Brands felicitated at Reader's Digest 2014 awards

More than 25 brands were conferred awards at the 2014 edition of Reader's Digest Trusted Brand awards.

The 2014 edition of the Reader's Digest Trusted Brand Awards recently concluded at a formal ceremony at Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel in Delhi. More than 25 brands were awarded in different categories.

The chief guest for the event was Parvez Dewan, an IAS officer. In his opening remarks, Dewan mentioned that he had grown up with a healthy dose of solid trust established by the quality of Reader's Digest. "Indeed, all the winners of this evening are deserving of their accolades," added Dewan.

Arvind Kumar, a lexicographer and former editor of Sarvottam, the Hindi edition of the Reader's Digest, and the Guest of Honour, praised for the high-quality research procedure the magazine follows. Around 200 guests attended the event, which included several industry leaders, including marketing and media managers.

Distinguished guests presented RD Trusted Brand Platinum and Gold Awards in 44 categories ranging from airlines and university to health supplements, juice, paint, insurance, pen, cement, apparel and cosmetics.

Among the Platinum award winners were Maruti Suzuki, Bata, Britannia, LIC of India, Asian Paints, Johnson & Johnson, and MRF Tyres, while the Gold winners included Lakme, Fortune Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Aquaguard, Revital, SBI, Parryware and Parker pens with others. (See the full list here.)

Mohan Sivanand, editor, the Indian edition of the Reader's Digest, says, "Nobody at Reader's Digest or the India Today Group, which publishes the Indian edition of the magazine, has any say in the choice of winners. It's done entirely by an independent market research company, using thousands of interviews with consumers, who may or may not be readers of the Digest."

He went on to explain that every winner has earned the prize based on the sum of all the perceived functional and emotional aspects of their products or services, and that interviews with these thousands of respondents took into account several definitions of trust.

The publication has 46 editions and comes out in 18 languages. The awards have been in the Asian region for over 15 years and were started in India in 2006.