20 Most Trusted Brands

I’m fascinated by a recent article in The San Francisco Chronicle about the 20 most trusted brands of 2008.  It cites data, gathered by the The Ponemon Institute, which asked 6,500 people – weighted by age, gender and household income to match the U.S. census – to name the five companies they trusted most and least.

For the first time in the five years the study had been conducted, Google was not on the list. Neither was Countrywide Financial (what a surprise!), Bank of America, (which has yet to figure out the relationship between customer service and brand integrity) and Weight Watchers (Weight Watchers?).

At No. 1, for the fourth year in a row, was American Express, followed by eBay, IBM, Amazon and Johnson & Johnson.