Bunnings, Aldi and Kmart are Australia’s most trusted brands while Myer, Target and Nike are big improvers
It’s official once again: Bunnings is the most trusted brand in the 12 months to December 2024.
Bunnings has now held the top spot as Australia’s most trusted brand for five consecutive quarters since taking the lead from previous leader Woolworths in late 2023. The formerly ‘most trusted’ supermarket brand has fallen significantly since then and is now Australia’s ‘most distrusted’ brand!
Filling out the top three are cut-price supermarket Aldi in second place followed closely by discount department store Kmart., Australia’s second and third most trusted brands respectively for a fourth consecutive quarter.
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.”
Figure 1: Australia’s 10 most trusted and 10 most distrusted brands in December 2024. Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). Risk Monitor, 12 month average to December 2024. Base: Australians 14+, n=24,261. Arrows with numbers show ranking change since September 2024.
Trusted Brands – Bunnings, ALDI, Kmart, Apple and Toyota are the top five once again
Bunnings (1st) has retained top spot as the most trusted brand in the December quarter – the popular hardware chain’s fifth straight quarterly victory atop the rankings.
The top three was unchanged with ALDI (2nd) remaining just ahead of Kmart (3rd) while Apple (4th) overtook Toyota (5th) and Australia Post was unchanged in 6th place.
Myer recovered ground lost in the prior quarter by moving back up two spots to 7th and edged out Big W, down one place to 8th, and NRMA, down one position to 9th. Samsung was unchanged in 10th.
Outside the top 10, there were several brands to improve their rankings including Target, up two spots to 12th, Nike, up three places to 14th, and Ikea, up two ranking positions to 20th.
The biggest sliders in the top 20 trust rankings this quarter were Commonwealth Bank, which dropped three spots to 16th, Australia’s most trusted media brand the ABC, down three spots to 19th, and David Jones, which fell out of the top 20 most trusted brands altogether.
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.”
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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 |
