Brand Personality: Honesty

In the first part of this series, we introduced the idea of Brand Personality and considered the five traits that constitute it. In this post we consider the first trait, Honesty, in more detail and present the brands that score best (and worst).

The American comedian, Groucho Marx, reportedly said “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made”. Regardless of whether a brand is fake or sincere, our first Brand Personality trait measures customers’ perceptions of a brand’s integrity. In our first post of the series, we noted that brands rated as being caring and trustworthy will receive high Honesty scores. So how do some of the most well known UK brands perform?

In our most recent test, we found that many high street retailers are seen as honest organisations, including The Body Shop, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Boots, and Waitrose. Indeed, the Body Shop usurped the University of Oxford to take the top position. We suspect that regular, face to face contact with customers helps to build a sense of caring and trustworthiness.

The lower end of the scale is also full of high street names, but of a different sort. The position of betting shops should perhaps come as no surprise, and the less said about the Sun, the better. Political parties continue to be mistrusted, with UKIP and the Conservative Party faring particularly badly. And whilst Labour does not appear on this list, it’s not far off.

In the next Brand Personality post we’ll turn our attention to the another facet of Brand Personality, Innovation, and see how customers rate other organisations.