The Brand Trust study seems serendipitous.

The dynamic nature of trust is almost self-evident. No

organization, brand or person can violate trust without losing
something irrevocably. However, those who make the effort to
gain the trust of their audiences with consistency in actions and
behaviour, get the benefit of an accepting and forgiving
audience.

Trust is a complex concept to be measured.

Brands are said to be created and owned by the consumers and

influencers. This study is a measure of how much these owners
trust their brands and why. This research will give a brand
custodian an insight into the perceptions that lie beneath the
attitudes of the owners towards the brand.

OBJECTIVE :
To assess and analyse the factors of brand trust; of 3 sectors –

Mobile service providers, Mobile handsets, Automobiles (4

wheeler); on the basis of brand recall and trust.

METHODOLOGY :

Research Design –
The research type is Descriptive Research in nature.
Descriptive research, also known as statistical research,
describes data and characteristics about the population or
phenomenon being studied. Descriptive research answers the
questions who, what, where, when and how.

Although the data description is factual, accurate and

systematic, the research cannot describe what caused a situation.
Thus, Descriptive research cannot be used to create a causal
relationship, where one variable affects another. Thus,
Descriptive Research design was adopted to measure the
prevalent attitudes and perceptions of people towards Social
Media Marketing and their preference for various social media
tools.

 
Data Collection –

Data type is both primary and secondary data.

Secondary data has been primarily collected from the internet.
Since the research has been conducted to find brand recall and
trust; the trends and findings as already researched by others are
fittingly available online.
 
Primary data has been collected through a self-administered
closed ended questionnaire. Likert’s five point scale has been
used to record customer attitudes and itemized ranking has been
employed to gauge the importance or popularity of different
factors. The questionnaire was also pre-tested on certain
respondents to detect and remove any errors. (Questionnaire
given in Annexure 1)

 
Sampling Technique -

Non-probability Convenience Sampling technique has been

employed. Non-probability sampling describes an approach in
which some units of the population have no chance of being
selected or where the probability of selection cannot be
accurately determined. In this case, the ‘Convenience Sampling’
technique of non-probability sampling has been used. The main
drawback of non-probability sampling techniques is that
information about the relationship between sample and
population is limited, making it difficult to extrapolate from the
sample to the population. There are several advantages,
however. First, non-probability sampling is a quick way to
collect way to collect and analyze data in range of settings with
diverse populations. The approach is also a cost-efficient means
of greatly increasing the sample, thus enabling more frequent
measurement.

Time Frame -

3rd March, 2011 – 10th April, 2011

Target Population -
Students, Working Professionals

Sample Size –
170

Sampling profile - 
 
Gender;

 
There is an unequal gender distribution in terms of number of
respondents, with 114 males and 56 females.

 
 Age;

Maximum number of respondents exist in the 20 or younger age

group, followed by the 21-30 age group; indicating brand trust.

Limitations of the Study -

 The authenticity of the suggestions and recommendations

depend upon the rationality of the data collected / searched
by me.

 Some of the responses may be biased as a result of filling

of questionnaires with lack of time or in the presence of
 peers.

 The information provided by the respondents may not be

true.

 The findings cannot be extrapolated for the population

since the sampling technique is Non Probability
Convenience type.

 There is no measure to check out whether the information

provided by the respondents is correct or not.

 Since long questionnaires result in respondent fatigue and

resistance and poor-quality data, to avoid this not all the
aspects of the topic could be taken into consideration and
it represented only a summary picture in some aspects.

 While doing the analysis of the findings, some of the

responses had to be clubbed together as they were
interrelated.

 The target base comprises of all age group of 15-30,

 because of the nature of the chosen topic. However, since
the questionnaires were administered online, selectivity of
audience could not be adhered to strictly; resulting in
unequal number of respondents of different age groups.

 Because of the nature of certain questions, it was evident

that consumers had given biased answers. So we had
difficulty in forming an accurate picture of consumer
reactions for those particular questions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project would not have been possible without the

support of many people.
 
I owe my sincere thanks to Mrs. Preeti Rajpal Singh also
extend my gratitude for the excellent guidance and support
provided by her in helping me accomplish the project
successfully. She has been a constant source of inspiration
and motivation for hard work. The classroom teachings
provided by her were extremely beneficial and guided me to
work on the project.
 REFERENCES

1.) Trust Research Advisory

2.) Indian Statistical Institute

3.) World Wide Web