A recent Roy Morgan Risk Report identified Australia’s top 10 most trusted and top 10 most distrusted brands and companies. And in uncertain times it is all about perceived trust – or lack thereof.
The report results were from 10,728 Australians and revealed some surprising shake-ups. Previous trust stalwarts like banks and utilities have been banished to the naughty list. Woolworths is Australia’s most trusted brand followed by bitter rival Coles.
And the most distrusted are Facebook (# Delete Facebook) and Telstra (which this author and judging by reader comments most of Australia has had no end of issues with).
A few good ones
On the good side are Apple, Microsoft and Myer (it slips in and out). In Apple’s case, it has been heavily spruiking trust and making the right noises. In Microsoft’s case, the move to a new CEO Sataya Nadella in 2014 and a 360° turnaround from world domination 101 to ‘how can we help the world’ make Microsoft cool and trustworthy again. I venture that Microsoft’s offer to step in if Google deserts Australia will further propel it up the trust charts.
A new entrant on the naughty side is Amazon. No matter how big it gets in the US, it is not a trusted brand with big hopes that Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy will change that when he takes the CEO spot for Jeff Bezos. It is not fair that the world’s largest online retailer knows more about you than you do.
Google is still on the naughty list and likely to go down a few notches over its refusal to pay for Australian news.
Huawei is also a new entrant on the naughty list. Joe and Jane Average only really see the 5G commotion. Australia and most of the western free world won’t let it into our supercritical 5G infrastructure. And it is the government’s right to select suppliers they are comfortable with. But the brand is now so damaged that Huawei has begun flogging off sub-brands like Honor and Mate and P-series to other owners.
GadgetGuy’s take
It is all about trust – or lack thereof. Last year we published a series of articles on trust (Click here). The time when you could look a person in the eye and judge their mettle has gone in this digital and lawless world. If you want to know more about trust in a digital world, click here.
