What Are the Most Authentic Brands in the World?

Which brands have your loyalty and trust? According to a new study, perhaps unsurprisingly, a certain Mouse has won over both consumers' hearts and wallets.

In its fourth annual survey about brand authenticity, communications and public relations firm Cohn & Wolfe generated a ranking of the most authentic brands in the world.

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The agency polled nearly 12,000 people in Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States and narrowed the list of 100 companies down from 1,600 brands.

The study found that consumers say that a brand is authentic when the company consistently delivers on what it promises, protects consumers' data and respects their privacy and interacts with their customers with transparency and integrity.

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And the old aphorism that the customer is always right still rings true here -- 69 percent of the participants said that how a brand treats and relates to its customers is more important than if the company is "clear about its beliefs" or the business's environmental footprint.

The top of the list is largely a tech industry affair -- with the usual suspects Microsoft, Amazon and Apple -- but Disney took the top spot. Car manufacturers BMW and Audi cracked the top 10, as did Adidas and LEGO.

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For more on consumer attitudes about authenticity around the world, check out the full study here.