A consumer survey has put Amazon.com at the top of a performance brand list based on “trust” and “recommendation”.

The new report, carried out in America, is called Beyond Trust: Engaging Consumers in the Post-Recession World and introduces a new concept “TrustR” as a way of understanding/measuring the relationship between consumers and brands.

It’s been shown many times in previous surveys that people simply will not pay for brands they do not trust. So it’s clear that trust is a very important element of growing a company’s brand and sales.

TrustR is calculated by looking at consumer responses to the questions “how trustworthy is this brand?” and “would you recommend this brand?” The scores are then indexed and combined to reach a TrustR score. The average score is 100, and anything above 105 is considered good.

The first TrustR index reveals that
Amazon scored 123, the FedEx scored 122 and Downy, Huggies, Tide and Tylenol all had scores of 120.

Remember that this is an American index but it is likely the same TrustR concept will be test in the UK sometime soon. And it does show to all companies, big or small, how important it is to create a trusted brand.

The world of web design is fast changing and amazing gadgets, functions and concepts are being introduced and developed all the time. Here we bring you a few web design predictions for 2010.

Video is going to be even bigger this year. It’s becoming easier and cheaper to create video for on-line use and many more websites will be including video content. In some cases a video could be the main element on a site. Video will be used in general to for illustrating points, demonstrating an idea or explaining something to visitors. An example of a website created with video can be seen here.

3D effects will be become much more widely used on web design. There will be 3D-type effects and 3D elements within the web page. Three dimensional shapes, wrapping elements and tilted edges will be buzz features and will give users a greater feeling of space and depth.

Web designers will pay more attention to different typography. This is already happening as designer pay more attention to using creative typography. As coding languages evolve, designers will have even more opportunities to be creative with their type.

Websites with full-screen images are likely to become a bigger trend this year. It will be a case of the bigger the better as images take over the main page of the website and text and other functions will be designed to fit in with this main image. It’s a big, bold and beautiful development.

Website interaction will keep on growing as designers come up with new ways to keep the visitor engaged with the site.

As we just blogged, black and white is on-trend in web design but colour is still seen as an attractive and engaging way to go. However, designers do still need to use the right colours and combinations for the right websites.

While colour and attractiveness is a subjective topic (that is, some people prefer blue to green, while others like pink or yellow) there are some important guidelines.

People often associate colour with a variety of feelings, events and other objects. Things we taste, such as a lemon or orange, generate colour imagery. So does the scent of a forest or a flower.

In general colours have associations:

*Blue is associated with loyalty, professionalism or being outdoors.

* Yellow can mean cowardice.

* Red can seem dangerous or exciting.

*Purple is linked to spirituality.

* Pink can seem girlie or fun.

Research shows that 60% of a purchase decision or website engagement is based on colour so choice is important.

And where should you use each colour on your website? Perhaps the logo should be bold and bright, while the rest of the site should be paler and subtler. Or maybe you’ll choose a combination of pastel colours for the site but with bright and bold coloured headers.

At the end of the day web design is subjective and so is colour use but by looking at other sites and thinking about the feelings they evoke you might then be able to create a design that suits your style, flair and business.

While colour has always been seen as the way to offer impact and gain attention in website design, a new trend has been developing for more simplistic and minimalist black, white and sepia designs.

Certainly black and white gives and impression of being business like. It also says “classic”, “simplistic”, “respectful”, even “chic” and it’s a combination that is easy and clear to view.

No doubt in a year or so this minimalist approach to design will change again as people migrate back to more colour again for greater impact in a sea of monotone!

But for the meantime there are lots of websites popping up with the simple black on white concept. See this site, for example by WebCreationUK: http://www.blackonyxgroup.com/

If you’ve be reading our blogs you can’t fail to have realised the importance of the social media network sites and blogs for potential marketing and on-line engagement with customers and people in your field.

Here we bring you another six reasons why you should be tweeting:

Top name networking: Every industry has its big players and Very Important People but in the off-line world your chances of meeting or engaging with such people would be unlikely. On-line, however, and thanks to social network sites such as Twitter you can follow their tweets, reply to tweets, retweet their tweets and general network with them.

Keeping up with news: If you follow blogs or Twitter links within your industry niche you’ll stay on top of the top industry news. It just happens. So you’ll know when someone moves to a new firm or when a company wins an award. Just make sure you follow the blogs/tweets news that interest you.

Advice: Twitter is a great place to receive expert advice. Ask a question and see who replies. Many tweeters are friendly folk and often happy to send a brief message of advice.

Lots of info: Blogs and tweets throw up a wealth of info and resources on a daily basis. You’ll find tutorials, top tips, advice and so much more once you get into the social media networking game.

Feedback: Tweet about a project you’re working on and ask others to reply. They will tell you what they think. You won’t have to wait very long for this to happen either. Twitter is great for instant feedback.

Self-promotion: Write your blog or update your website with something new and then share it on Twitter. It’s the ideal environment for getting your latest piece of business news out there.

Go to it – and blog/tweet.

Latest research shows that Facebook and Twitter access via mobile browsers has been very fast growing in over the last year. The report by comScore reveala that some 30% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January, compared to 22.5% a year ago.

Access to Facebook via mobile browser has gone up 112% over the same period. The hike for Twitter was an amazing 347%.

Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile, is reported as saying:

“Social networking remains one of the most popular and fastest-growing behaviours on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile web.”