New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS): With domestic brands like Amul, Parle, Big Bazaar and Dabur featuring in the top ten list of India's most popular brands, a Nikkei BP-Market Xcel Data Matrix survey revealed that domestic brands are liked and revered by Indian consumers at par with international brands like Samsung and Coca-Cola.

According to the Brand Asia Survey 2017, Samsung has emerged as the most popular brand in terms of consumer brand relationship, followed by food and drinks brand Amul and mobile brand Nokia.

"Amul, the food and drinks brand, has scored second place this year beating Coca-Cola (rank 10) and Pepsi (rank 15)," Ashwani Arora, Senior VP Research, Director on Board, Market Xcel, told IANS.

"Nokia is one brand which is revered by Indians and has a high connect and past equity. The brand was once a household name in India. The relaunch of the brand in India has refurbished the emotional connect with consumers as is evident in the survey," Arora said.

Samsung mobiles and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company Parle ranked fourth and fifth in terms of the most popular brands in India.

"Parle -- a brand from the pre independence era -- goes on to prove the love people have for it still. It has ranked fifth this year and its win is solely dedicated to the wide variety of its biscuits which has satiated consumer palettes since ages," said Arora.

"Hence, Indian brands are equally liked and revered by consumers," he added.

The survey revealed that Future Group-owned retail business Big Bazaar was the only retail brand to mark a place in the top 10 popular brands at rank six.

According to Arora, the kirana shops are unable to provide the choice, ambience, service and discounts which Big Bazaar offers leading to its popularity among customers.

"The (Big Bazaar) brand has many firsts to its credit. The only national competitor to the brand being Reliance Retail," he added.

The rest of the brands in the top ten category included toothpaste brand Colgate, messaging platform WhatsApp, FMCG brand Dabur and beverages company Coca-Cola.

The top 10 brands featured in the survey are a mix of technology, FMCG and retail brands.

Another interesting insight was that the brands from the automotive sphere had the least representation even among the top 20 brands during the year's survey.

"Some of the reasons attributed to (automotive) category's low affinity include low penetration, high involving, and family product more than a personal category," Arora said.

"Also the choice is vested with few members in a family. The category has low mental salience with the womenfolk."

A total of 200 brands were surveyed in 13 countries across Asia with a mix of national and international brands.

The categorisation of nominated brands was from FMCG, food and drinks, clothing/fashion, automaker, IT/home electronics, telecom, media/entertainment, finance, retail, restaurants (QSRs), sporting goods, transportation/logistic, aviation, finance and social media (internet).