Direct sales brand Nutrilite gained a 96 per cent satisfaction rating, coming out on top, while the specialist store GNC came bottom with a rating of 58 per cent, found the survey.
The Vitamin Shoppe and Vitamin World chains were the consumers' favorite store brands while Now and Solaray tied in the health food store category.
Puritan's Pride won the highest satisfaction rating for a catalogue brand, Schiff is the favorite mass market brand and Walgreen's is the pharmacy leader, according to the survey, which was based on 6,395 responses from members of ConsumerLab.com's e-Newsletter. It was conducted by Hartman Interactive, the online division of research and consulting firm The Hartman Group.
Perceived 'effectiveness' was found to be the most important determinant of overall satisfaction with brands.
The survey also explored the use of supplements for specific health conditions. Supplements were most often taken for 'general health' (72 per cent of respondents), colds (48 per cent), 'energy enhancement' (37 per cent), osteoarthritis (34 per cent), 'cholesterol-lowering' (31 per cent), followed by cancer prevention, allergy and weight management (25 per cent). Forty-three per cent of respondents used supplements for six or more conditions.
To help select brands, 67 per cent of respondents indicated that they used information from ConsumerLab.com. The next most popular sources of information were product labels (38 per cent), magazines (38 per cent), books (35 per cent), other Internet sources (32 per cent) with manufacturers making up only 31 per cent of responses.
The Brand Analysis Report, which covers 31 leading brands, and Supplement Use in Health Conditions report, are available from ConsumerLab.com.