U.S. Buyers Trust Sony the Most

Apple shares rose nearly 700% between 2004 and 2007, while Sony actually lagged the S&P by about 1%.

Not surprisingly, the retailers who consistently exceed their customers' expectations saw strong performance from their shares. Best Buy(BBY Quote) and J.C. Penney (JCP Quote) were the two top performers among retailers in the survey. Their stocks returned 48% and 207% respectively.

Crawford is not surprised by the outperformance of the group. "A stock's valuation is a combination of financial fundamentals and intangibles. Those intangible elements are increasing over time," he explains.

Also interesting to note is that legacy brands such as Levi's, Vick's and Cadbury Schweppes' (CSG Quote) 7-Up are doing well, perhaps as consumers attempt to return to simpler times.

The lowest-scoring brand was Ford, which had "good awareness but an abysmal trust score." The authors of the survey suggest that Ford should look for ways to become an aspirational purchase for lower-income shoppers, as that segment gave Ford the highest marks.

The survey declares that the "era of 'I-am-what-I-wear/eat/drive/etc.' is long gone." Today's consumers are more interested in products that get the job done, that are priced fairly and readily available. One only has to point to General Motors' (GM Quote) Chevrolet as the "most popular automotive brand in America," according to the survey, as evidence of this phenomenon.

The survey broke down customers' experience by five categories -- price, access, product, service and experience. Some 5,000 consumers were asked 60 questions in the fall of 2006 to determine which were the most and least trusted brands in the U.S. Some brands such as Dell (DELL Quote) and Nike (NKE Quote) showed up in the top-10 most and least trusted brands.

The top eight brands that exceeded customers' expectations along with the top seven that did not meet expectations are listed below:

Brands and Consumer Trust
Exceeded Expectations*	Did Not Meet Expectations*
Apple (AAPL)	Colgate (CL)
General Electric (GE)	Dell (DELL)
Hanes (HBI)	Ford (F)
Honda (HMC)	Gap (GPS)
K-Swiss (KSWS)	Panasonic (MC)
Phillips (PHG)	Pfizer (PFE)
Procter & Gamble (PG)	Volkswagen (VOWG.DE)
Sony (SNE)
Source: AlixPartners *listed alphabetically