Bunnings is Australia’s most trusted brand again ahead of Aldi, Kmart and Toyota, while Big W and NRMA improve
It’s official: Bunnings is the most trusted brand in the 12 months to September 2024.
Filling out the top three most trusted brands for a third consecutive quarter are cut-price supermarket Aldi followed by discount department store Kmart. Toyota in fourth, Apple in fifth and Australia Post in sixth were all unchanged from last quarter.
Bunnings has held top spot as Australia’s most trusted brand for four consecutive quarters since taking top spot at the end of last year from previous leader Woolworths. In mid-2023 the two major supermarkets held the top two spots as Australia’s most trusted brands – but have since fallen completely out of favour.
The impressive performances of Aldi and IGA, both ranked within Australia’s top 15 most trusted brands, prove that not all supermarkets have lost the trust of Australians during the current cost of living crisis.
There wasn’t much movement in the top 10 except for Big W moving up one place to seventh and NRMA moving up one spot to eighth, both at the expense of Myer, down two ranking places to ninth.
Notable improvers outside the top 10 included JB Hi-Fi,up one spot to 11th, Commonwealth Bank, up seven places to 13th and RACQ which entered the top 20 most trusted brands in 18th.
According to Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine: “Bunnings has built on a successful year by topping the rankings as Australia’s most trusted brand for a fourth straight quarter.
“The top six was remarkably stable in the latest results, with Aldi, Kmart, Toyota, Apple, and Australia Post all unchanged and filling out the top six positions as trusted brands.
“A year ago, Bunnings was ranked as Australia’s second most trusted brand – splitting the two major supermarkets Woolworths (first) and Coles (third) on the podium. Since then, the two supermarkets have fallen away significantly and are now ranked within the three most distrusted brands – just behind Optus – Australia’s most distrusted brand for a sixth consecutive quarter.
Figure 1: Australia’s 10 most trusted and 10 most distrusted brands in September 2024. Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). Risk Monitor, 12 month average to September 2024. Base: Australians 14+, n=24,401. Arrows with numbers show ranking change since June 2024.
Trusted Brands – Bunnings, ALDI, Kmart, Toyota and Apple are the top five once again
Bunnings (1st) has retained top spot as the most trusted brand in the September quarter – the hardware chain’s fourth straight quarterly victory atop the rankings.
Behind the leader was an unchanged top six including ALDI (2nd), Kmart (3rd), Toyota (4th), Apple (5th) and Australia Post (6th).
In the top 10 the only movements were for Big W, up one spot to 7th, NRMA, up one place to 8th with both improving at the expense of Myer, down two spots to 9th.
Outside the top 10, there were several brands to improve their rankings including an impressive result for the Commonwealth Bank, up a stunning seven spots to 13th, RACQ’s entry into the top 20, rising four places to 18th. JB Hi-Fi also improved, up one ranking spot to 11th and Chemist Warehouse, up one spot to 25th.
There were also brands in the top 20 trusted brands which slid during the quarter including IGA, down two places to 15th, David Jones, dropping two spots to 20th, and ABC, Nike and Bendigo Bank which all dropped by one place.
Distrusted Brands – Woolworths and Coles slide into the bottom three for the first time
Telecommunications company Optus is once again the most distrusted brand in Australia, a position held by the Singaporean-owned telco for a sixth straight quarter stretching back to mid-2023.
Continuing its slide which began just over a year ago was Woolworths, which dropped a further 3 places to be the second most distrusted brand in the September quarter. Rival Coles hasn’t fared much better, down a further ranking place to be the third most distrusted brand.
Both major supermarkets have lost well over 200 places in the trust rankings compared to a year ago.
The continued slide in rankings of the major supermarkets handed some rare good news to Australia’s national carrier, Qantas, improving two spots to 4th, and Facebook/Meta, also improving two spots to 5th.
Other brands to fare poorly in the latest quarter included online Chinese retailers Temu, deteriorating two spots in the distrust rankings to 8th, Shein, deteriorating one spot to 20th, as well as electric car company Tesla, which deteriorated one place to be the 18th most distrusted brand in Australia.
Resource companies Rio Tinto, deteriorated one spot in the distrust rankings to 13th and BP, deteriorated three spots to 15th, in the current quarter. However, BP rival Shell fared better, improving its ranking by two spots to 17th.
There were several other companies in the top 20 distrusted brands to improve their rankings in the latest quarter including two high-profile social media companies Twitter/X which improved by one spot to 9th, and TikTok, also improving one place as the 10th most distrusted brand in Australia.
Two brands well known to the Roy Morgan trusted and distrusted brand rankings also improved their standing, with Harvey Norman improving one spot to 14th and Medibank improving two spots to 19th, both improving further from their previous rankings among the top ten most distrusted brands in the country.
Subscribe to Roy Morgan’s YouTube channel here to ensure you don’t miss our next webinar on trust and distrust. The Risk Report with rankings of over 200 brands and analysis by industry is now available for purchase here. Trust and Distrust Webinar Reports with insights into trust and distrust across various industries are available here.
The Roy Morgan Risk Monitor surveys approximately 2,000 Australians every month (around 25,000 per year) to measure levels of trust and distrust of around 1,000 brands across 27 industries. Respondents are asked which brands they trust, and why, and which brands they distrust, and why. The survey is designed to be open-ended, context-free, and unprompted. Roy Morgan Risk Monitor data is available in a variety of formats, from snapshot overviews to detailed tracking of individual brands and competitors. Industry Trust and Brand Health Surveys are also conducted (e.g. recent Private Health Insurance and Agribusiness Surveys, Travel and Tourism, Telco, Utilities, Insurance, Banking, Media, Retail, Real Estate, etc.) for deep insights into brand health, perceptions of, and customer experience (CX) with brands.
To learn more call (+61) (3) 9224 5309 or email askroymorgan@roymorgan.com.
About Roy Morgan Roy Morgan is the source of the most comprehensive data on Australians’ behaviour and attitudes, surveying over 1,000 people weekly in a continuous cycle that has been running for two decades. The company has more than 80 years’ experience collecting objective, independent information.
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 |
