know which brands Canadians trust most (and least) for things like financial services, alcohol and other beverages, snacks, major appliances, restaurants, transportation and travel? Look them up here in our interactive database.
Read more on Vancouver Sun.
Gustavson School of Business releases 2022 Brand Trust Index
The eighth annual Gustavson Brand Trust Index provides insight into what consumers look for in a company. The study is conducted by researchers at UVic’s Gustavson School of Business and is the only survey of its kind conducted by an academic institution.
They surveyed 9,189 Canadians in January of this year about 402 global and national brands and 10 regional brands in 33 categories.
They measure three different types which contribute to a brand’s overall trustworthiness and integrity: Brand Authenticity which relates to a brand’s social responsibility, Brand Ability which is how well a brand performs its main function and Brand Affinity which relates to the ways a brand interacts with its consumers. They also give brands an advocacy ranking which is how much consumers recommend the brand to others.
Read more on Douglas Magazine.
Global tech and media brands are at high risk of losing followers: report
The 2022 Gustavson Brand Trust Index looked at data from 9,189 consumers about 402 national brands.
The fear of being #cancelled is not just a celebrity or influencer thing anymore—it’s very much a branding concern as well.
In fact, Canadians are willing to vote with their wallets when it comes to brand values, according to the 2022 Gustavson Brand Trust Index (GBTI). The eighth study by UVic’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business looked at data from 9,189 consumers about 402 national brands to conclude that trust in technology and media is the lowest it’s ever been. Read more on BC Business.
Canada's Most Trustworthy Brands In 2022 Were Revealed & The Top 10 Might Surprise You
A new ranking of Canada's most trusted brands in 2022 has found that Canadians are loving stores like Costco and Shoppers, but have less confidence in Canuck airlines and packaged food brands.
On Monday, May 2, the annual Gustavson Brand Trust Index was shared for the year 2022.
The report investigates consumer trust in around 400 national brands, assessing how much confidence Canadians have in companies that are household names. Read more on Narcity.
Fewer Canadians trust big tech companies like Twitter and Google: Index
Twitter was Canada’s least trusted brand before Elon Musk had any designs on owning it, and University of Victoria business dean Saul Klein doubts the billionaire’s imminent takeover of the social-media platform helps it. “I’d be surprised if it actually had a positive effect on trust that people have in Twitter,” said Klein, dean of the Gustavson School of Business at UVic and lead author of the school’s annual Brand Trust Index. Read more on Vancouver Sun.
Trust in big tech and CPG brands is dropping
The latest Gustavson Brand Trust Index (GBTI) reveals that Canadian consumers are more wary of big tech and CPGs than ever before.
The eighth edition of the study from the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business solicited data from 9,189 Canadian consumers about 402 national brands, assessing their levels of brand trust.
The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) again tops the list of most trusted brand, followed by a surging Band-Aid (up from 19th place last year). Costco, Home Hardware and Lego tied for third.
Read more on Strategy Online.
Podcast: The 2022 Gustavson Brand Trust Index and What It Reveals About the Post-COVID era with Saul Klein, Dean, University of Victoria Business School
My guest on this episode is Dr. Saul Klein, Dean of the University of Victoria Gustavson business school. Saul takes us through the eighth annual 2022 Gustavson Brand Trust Index in a fascinating interview that merges research and decades of thoughtful analysis.
The index reveals that Canadian consumers are more distrusting of dominant technology brands than ever before, and reveals the top performers in the Canadian retail landscape and what powerful attributes drive categories of retail and retail brands to the top of the list. Listen the podcase on The Voice of Retail Podcast.
Trust in dominant tech brands eroding, Gustavson Brand Trust Index finds
The 2022 Gustavson Brand Trust Index (GBTI) reveals that Canadian consumers are more distrusting of dominant technology brands than ever before, even while their use of these companies' services is on the rise.
Now in its eighth year, GBTI shows a steady decline in trust in some industries such as social media and technology, a downward trend that has increased since the start of the pandemic.
"This presents an urgent challenge as well as a critical opportunity for brands to engage more effectively with their consumers," said Saul Klein, dean of UVic's Gustavson School of Business. "Our research reinforces the notion that Canadians have an acute awareness of whether a brand is truly responsive to the needs of both their consumers and employees. Canadians are willing to vote with their wallets if they feel that a brand's values no longer align with their own." Read more on Yahoo Finance.
Opinion: As McDonald’s retreat from Russia shows, branding goes well beyond the burger
To build trust in today’s world, brands must align with customers’ values and demonstrate that they help to address social problems.
As Moscow awoke to a grey morning on January 31, 1990, a new era was dawning. By the time the USSR’s first McDonald’s restaurant opened, hundreds of hungry Russians, clad in fur hats and blowing into their hands, were waiting in line. After McDonald’s CEO George Cohon’s 14 years of intense negotiations with the Soviet government, Muscovites would get to taste capitalism in a bun.
“If you can’t go to America, come to McDonald’s in Moscow,” urged the burger chain. The Berlin Wall had been torn down a few months earlier; by the end of 1991, the Soviet empire would collapse entirely. Read more on BC Business.
Study reveals Canada's most trusted brands during pandemic
Canadians have been losing faith in brands for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that erosion of trust, according to a new study.
The latest edition of the University of Victoria's Gustavson Brand Trust Index surveyed thousands of Canadians about their trust levels with well-known Canadian brands.
The study is normally only conducted once a year, in January and February. This year, a follow-up survey was done in April to measure the effects of the pandemic on Canadians' feelings about brands. Results from both surveys were made public on Monday. Read more on CTV News.
MEC Sale to Private Owner will Negatively Affect Brand Trust: Expert
The sale of Vancouver-based retailer MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) to a U.S.-based private investment firm raises a number of questions about how Canadian consumers will respond to the change in ownership.
How will this acquisition affect consumers’ trust in MEC? How will it affect consumers’ trust in the retail industry? What’s to come? There are so many questions people are asking about the sale to Kingswood Capital Management while the well-known retailer remains under creditor protection in Canada.
Dr. Saul Klein, Dean of the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, said his guess is that this will erode trust significantly for a few reasons.
“One is when we see a Canadian brand being acquired by an American one, that has a negative impact. We saw that quite sharply with Tim Hortons a few years ago. That was again one of the most trusted brands in Canada and then new ownership came in and started making changes. It really undermined a big part of the value proposition for Canadians,” said Klein. Read more on Retail Insider.
B.C. brand trust index shows trouble emerging for Amazon
The COVID-19 pandemic may have bumped e-commerce companies like Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) to record highs in stock-market valuations, but trouble may be coming if they do not reinvest in elements that reflect social values.
That is one of the key takeaways from a new brand loyalty study conducted by University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, which noted that the Seattle-based e-commerce giant, whose stock price surged passed US$2,640 per share in June as physical retail stores were locked down, suffered the report’s biggest brand-trust slide – down 17% from 2019 – year-over-year.
The only brand to suffer the same drop in consumer trust in the Gustavson Brand Trust Index 2020 report from 2019 was Quebec-based Agropur Dairy Cooperative – a result that was surprising to Gustavson dean Saul Klein, who is also one of the researchers on the survey.
Klein noted that this year’s index contained two data sets, one from January and February before the pandemic and one from afterwards – specifically to gauge how the 1,050 Canadian consumers in the poll changed their trust patterns after COVID-19. This makes Amazon’s slide even more perplexing, he said. Read more on BIV.
Canada Post Was Ranked As The Top Brand During The Pandemic Even With So Many Delays
What brands do you trust? A new university study shows how Canadians are feeling about it. According to the ranking, Canada Post delays haven't stopped people from believing it's the top brand during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria has released a new follow-up study with its Gustavson Brand Trust Index which shows how much faith Canadians put in various companies.
With this new index, Canada Post was ranked number one.
This comes as the mail carrier has been experiencing Christmas-like levels of parcels during the pandemic and has been setting single-day delivery records. Read more on Narcity.