Nokia voted India's most trusted brand

But Nokia can worry less. For other mobile phone manufacturers viz. LG Mobile, Motorola, Samsung Mobile and Sony Ericsson are way below in the list, ranked 75th, 83rd, 92nd, and 104th respectively.

Another point of interest is that among India's mobile services providers, while Airtel is ruling the roost at No.27, second biggest GSM operator and rival Vodafone-Essar is languishing way below at No.117. Though above BPL Mobile (No.224) and Idea Cellular (No.242), Vodafone-Essar lagged behind even Reliance Mobile (No.30), BSNL (No.39) and Tata Indicom (No.68). Clearly, the $75 million rebranding advertising blitz undertaken by Vodafone shortly after it bought out Hutchison's stake in Hutchison-Essar in May 2007 for $10.9 billion did not work as well as expected.

Meanwhile, though HUL has seen its brands lose their positions over the years, yet, many of them continue to dominate the top 10 ranks, viz. Pepsodent (4th), Pond's (5th), Lux (6th) and Lifebuoy (9th).

"Brands exist only in the minds of consumers. We are delighted that over the years HUL brands have enjoyed the trust and confidence of consumers," Nitin Paranjpe, managing director & CEO, HUL, said.

Other HUL brands in the top 50 list are Fair & Lovely (11th), Close-Up (14th), Rin (21st), Clinic Plus (23rd), Vim (26th), Surf (33rd), Sunsilk (44th) and Wheel (45th).

In the Most Trusted Brands survey, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) continued to rule the roost for the fifth year in a row in the "service brands" category.