So which of the brands have the strongest hold on the Indian market? The survey answers it and often there are surprises. Personal care products, soft drinks and detergents dominate the list, while the automobile industry is conspicuous by its absence in the Top 50.

The Final Countdown - Top 50 - Most Trusted Brands

The No 1. brand of the country is the beauty soap that satisfies the 'dreams of beauty' of every woman - Lux. The brand has been in India since our grandmothers' times, in fact since 1929. And they have been using a plethora of actresses to popularise the soap - from the first Ginger Rogers, Leela Chitnis, Mala Sinha, Waheeda Rehman to the now Aishwarya Rai and Rani Mukherjee. They drove home the point of a film star's glamourous, dreamy beauty. Their brand evolution is no less impressive. As the market evolved, so did the brand. From the basic functional benefits of Lux, evolved Lux International, offering extra moisturising and sunscreen variants. Another factor that was instrumental in the huge popularity of the brand, was (and still is) Hindustan Lever Limited's effective distribution in the rural areas. Not surprisingly Lux became synonymous with soap among the rural people.

The other beauty products that make it in the list are Fair & Lovely and Ponds at number 6 and 11 respectively. Fair & Lovely was marketed with the popular notion that men wanted fair brides. And it has managed to catch a huge market despite the competition it received once from Vicco (whose long name - Vicco Turmeric Ayurvedic Cream - failed to interest the masses) and the present Fairever brand.

No. 2 and 3 on the list of the Most Trusted Brands are Colgate and Rin. Colgate - the ubiquitous, 70 year old brand's positioning second as the Most Trusted Brand comes as no surprise. However it plans to move higher up with several strategies, one of which is the advertising strategy for their Colgate Fresh Energy, which goes with a real cool slogan - 'Speak to me'.

Aart Weijburg, Director - Detergents, Hindustan Lever, talking about Rin, had this to say - "If you'd ask me to name one brand that would feature in a survey of the most trusted brands, it would have been Rin. It's quite a large brand and accounts for 12 per cent of the Indian market, while Surf accounts for just eight per cent." And rightly so. Often used as a case study of a brand that has done things right, it instantly appealed to women who wanted their families to be seen in good-looking clothes. It was the emotional value of the brand - "the whitest of whites - the envy of others," that hit the bull's eye.

The other utilitarian personal care product up on the chart is Dettol, placed fifth. The brand has been around since the Raj days and for nearly 40 years now, the brand has been a household necessity for all kinds of cuts and bruises.

Perhaps the other most conspicuous brands in India are the Cola giants - Coca Cola and Pepsi. Their constant public squabbles over market shares, popularity and other such parameters, are no secret. And with the positioning of two of Coca Cola's brands - Coke and Thums Up, being higher than Pepsi, is definitely a one up for the former. Despite these rankings, the Cola brands have their own dominion in different parts of the country. While both Thums Up and Coke are ahead of Pepsi in the East, West and Northern markets; in the South, Pepsi is in the fifth position while Thums Up and Coke are way down at 15 and 16 respectively. Thums Up is seen more as a bar drink in the north since it is makes a favourite drink when mixed with black rum. While the other two - Coke and Pepsi are more popular amongst the youngsters on campuses. They are seen more as a sissy drink. But despite all the hype and the 1300 million dollars the Cola giants have spent on their advertisements, primarily taking a dig at each other, they figure nowhere in the first five. The advertisements did not catch the massive rural market. Instead film stars and cricketers benefited while the ad agencies laughed all the way to the banks.

So here are the most happening brands and hope there's more to come and witness in the following year - both for the consumers and the movers & shakers.

Source: Economic Times and others