USPS Ranked Most Trusted Brand in U.S.

The United States Postal Service garnered 42% of the vote to “do what is right,” followed by two tech titans

In its first annual Most Trusted Brands survey, Morning Consult found the U.S. Postal Service to be the most trusted brand in the country, followed by Amazon and Google to round out the top three. The marketing research company’s study was based on an average of 16,700 interviews per brand for almost 2,000 brands.

The study also broke out the most trusted brands by generation, finding that both Gen Z and millennials trusted Google most, while Gen X and baby boomers trusted USPS most. Other brands topping the list of trustworthiness included PayPal, The Weather Channel, YouTube and UPS, as well as food brands such as Chick-fil-A, The Hershey Co., Cheerios, M&M’s, Heinz Ketchup and Campbell’s Soup. Of the 100 most trusted brands, only two (Android and YouTube) were founded after 2000.

In general, though, most Americans do not trust companies: When asked how much they trust corporate America to “do what is right,” 25% said “not at all” and 29% said “not much.” Individual brands, on the other hand, received more faith, as 55% of respondents say that they trust the average American company.

The survey found other trends in Americans’ growing distrust: Fewer than a quarter of Americans say that they have “a lot” of trust in their neighbors or food labels, and fewer than one in 10 say that they have “a lot” of trust in the news media or government. Only 4% of respondents said that they put “a lot” of trust in Wall Street or Hollywood.

For brands looking to gain consumers’ trust, the report found reliability concerns are more important than any other issue—69% say that it’s very important for brands to deliver consistently on what they promise—followed by those related to ethics and politics. In the case of PayPal and USPS, for example, reliability was a key driver of their high trust ratings. Morning Consult identified three particular areas where brands also have an opportunity to gain more trust: data privacy, fine print and employee treatment.

According to an executive summary of the report, “Americans trust brands to deliver on the basics, far fewer trust them to go above and beyond. This provides brands certain opportunities to win over trust by championing issues like data security and no fine print.”

Photo by Tareq Ismail on Unsplash.