More than 34% of responses to a brand loyalty study by market research consultancy Millward Brown highlighted Tesco as the brand with which consumers felt most affinity, up from 31% in 2003.
Asda scored 19% and Sainsbury's 11%, while Safeway and Iceland did not register at all among the 400 UK adults surveyed by Millward Brown.
The brand equity study quantifies and diagnoses the strengths and weaknesses of the top nine supermarket brands among consumers.
According to Peter Walshe, senior account director at Millward Brown, the problem for Tesco lies in the quality of consumer loyalty, which has declined from 5.7 in 2004 to 1.9 on a loyalty scale of one to 10.
Tesco's brand equity had declined in terms of emotional affinity, popularity and price, according to Walshe.
Waitrose has performed far better in the emotional affinity and popularity stakes, even though its price rating declined.
Walshe said: "Tesco is experiencing the perils of being the dominant player in the market. Consumers are acting on their dislike of 'market dominance' and the growing desire to buy quality products whatever the price. Waitrose is making the most of this trend with its strategy to sell on added value rather than price."
Asda's reliance on price to secure consumer bonding has weakened its customer loyalty, Walshe said, and its chances of future growth and success were falling as a result.
Sainsbury's had more promising future prospect despite its lack of brand popularity.
"Sainsbury's is beginning to turn the corner. It showed signs of recovery in 2003, leveraging its remaining consumer affinity to earn itself higher numbers of brand loyal consumers," Walshe said.
Morrisons is consumers' fourth favourite brand at 6%, and Waitrose fifth with 3%. Least favoured brands were Iceland, Somerfield, Aldi and M&S.
The WPP-owned BrandZ database covers more than 25,000 brands across the world.
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