Most Desired Brands 2025: methodology

Notice:

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 listing Methodology as a PDF Where we interview

On this page: About the study · Data collection · Questionnaire · Respondents · Sample · Cities · The Brand Desire model · The Brand Desire Index · How brands use the data

About the study

The brands in Most Desired Brands 2025 were chosen for their ability to hold consumers' attention and create a strong pull. Desire comes before buying and signals a consumer mind that is ready. Desire is hard to quantify, so sales often stand in as the success indicator. From 2007 to 2010 TRA worked with nearly 300 psychologists, sociologists and communication experts to decode Brand Desire, and has measured it since through a proprietary Brand Desire Matrix, refined over the past 10 years.

For over 13 years TRA has run syndicated research with consumer influencers, the top 10% of the population who sway the other 90%, to gauge their Desire for brands. Beyond conscious Desire, the Brand Desire Matrix also captures the subconscious Desire consumers hold for a brand.

Now in its 10th edition, Most Desired Brands 2025 rests on the 12 brand behaviours of Brand Desire, measured among consumer influencers across 16 major Indian cities. The listed brands have won a place in consumers' minds by sparking Desire.

Data collection

More than 300 fieldwork staff gathered data in face-to-face interviews across 16 cities. An interview took about 30 minutes.
TRA's purpose-built app captures brand data more accurately than paper interviews and records respondent authentication, voice, location, time, and a home-door photo or visiting card.
Quality checks: interviewer testing, process quality, 100% back-checks, strict quotas and data inspection at every phase.

About the questionnaire

A well-designed questionnaire is central to syndicated research, above all when it captures something as subtle as Brand Desire. The questionnaire has three parts.

Respondents name 15 brands that come to mind, across local, national and multinational brands. This brings many brands and their links into active memory and reduces selective recall.
The second part covers brands and the 12 Brand Behaviours of Brand Desire. For each behaviour, respondents name the three brands that best represent it. This shows subconscious Desire. Earlier editions measured 36 attributes; the 12 behaviours were adopted during the Covid period to shorten the interview.
The third part is brand recall: respondents name the brands they desire, which captures conscious Desire. They also give the category of each brand and a suitability score on a 5-point scale, which produces a numeric Desire score.

Most metrics cover market share, brand value and growth. The intangible side, Brand Desire, often goes unmeasured. The Brand Desire Matrix turns strategy into a consumer-centric approach, and the report's data has served leading Indian and global organisations for years.

Finding the right respondents

Respondents are consumer influencers: the 10% of consumers who affect the brand decisions of the other 90%. Three respondent groups were chosen: salaried men, salaried women and house influencers.

Criteria for all respondents

Age 21 to 50 years.
SEC A or B.

House influencers

English and one local or regional language at a score above 3 of 5 in speaking, reading and writing.
An influence score of 4 of 5 on each of: buying electronic items for the house, recommending branded products that friends then buy, and choosing the next school or college for a child or ward.
Living in a society of 100 or more flats.

Salaried respondents

Monthly salary above Rs 20,000.
Employed in an organisation with more than 200 employees across India, or with turnover above Rs 50 crore.
Not employed in a courier company, public relations, market research, advertising, BPO or KPO.
At most 15 interviews in any one organisation across its offices in India.

Sampling criteria

Gender and age sampling followed the census division among the 16 cities. Among women, house influencers and salaried women were in the ratio of 30.70% to 16.20%.

Respondent group	Share
Salaried men	52%
Salaried women	17%
House influencers	31%

Age band	Share
21 to 25 years	17%
26 to 30 years	18%
31 to 35 years	16%
36 to 40 years	19%
41 to 45 years	16%
46 to 50 years	14%

Income and SEC

Every respondent had a monthly income above Rs 20,000. The income bands ran from Rs 20,001 to 30,000 (9%) up to Rs 1,50,001 and above (1%); the full income chart is in the PDF. By SEC, 60.80% of respondents were A1, 34.80% A2, 3% A3 and 1.41% B1 and B2.

Cities

Sixteen cities were selected to represent urban India. The number of respondents in each city is proportional to its GDP.

City	Region	Share of respondents
Mumbai	West	19%
Delhi	North	15%
Kolkata	East	13%
Bengaluru	South	8%
Hyderabad	South	8%
Chennai	South	7%
Ahmedabad	West	6%
Jaipur	North	4%
Pune	West	4%
Chandigarh	North	3%
Lucknow	North	3%
Nagpur	West	3%
Coimbatore	South	2%
Guwahati	East	2%
Indore	West	2%
Kochi	South	1%

Shares as published in the PDF, rounded to whole numbers. The Kochi share is the remainder after the other 15 cities.

Understanding the Brand Desire model

TRA set out to quantify Brand Desire by first identifying its core attributes. Over three years we consulted hundreds of psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and communication experts. After empirical and pilot testing, TRA created the Brand Desire Matrix of 36 intangible attributes, grouped into 12 behaviours, which converge into 4 Foundations of Desire.

Foundation	What it is	Brand Behaviours
Communication Desire	Built through what we see, hear and know of a brand's communication.	Charisma, Trust, Oration
Rational Desire	Logically deduced conclusions that appeal to the intellect and show the reason for belief.	Relevant Utility, Conscious Effort, Creativity
Aspirational Desire	The pursuit of nobler goals, which passes the feeling of aspiration to others.	Winner's Attributes, Social Maturity, Self-Control
Emotional Desire	Feelings that help us relate to a situation, adapt to it or cope with it.	Positivity, Emotional Maturity, Hope

Calculation of the Brand Desire Index

Brand Desire is measured at three levels: attributes, Brand Behaviours and overall Brand Desire. The index has been refined over the years for greater sensitivity and relevance, and it takes in both the visible and the invisible influences on Brand Desire.

The first part uses four variables from the 36 primary components of Brand Desire: the standard deviation of suitability, the position average (first, second or third choice for the component), the brand's average suitability score, and the number of occurrences. The second part is the direct and visible influence: the brand's frequency, its position among the three brands named, and its weighted suitability on the 5-point scale. The sum of the two parts gives the Brand Desire Index.

The formula and its terms (overall and per-brand suitability standard deviations, occurrence frequency, average position and average suitability for the Brand Desire questions, and occurrence frequency and average position for the recall question) are set out in the PDF, page 6.

How brands use the data

Power of Desire symbol. Brands license the symbol as an official rating and use it in their marketing communication.
Buying Propensity Report. Brands commission a consumer buying analysis to inform marketing and communication decisions. Some use it in board discussions; investment bankers and private equity funds use the data when they assess other brands.
Introspective Intervention. A bespoke study with the brand's own stakeholders on the Brand Desire Matrix, to align internal actions with stakeholder Desire.
Brand De-risking. A fall, or no growth, in Brand Desire is a primary risk for a brand, and larger brands carry more of it. Leading brands address it through TRA's Brand De-risking studies and strategies.

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