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Revealed: New Zealand’s most trusted brands for 2022

<p>Celebrating its 100th year as a global brand, Reader’s Digest has announced the <a href="https://www.trustedbrands.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Most Trusted Brands in New Zealand</a> in its annual survey – and the results are about as delicious as we’ve come to expect!</p> <p>Taking out the Number One spot in 2022 was popular chocolate brand Whittaker’s – making this the 11th year in a row it has earned the Reader’s Digest Most Trusted of all Brands award – proving that New Zealanders are clearly very proud of the sweet treat that consistently tastes great. </p> <p>The award-winning brands that appear in the Reader’s Digest 23rd annual survey have stood out among their competitors during the most challenging of times throughout the pandemic, and have continued to build their customers’ trust. </p> <p>“Trust in consumer brands takes years of careful planning, execution and nurturing,” says Reader’s Digest editor-in-chief, Louise Waterson. “But during challenging times, and the past year has been one of the most difficult on record, we’ve seen quality brands live up to their promises to their customers. These brands have been able to win and retain the trust of their customers.” </p> <p>The Trusted Brands survey covers a comprehensive range of products and services across 71 categories, as selected by New Zealanders, was without prejudice.</p> <p>Brands included in the list to be rated were generated by asking local New Zealand consumers for their most trusted brands. This question was unprompted to ensure the rating of top brands in each category, as selected by New Zealanders.</p> <p>Each respondent was asked score each brand out of ten, as well as providing comments on their most trusted brand within each category – providing key drivers of trust for consumers.  </p> <p>Each category contains one Winner, and two Highly Commended brands. These brands scored higher in their respective categories than the other brands polled. </p> <p>The top 20 winners – that scored higher in their respective categories than the other brands polled – are as follows:</p> <p><strong>Top 20 Trusted Brands of all brands surveyed</strong></p> <ul> <li>1 Whittaker’s<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>2 St John New Zealand<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>3 Mitre 10<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>4 Tip Top<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>5 Mainland<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>6 Samsung<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>7 Anchor<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>8 Resene<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>9 Toyota<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>10 Dettol<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li> <li>11 Panadol</li> <li>12 Canon</li> <li>13 Dyson</li> <li>14 Bridgestone</li> <li>15 Yates</li> <li>16 Griffin’s</li> <li>17 Fisher &amp; Paykel</li> <li>18 Masport</li> <li>19 Dilmah</li> <li>20 Cookie Time</li> </ul> <p>Under each category one winner and two highly commended placings were awarded. To find out who you can officially trust, see the full results of all 71 categories in the May edition of Reader’s Digest or visit <a href="https://www.trustedbrands.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.trustedbrands.co.nz</a></p> <p> </p>

Money & Banking

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Disbelief over new Dyson headphones

<p dir="ltr">Dyson Zone’s air purifying headphones have finally been released after six years of research. </p> <p dir="ltr">Designed to purify the air that you breathe and work as noise cancelling headphones, the Dyson Zone was successful following 500 prototypes.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Developing a non-contact solution was a must for Dyson engineers, to avoid the discomfort and irritation often associated with full-contact alternatives. The visor, therefore, was a critical element," Dyson said of the headphones.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The airflow pathways and visor design are central to delivering pure air.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The geometries of the visor and the visor returns, alongside the central mesh that diffuses the two jets of airflow, ensure that the purified air exiting the filters is effectively delivered to the nose and mouth in crosswinds, and for the wearer's specific facial shape."</p> <p dir="ltr">The company explains how the Dyson engineers took a scientific approach and sought to get the best possible audio.</p> <p dir="ltr">"A first foray into the world of audio, Dyson engineers took a scientific approach, choosing not to rely on a 'golden listener' approach that many others do," they said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Dyson's team of audio engineers and acousticians sought to engineer excellent audio led by metrics, backed up with extensive listening trials. The result: pure, rich audio and advanced noise cancellation."</p> <p dir="ltr">The inspiration came from the “shape and design of a horse’s saddle” for the headband and will help even out the weight on the person’s head.</p> <p dir="ltr">The air purifying headphones have however been roasted, with many questioning its need.</p> <p dir="ltr">“This April Fools is 2 days early,” someone wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Private affluence and public squalor. Private health and public death. Dyson is everything wrong with capitalism, handily packaged in one unlikeable human,” another commented. </p> <p dir="ltr">“A phenomenally useful example of a tech-inspired distraction from the hard graft of addressing root cause and systemic failure,” someone else wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Maybe the most dystopian thing about this pointedly dystopian product is that Dyson had to know that it would be derided as a gross symbol of technological inequality, but its market research indicated that the time was ripe to launch it anyway,” another comment read.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Dyson</em></p>

Technology