Roy Morgan has released its most and least trusted brands for the 12 months to December 2024 and, surprise surprise, Bunnings has retained its top spot.
Aldi remains second, in stark contrast to Woolies and Coles who are the least and second-least trusted brands in the country.
Optus climbed two places to third-least trusted. Kmart was the third-most trusted.
There were significant movers outside the top three with Apple up by one spot to fourth, and Myer the big improver in the top 10, up two places to be the seventh most trusted brand in Australia.
Other brands to enjoy a strong end to the year were Target, up two ranking spots to 12th, Nike, the biggest mover in the top 20 rising three places to 14th, IKEA, which entered the top 20 in 20th place, and the two motoring and insurance organisations, RACQ, up one place to 17th, and RAC, up one place to 18th.
The biggest sliders in the top 20 were Commonwealth Bank, which dropped three places to 16th, and Australia’s most trusted media brand, the ABC, which was down three spots to 19th overall.
According to Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine: “Bunnings continues to go from strength to strength and has now been Australia’s most trusted brand for five straight quarters since late 2023. Aldi and Kmart are once again comfortably regarded as amongst the country’s top three most trusted brands.
“A really interesting insight about the top three most trusted brands is that none is governed by a board that makes profit announcements and they all operate on an ’everyday low prices’ model. This approach helps them avoid accusations of fake discounts and the controversies around genuine sale events.
“The top ten was little changed although Apple moved into fourth position at the expense of Toyota, and the newly merged Myer climbed two spots to seventh by overtaking Big W and NRMA.”
Recently, there have been seen some interesting changes in perceptions of private health insurance brands. While HCF remains stable as the 30th most trusted brand, in the last quarter, Bupa experienced a dramatic fall from 38th place to 64th (down 26 rankings). While less dramatically, nib also worsened, falling from 67th to 75th (down eight places). Their reputational falls were caused by increasing distrust largely due to service-related issues.
Distrusted Brands – Woolworths and Coles are the two most distrusted brands for the first time
For the first time, the supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles have arrived as Australia’s two most distrusted brands. Both brands fell an extra ranking spot in the December quarter to finally give some breathing space to telecommunications company Optus – now only Australia’s third most distrusted brand.
This is a welcome development for Optus which has been under pressure as Australia’s most distrusted brand for nearly two years stretching back to mid-2023 – until now.
Compared to December 2023, Woolworths has dropped 231 places, and Coles has dropped 227 spots.
Also dealing with rising distrust are several ‘tech-related’ companies – Facebook/Meta, Temu, Amazon, Tesla and Shein – which all experienced rising distrust during the December quarter.
Social media company Facebook/Meta deteriorated one spot to be the 4th most distrusted ahead of Qantas, which improved for a second straight quarter, and is now in 5th.place.
The discount online Chinese retailers are continuing to face rising distrust with Temu deteriorating another spot in the distrust rankings to 7th. and Shein, deteriorating by three spots spot to 17th. Long-time online retailer Amazon also suffered a reverse in the quarter and is now the 11th most distrusted brand in Australia.
However, the big mover in the top 20 distrust rankings this quarter was electric car company Tesla, which deteriorated five rankings to 13th and looks poised to enter the top 10 most distrusted brands this year.
According to Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine: “Interestingly, the biggest reason provided by respondents for marking Tesla down was owner and CEO Elon Musk’s exploits during and after the US Election.
“If anything, since the end of last year, Musk has not slowed down and is now more prominent than ever in President Trump’s new administration as he heads up the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE).
“I said earlier that a weakened brand can impact future sales, and here’s what that looks like for Tesla: By January, UK sales had plunged 12%, even as EV registrations surged to a new record. Across the channel, there was a 63% decline in January sales in France, a 59% fall in Germany, drops of 44% and 38% in Sweden and Norway, and a 42% fall in the Netherlands.
“On the home front, in Australia last month, Tesla suffered a 33% sales decline year-on-year, reaching its lowest level since July 2022.”
