Reader’s Digest Reveals Top Trusted Brands(TM) in Canada for 2023

Toronto, Ontario, January 19, 2023 — Canadians have rung in the New Year amidst a post-COVID economy that has put pressure on many in terms of cost of living and household purchases. With a potential recession looming, Canadians are taking a look at their day-to-day spending with increased scrutiny.

As inflation, interest rates, and cost of living have skyrocketed in Canada, trust continues to be crucial. Although the economy may shift and fluctuate, consumer trust in brands that have earned a positive reputation maintains its power and equity over time.

The latest Trusted Brands^TM survey, run annually by Ipsos for Reader’s Digest, looks at 35 product and service categories to uncover which brands Canadians trust most. To be crowned “#1 Trusted Brand^TM” within its category, a brand must receive a statistically significantly higher number of mentions than any other brand in that category on an open-ended basis.

The winning brands for 2023 include:

Consumer Packaged Goods:

• Sun Care Product: Coppertone
• Sensitive Skin/Dry Skin Lotion: Aveeno
• Pads/Liners: Always
• Incontinence Product: Depend
• Interior Paint: Behr
• Exterior Paint: Behr
• Exterior Stain: Behr
• Pet Food: Purina
• Mattress-in-a-Box: Casper
• Laundry Detergent: Tide
• Grill: Weber
• Air Fryer: Ninja

Food and Beverage:

• Tea: Tetley
• Sparkling Water: Perrier
• Plant-Based Beverage: Silk
• Cooler (alcoholic beverage): Smirnoff Ice
• Hard Seltzer (alcoholic beverage): White Claw

Medical:

• Arthritis Pain Reliever: Tylenol
• Cold Symptom Reliever: Tylenol
• Headache Pain Reliever: Tylenol
• Pediatric Fever and Pain Reliever: Tylenol
• Allergy Reliever: Claritin, Reactine

Auto:

• Hybrid Car Manufacturer: Toyota
• Passenger Car Manufacturer: Toyota
• Pickup Truck Manufacturer: Ford
• Electric Vehicle Manufacturer: Tesla
• Airline: Air Canada

Financial:

• Automobile Insurance Company: Intact
• Home Insurance Company: Intact
• Life Insurance Company: Sun Life Financial
• Health and Dental Insurance Company: Sun Life Financial
• Travel Insurance Company: CAA

Retail:

• Food Delivery Service Platform: Uber Eats
• Meal Kit Delivery Service: Hello Fresh
• Beauty Retailer: Sephora

More details about the winning brands can be found at https://www.readersdigest.ca/trusted-brands/trusted-brand-winners/

 

Trust Key at Point of Purchase

While cost is top-of-mind for Canadians right now, trust is the safety net used to make the final call on purchasing decisions. Though a decline of five points from last year, the majority (87%) continues to agree (33% strongly/55% somewhat) that when a product or service’s quality and price are similar, they tend to buy the product or service from the company they trust more.

Although responses have softened in 2022, trust continues to impact the consumer experience in a number of other ways, with a majority agreeing that:

• They’d be more willing to work for a company they trust (86%, -5 pts from 2021; 36% strongly/50% somewhat);
• They pay more attention to companies they trust (83% -5 pts; 25% strongly/58% somewhat);
• When they trust a company, they tend to recommend its product or service to their friends and family (78%, -6 pts; 26% strongly/53% somewhat); and
• They trust third party recognition of products and services such as awards or seals of excellence (59%, -3 pts; 11% strongly/48% somewhat).

Canadians want to know that companies operate with integrity. Most (87%, -5 pts) agree (34% strongly/52% somewhat) that they trust a company that will stand behind their products, and eight in ten (80%, -4 pts) agree (24% strongly/55% somewhat) they are very loyal to the brands and companies that they support.

When it comes to learning more about the brands they want to buy, many Canadians continue turn to other consumers for information. Just under two-thirds (64%, -2pts) agree (13% strongly/51% somewhat) they trust online consumer reviews or ratings of products and services.

The long-term impacts of the pandemic can still be seen in the consumer mindset, with just under half of Canadians (47%, +5 pts) agreeing (12% strongly/36% somewhat) that their trust in products and services has gone down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this marks an increase from last year, a majority still disagree, and negative attitudes and declines across these metrics may, in part, be explained by the current overall negative consumer outlook – further reflected in the fact that just 39% of Canadians say their trust in corporations has improved over the last year (8% strongly/31% somewhat).

 

While Trust Still Crucial, Lower Consumer Confidence Continuing to Shape Attitudes

Three in ten Canadians (28%) say they do not have enough money to live right and pay the bills (8% strongly/20% somewhat), marking an increase of six points compared to 2021. In light of this, it is unsurprising that eight in ten (81%) Canadians say they are more trusting of brands that help them save money during times of high inflation (26% strongly/55% somewhat).

Within the context of current economic stressors, nearly six in ten Canadians (57%, +3 pts) agree they buy items solely based on their price (14% strongly/42% somewhat), up from last year and continuing an upward trend since 2020. Further, the portion of Canadians agreeing that they will pay a little more money to support a product or service from a company they trust, though still high, is also down from last year and the year before (70%, -9 pts; 17% strongly/53% somewhat).

Results of the survey continue to show trust trumps cost when all is considered equal, though time will tell how long Canadians may need to monitor their budgets judiciously over the next year and beyond.

 

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between September 15 and September 30, 2022, on behalf of Reader’s Digest. For this survey, a sample of 4,002 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online via the Ipsos I-Say panel, including 1,001 French-speaking respondents. Quota sampling and weighting were 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 poll is accurate to within ±1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The sample of 1,001 French-speaking respondents has an associated credibility interval of ±3.5 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 the next brand(s). Any categories where the winning brand is not significantly different from the other brands is considered a tie. For any brand resulted in a tie, a built-in tiebreaker question OR a follow-up survey was used to determine a winner. For the follow-up survey, 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 other’s, it was declared the winner – otherwise it remained a tie.

 

For more information on this Factum, please contact:

Sean Simpson
Senior Vice President, Ipsos Public Affairs
+1 416 324 2002
[email protected]

^TM Trusted Brand and Trusted Brands are licensed trademarks of Reader's Digest Association (Canada) ULC

 

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