The besieged U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which has lost billions of dollars and is dogged by competition from UPS and FedEx, is the most trusted brand in America. Morning Consult reported that the results are based on a poll run by Brand Intelligence, which interviewed 16,700 people per brand and covered almost 2,000 brands in total.
The core question of the study was “How much do you trust each brand to do what is right?” The options for answers were “a lot, some, not much, not at all, or don’t know.” Those with the highest percentage of “a lot” made up the top of the list.
Among the 25 most trusted brands, the USPS led with 42.0%. It was followed by Amazon at 38.8%. Ironically, Amazon’s huge e-commerce shipping business makes it among the USPS’s largest customers.
Following Amazon were two other tech companies. Google was third with 37.9%. PayPal was fourth with 37.5%. No other tech brand made the top 25 on the list.
Shipping companies did well in general. UPS made the top 25 list with 36.1% saying they trusted it to do right a lot. FedEx scored 33.4%.
Most brands on the list were consumer products. These included Hershey (36.1%), Cheerios (35.9%). M&Ms (34.9%), Dove (34.1%), Tide (34.1%), Ziploc (33.8%), Clorox (33.6%), Tylenol (33.0%), Colgate (33.0%), Crest (32.9%), Heinz Ketchup (32.7%) and Campbell Soup (32.7%). Notably, these are all decades-old brands. Campbell was founded in 1869, the same year as Heinz. Hershey was founded in 1894. The original Clorox brand was launched in 1913.
Two huge retailers made the list. Home Depot scored 32.6% and Walmart scored 32.5%.
One fast-food chain made the list. Chick-fil-A scored 36.2%. Interestingly, the company has been criticized for its contributions to groups described as anti-LGBTQ. The firm says it has ceased those donations.
Why do consumer goods dominate the list? There is no simple answer. Perhaps it is because they have delivered products that have been largely unchanged during the lifetimes of most respondents. This is even true for the U.S. Postal Service, which, after its founding in 1775, could be in the sunset of its existence.
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