Retail heavyweights have continued to lead the way in the latest Roy Morgan ‘Net Trust’ rankings. The top five most trusted brands are unchanged for a fifth straight quarter – Woolworths, Coles, Bunnings, ALDI and Kmart.
The previously highly trusted QANTAS has nosedived, falling 31 places, moving from the ninth most trusted brand in the September quarter to the fortieth most trusted brand in the December quarter. Just six months ago the national carrier, which has been plagued by perceptions of poor customer service, flight delays, cancellations, and rising prices, was the sixth most trusted brand in the country. The brand now records only marginally more trust than distrust, whereas in the past its trust far surpassed its distrust.
The top 10 most trusted brands in Australia
The top 10 most distrusted brands in Australia
The September 2022 data breach has caused Optus’ Net Distrust Score to deteriorate significantly, moving from the 17th most distrusted brand in the September quarter, to the 2nd most distrusted brand in the December quarter – displacing Telstra. Only Facebook / Meta is now more distrusted than Optus.
Medibank suffered a similar fate as a result of their own data breach in October 2022. The private health insurer was previously a trusted brand, but has now become the 14th most distrusted brand in the country.
Roy Morgan data scientists analysed nominations from more than 22,000 Australians to identify the nation’s most trusted and most distrusted brands.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that brands need to be aware of the dangers that distrust presents in the wake of major scandals.
Levine commented: “What we see with brands that suffer major scandals is that once distrust takes hold, it is very difficult to curtail. We saw it with AMP and the big four banks following the Royal Commission, and we are still seeing it with Harvey Norman. More than 2 years after the JobKeeper scandal they are still ranked in the top 10 most distrusted brands in the country.”
“The first step in re-building trust is to eliminate distrust, and only Roy Morgan measures distrust.”
Other big movers in the ‘Net Trust’ rankings include Twitter, which has moved from the 16th most distrusted brand to the 11th most distrusted brand this quarter, following the purchase of the social media giant by billionaire Elon Musk. BP has also moved back into the Top 20 most distrusted brands, moving from 21st to 16th.
