Most Trusted Brands

In honor of Advertising Week, I thought I'd post a recent list of the most trusted brands in America. Not the standard list that we are all accustomed to seeing - the one with Johnson & Johnson, Disney, and Coca-Cola all over it.

Now there are lots of compilations, ranked on all sorts of measures. But I thought I'd share a list of the most trusted brands for privacy, as compiled by TRUSTe. Given how we interact with brands, it seems to me that we are collectively redefining what we call trust, so I thought this list was especially newsworthy and important.

I have to say I was a bit surprised by the list, if not shocked. You can read it here: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/09/17/ebay-named-most-trusted-brand-in-america, and I'll also summarize it here:

1. eBay

2. Verizon

3. US Postal Service

4. WebMD

5. IBM

6. Procter & Gamble

7. Nationwide

8. Intuit

9. Yahoo!

10. Facebook


A few things to note, at least from my perspective:

- eBay! Wow. I had no idea of the importance of this property.

- No mention of Google, shockingly.

- US Postal Service? Interesting given that snail mail is in theory dying.

- WebMD is the only really "personal privacy" brand listed, other than maybe Nationwide which I imagine is more about the sales representatives than anything else (although Nationwide is "on your side")

- IBM instead of MAC, a little strange given the popularity of iTunes.

- Really only one traditional CPG "brand" per se, Procter & Gamble


I think the biggest wow for me out of this whole list is that we are changing what we value in brands. Our lives have become digital, mobile, and socially online. So it really should be no surprise that we are starting to value brands that help us in those areas, particularly when it comes to privacy.

Better renew my eBay account!

Hope this finds you well -- Jim.