As humanity moves beyond pure capitalism and steps toward an ecological society,
trust will remain the only truly sustainable form of wealth.

| Professor Shih-Chun Hsu, Ph.D., Founding Honorary Advisor

Taiwan Trusted Brand Association

The Taiwan Trusted Brand Association is a legally established, nonprofit public-interest organization rooted in long-standing and credible consumer trust research. We are committed to developing trusted brand systems, cultivating professionals in branding, digital technology, and artificial intelligence (AI), and advancing a sound brand economy with sustainable value. We also help businesses respond to digitalization, AI transformation, and sustainable governance trends, strengthening their overall competitiveness and long-term resilience.

What We Focus On

With Taiwan at our core, we bring together expertise from industry, academia, and across society to help businesses strengthen their brand management and governance capabilities. We promote brand trust, ethical governance, and social responsibility while fostering mutual trust among businesses, consumers, and society.
We also encourage brand exchange and collaboration between Taiwan and markets at home and abroad, enhancing the professional visibility and foundation of trust enjoyed by Taiwanese brands across different regional markets and contributing to positive social and economic development.

Industry

Examining how trust influences long-term brand performance from a cross-industry perspective.

Trust

The foundation of corporate governance, consumer relationships, and sustainable business development.

Region

Starting from Taiwan and connecting the institutional experience of its diverse markets.

We care not only about which brands are trusted, but also about how trust is built, verified, and continuously developed across different industries and markets.

Ensuring Continuity and Preserving the Trust Framework

What Makes This Research Framework Different?

Most consumer surveys in global brand research use prompted questionnaires. Research organizations first provide a list of brands, and respondents then rate or select from those options.

Although this approach can efficiently gather market opinions, the results may be influenced by brand prompts, the order of options, or awareness bias.

The Trusted Brand Survey takes a different approach.

Open-Ended Responses
The Trusted Brand Survey uses an open-ended response format.

No brand options or guiding prompts are provided. Without any prompts, consumers independently name the brands they trust most and explain why.

This approach allows brand trust to emerge more naturally from consumers’ own perceptions while minimizing the prompting effects that research design can introduce.
A Consistent Long-Term Methodology
Since its launch in 1999, the Trusted Brand Survey has maintained consistent research principles and methodology. The program was previously conducted by Reader’s Digest across Asian markets, including Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, with professional market research teams carrying out the surveys. This history has created an exceptionally rare foundation for the long-term observation of consumer trust.

Beginning in 2026, the program has been organized by the Taiwan Trusted Brand Association, established by the former Reader’s Digest Taiwan team. It continues to be independently conducted by Catalyst Research, an international third-party research company, preserving the survey framework and methodology developed consistently over the past 28 years. The questionnaire has also been enhanced to analyze the key trust factors influencing consumers’ brand choices.
Independently Conducted by a Third-Party Research Organization
To safeguard the credibility of the research, the Trusted Brand Survey is independently conducted by an international professional market research organization. Third-party independence is maintained throughout the research design and implementation, ensuring that the results remain objective and credible.
Trust, Not Awareness
Most brand studies measure:

– Brand awareness
– Market share

The Trusted Brand Survey focuses instead on:
The brands consumers independently recall and trust without any prompting.

The research therefore measures not how visible or widely discussed a brand is, but the position of trust it holds in consumers’ minds.

Key Conclusion

Trust is not created by what a brand claims. It is the result of choices shaped by consumers’ accumulated experiences over time.

The Trusted Brand Survey exists to document those choices.

How We Measure Brand Competitiveness and Consumer Trust

A Multidimensional Consumer Perspective

Our framework begins with the authentic perspective of consumers and applies a multidimensional analytical model. It helps organizations move beyond a single viewpoint to understand how brand trust is formed in consumers’ minds and how it evolves over time.

Core Quality and Innovation

This dimension covers key areas of business performance, including trustworthiness, product and service quality, and innovation. These factors form the foundation of brand competitiveness and accurately reflect the market’s current evaluation and functional recognition of a brand.

Shared Values and Sustainability

This dimension examines shared values, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. We assess whether a brand can build deep emotional connections with consumers and demonstrate a level of social influence that extends beyond its products and services.

Institutional Knowledge Assets

Trust should not be treated as a one-time annual score, but as an asset that can be compared and accumulated over time. By tracking structural changes over the long term, data can be transformed into institutional knowledge that supports sustained internal dialogue and better decision-making.

A Taiwan Perspective
Starting in Taiwan, Advancing Regional Dialogue

With Taiwan at our core, we bring together expertise from industry, academia, and across society to help businesses strengthen their brand management and governance capabilities. We promote brand trust, ethical governance, and social responsibility while fostering mutual trust among businesses, consumers, and society.

We also encourage brand exchange and collaboration between Taiwan and markets at home and abroad, enhancing the professional visibility and foundation of trust enjoyed by Taiwanese brands across different regional markets and contributing to positive social and economic development.