Brand Trust Report 2026: methodology
How the study was built, who was interviewed, and how the Brand Trust Index is measured
Brands use the Power of Trust and Power of Desire symbols under licence from TRA. A licence covers every public mention of a rank. Read the licence notice.
All India listingMethodology as a PDFWhere we interview
On this page: Preamble · How the matrices were built · Respondents · Brand Trust · Questionnaire · Sample and quotas · Cities · Fieldwork · The Brand Trust Index · How brands use the data
Trust is a vital asset for a brand, and it has many parts. It grows from the factors that consumers weigh when they judge a brand. At first, consumers look at tangible points such as a brand's reliability and service quality. As Trust deepens, they also weigh wider intangible points: a brand's environmental practices, its effect on society, how it treats its employees, or how its sales staff behave with consumers. All of these shape the buying intent of consumers.
Brand Trust alone does not fully explain brand intent or buying preference. Alongside it works an equally strong emotional dimension: Brand Desire. Desire is the appeal a brand holds for its stakeholders. Brand Desire is the "inherent force that interests, pleases, or stimulates... which makes a brand appealing." This pull may come from aspiration, shared values, personality fit, or cultural resonance.
Together, Brand Trust and Brand Desire make up what is now formally defined as Buying Intent.
In psychology, emotions are outcomes of the interaction between internal dispositions, such as personality, cognition and biological states, and external influences, such as cultural context, social environment and patterns of communication. Human well-being depends on relationships, which give social and physical support and also influence neurochemical regulation, adding to feelings of happiness, satisfaction and connection.
Trust and Desire are the basis of all relationships, and both matter equally in defining and building affinity among humans. People seek out others who reflect their personality in subtle ways, as a way of sustaining the relationship over time. As our engagement with brands has grown, brands have begun to give meaning to people, and the relationship of consumers with brands has become an important association that individuals maintain.
Consumers "buy into" (distinct from "buy") brands that reflect their personalities. It is this relationship index, termed Buying Intent, that TRA measures.
Inspired by Dr. Robin Dunbar's theory, which shows that humans can maintain only about 150 meaningful relationships, TRA extends this framework to brands. Just as individuals allocate limited emotional and cognitive capacity across people, friends and social groups, brands also compete for a place within this relational hierarchy. Each relationship, whether with a person or a brand, carries a relative value that can be measured. TRA defines Buying Intent as the relationship quotient between a consumer and a brand, determined by its two contributory components: Brand Trust and Brand Desire.
Quantifying something as nuanced as trust or desire posed unique challenges. The Buying Intent, Brand Trust and Brand Desire matrices were developed over 3 years and published in the book Decoding Communication by N. Chandramouli, CEO of TRA Research.
TRA partnered with the Indian Statistical Institute for statistical rigour. Studying only consumers would have limited the results to tactile experience, the direct use of a brand, and missed the richer vicarious experience: recommendations from peers, which are often more influential than personal experience.
TRA identified peer-influencers, the top 10% brand-aware individuals with influence over others. The criteria:
TRA does syndicated research on Buying Intent only. Syndicated research is self-funded, continuous and independent of any brand's influence, unlike commissioned or one-off market research. This gives objectivity, comparability across categories and long-term trend validity. Because syndicated studies serve the whole industry rather than one client, they give deeper benchmarks, standard methods and richer cross-sector findings. All TRA studies are conducted independently, without brand sponsorship, and their listings are public at www.trustadvisory.info. Brands that wish to use these claims in marketing take a licence from TRA.
Industry scrutiny. Leading Indian and global brands put TRA's work through a multi-layered evaluation before they adopt it. They start with the theory of Buying Intent, Brand Trust and Brand Desire, then examine the method behind the syndicated studies, and then assess the independence of the research itself. After that evaluation, brands acquire TRA's data and take licences to use these recognitions in their marketing and communication.
Brand Trust is built on Brand Trust Attributes, Brand Trust Behaviours and Brand Trust Archetypes. These reflect the message, the personality and the foundational signals of trust that a brand gives out.
| Foundation | What it does | Brand Behaviours |
|---|---|---|
| Building Capacity to Trust | Lets stakeholders feel safe and lower their guard. | Non-Threatening Ambience, Shared Interest, Display Empathy |
| Creating Perception of Positive Intent | Signals that the brand's motives are genuine and optimistic. | Demonstrated Sincerity, Altruism, Enthusiasm |
| Demonstrating Relevant Competence | Proves capability through performance. | Outward Appearance, Perceived Competence, Commanding Respect, Accepting Responsibility |
The questionnaire has three parts.
The final respondent pool came from a rigorous screening of a broad consumer base. Those who did not meet the criteria were dropped from the respondent set. Respondents were divided into salaried men, salaried women and home-makers (home influencers).
Quotas reflect urban demographic proportions. Home-makers and working women were proportioned at about 68.40% to 31.60%. The age bands run from 21 to 25 years up to 46 to 50 years. The age and income charts are in the PDF.
Every respondent had a monthly income above Rs 20,000. By NCCS, 96.50% of respondents were in A1 and 3.40% in A2; one respondent was in B1 and one in B2.
16 Indian cities were selected on their contribution to GDP.
| Region | Cities |
|---|---|
| North | Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur |
| East | Kolkata, Guwahati |
| West | Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Indore |
| South | Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Kochi |
The Brand Trust Index is a subtle measure of Brand Trust. It takes in the overt and the covert influences on Brand Trust, the aspects that normally stay hidden from scrutiny. Three parameters are measured:
The other direct and visible influence on Brand Trust is the respondent's reply to the question on the Most Trusted Brands. This is measured on the same three parameters and multiplied by 0.67, which equates the five-point scale of conscious trust to the three-point scale of sub-conscious trust. The sum of the two parts gives the Brand Trust Index.
The formula and its terms (overall and per-brand suitability standard deviations, occurrence frequency, average position and average suitability for the Brand Trust question, and occurrence frequency and average position for the Recall question) are set out in the PDF, page 8.