Aldi is now Australia’s most trusted brand, according to the latest Roy Morgan Net Trust Score survey, which saw the supermarket brand move up from third to first.
According to the survey Aldi’s main supermarket rivals Woolworths and Coles rated highly when considering trust, but fell behind Aldi on Net Trust Score (NTS) due to their much higher levels of distrust.
Despite Aldi’s strong performance with the top NTS of any brand, supermarkets as a category have a minus NTS falling behind other industries such as Automotive, Consumer Product Brands, Travel, and Technology.
According to Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine, the importance of trust to a brand’s sustainable future is increasingly recognised as a key metric.
“Nowhere is a high level of trust more important than when it comes to the provision of the food we eat,” Levine said.
“The success of Aldi’s entrance to the Australian market has been built not only on discount prices but also a reputation for reliability and meeting the needs of consumers.
“Aldi’s ability to excel at its core competencies has built a level of trust in the Australian market without at the same time attracting the degree of distrust seen by its rivals.
“Measuring trust alone is never enough – we need to measure distrust and then subtract if from trust to reveal the accurate health of a brand.
“Although Aldi’s larger rivals both have high levels of trust, it is the number of Australians who express distrust in the two market leaders that they should be worried about.
“To rise to meet the challenge presented by Aldi, and other newer entrants into grocery category such as Amazon Fresh, Costco and Kaufland, traditional market leaders Coles and Woolworths need to develop strategies to reduce their growing levels of distrust,” she said.
Important drivers of trust include reliability, customer focus, knowledgeable staff, ease of contact and previous good experiences with the company, in addition to other key performance indicators. Whereas drivers of brand distrust revolve around perceptions of self-centredness, greed, and dishonest and deceitful business practices.