Bunnings, ALDI and Woolworths Australia’s most trusted brands
The question of trust is weighing heavily on people around the world right now. Here in Australia public authorities assured us there was no need for panic-buying in response to the spread of coronavirus, but consumers still panicked. Why? In a word: Distrust.
Roy Morgan research shows that distrust is one of the most significant, yet least recognised risks to Australian business and society in general.
For many people, seeing widespread distrust in action has come as a surprise. But Roy Morgan analysts recognised several years ago that something was building in society which wasn’t being captured by traditional measures. A major ongoing research program revealed the corrosive effects distrust was having.
The newly released March 2020 edition of the Roy Morgan Risk Report, available now, shows that topping the brands with a Net Distrust Score — where distrust outweighs trust, and in these cases far outweighs it — are Facebook, Telstra and AMP. Mining and Petroleum is the most distrusted industry sector.
On the flipside, topping the list of brands with a Net Trust Score — meaning the trust felt toward them outweighs the distrust — are Bunnings, ALDI and Woolworths. Retail is the most trusted industry sector.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine explains:
“Our work uncovered the scale of distrust – this previously invisible force. It’s not uncertainty or even an absence of trust. It is something separate and more powerful, an active sense that we were foolish to trust too much, and it cannot be ignored. For brands and businesses, it leads directly to customer churn, loss of market share, and a plummeting share price — in the case of AMP a 70 percent share-price drop and $2 billion of lost value.”
Building from its unequalled Single Source database, for which 1,000 Australians are interviewed in their own homes each week, the firm developed the Roy Morgan Risk Monitor to measure the opposing forces of distrust and trust across 25 industries and more than 200 brands, from commercial entities to government services and sports.
“It is named the Risk Monitor because this isn’t ‘just a marketing or comms issue’,” says Ms Levine. “It goes to the heart of corporate governance. Distrust should be on the Risk register of every publicly listed company in Australia. Monitoring it should be a priority.”
Other noteworthy results include:
• Only two car manufacturers are distrusted overall: Volkswagen and Holden, a response to the former’s emissions scandal and the latter’s closing of Australian facilities and retreat from the Australian market.
• Centrelink is deeply distrusted, with Federal and State Governments also distrusted overall.
• All of the Big-4 banks are distrusted, with NAB in the unwelcome position of the bank with the highest net distrust. However, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank has the highest trust among 22 banks, credit unions and building societies ranked in the trusted and distrusted brand lists.
Top 10 Brands by Net Trust Score – December 2019
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). Risk Monitor, January 2019 – December 2019; n=13,539. Base: Australians 14+ who answered either Trust or Distrust of brands; n=7,097. Note: Includes key commercial brands with at least 20 mentions across trust and distrust.
These insights are drawn from the ongoing Roy Morgan Risk Monitor – based on over 1,000 interviews each month. Respondents are asked which brands and companies they trust, and why, and also which brand and companies they distrust, and why. The survey is specially designed to be open-ended and context-free, i.e. unprompted.
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). Risk Monitor, January 2019 – December 2019; n=13,539. Base: Australians 14+ who answered either Trust or Distrust of brands; n=7,097. Note: Includes key commercial brands with at least 20 mentions across trust and distrust.
To gain a greater understanding of Roy Morgan’s Risk Monitor or to explore the results for specific industries and brands contact Roy Morgan. View the March 2020 edition of the Roy Morgan Risk Report.
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Roy Morgan - Enquiries
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Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
