Reader's Digest Most Trusted Brands in Canada Revealed for 2017

Toronto, ON- A new Ipsos survey for Reader's Digest has unveiled which brands Canadians trust most in a variety of categories, from banks to sunscreen to cars. The annual survey asks Canadians on an open-ended basis which brands they trust most in a number of different categories. If a brand receives a statistically significant higher number of mentions than any other brand, they are deemed to be the most trusted brand.

Some of the winning brands include:

Food and Beverage

• Bottled Water: Nestlé

Consumer Packaged Goods

• Sunscreen: Coppertone
• Interior Paint: Behr

Medical

• Arthritis Pain Reliever: Tylenol
• Headache Pain Reliever: Tylenol
• Vitamin: Jamieson

Auto

• Passenger Car Manufacturer: Toyota
• Automotive Parts Retailer: Canadian Tire
• Hybrid Car Manufacturer: Toyota

Financial

• Bank/Trust Company: TD Canada Trust
• Life Insurance Company: Sun Life Financial

Retail

• Coffee Retailer: Tim Horton's
• Pharmacy/Drug Store: Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix
• Beauty Retailer: Sephora

A full list of the winning brands can be found at rd.ca/trusted-brands/winners-list

Trust as a Driving Force

For brands in an increasingly competitive market, consumer trust is a highly valuable asset that can translate into greater sales. While half (49%) of Canadians admit to buying items based solely on their price (10% strongly/39% somewhat), nine in ten (93%) agree (40% strongly/53% somewhat) that in a situation where a product or service's quality and price are similar, they tend to buy the product or service from the company they trust more.

Similarly, nearly as many (91%) agree (40% strongly/50% somewhat) they're more likely to invest their money in a company they trust, and eight in ten (81%) agree (23% strongly/58% somewhat) they'll pay a little more money to support a product or service from a trusted company than from a company they don't trust.

Trust can also impact brand visibility, with more than eight in ten (86%) Canadians agreeing (28% strongly/58% somewhat) they pay more attention to companies they trust than to companies they don't. Advertising from a trusted source is also more likely to stick with consumers: three in four (77%) agree (21% strongly/56% somewhat) they're more likely to remember ads from companies or brands that they trust.

Brand trust conferred from respected outside sources is also important to a majority of Canadians. Six in ten (63%) agree (9% strongly/53% somewhat) they trust third-party recognition of products and services, such as awards or seals of excellence.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between September 9 and September 16, 2016, on behalf of Reader's Digest. For this survey, a sample of 4,009 Canadians from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online, including 956 French-speaking respondents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the overall Canadian sample of 4,009 respondents is accurate to within +/ - 1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The sample of 956 French-speaking respondents has an associated credibility interval of +/ - 3,6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error. Winning brands are determined by unprompted, open-ended votes and confirmed to be statistically significant from next brand(s). Any categories where the winning brand is not significantly different from the other brands is considered a tie. A follow-up survey was conducted where the tied brands were put against each other, prompted, and the winning brand was identified from the runoff. If one brand's votes were statistically significantly higher than the others, it was declared the winner - otherwise it remained a tie.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Sean Simpson
Vice President
(416) 324-2002
Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]

Mitra Thompson
Senior Account Manager, Ipsos Public Affairs
+1 514 904 4329
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos ranks third in the global research industry. With a strong presence in 87 countries, Ipsos employs more than 16,000 people and has the ability to conduct research programs in more than 100 countries. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is controlled and managed by research professionals. They have built a solid Group around a multi-specialist positioning-- Media and advertising research; Marketing research; Client and employee relationship management; Opinion & social research; Mobile, Online, Offline data collection and delivery. Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999. www.ipsos.com