International research company YouGov releases the 2017 BrandIndex showcasing the best brands.

The YouGov BrandIndex rates the overall health of the brand and takes into account consumers’ perceptions of a brand’s quality, value, impression, satisfaction, reputation and whether they would recommend the brand to others.

For 2017, Google sits at the top of the Australian list and also commands the number 1 spot globally. Paypal is the second rated brand followed by Bunnings, the strongest Australian brand.

Australians still value local brands with more than half of the top 10 being Australian brands.

In contrast to global index where digital and technology brands dominate, Australia has five retail brands in the top 10; Bunnings, Coles, Kmart, JB Hifi and Woolworths. Qantas is the only non-retail Aussie brand. Toyota is the only car brand in the Australian top 10.

Netflix leads the list of brands that improved in past twelve months and is perhaps a sign of the brand continuing to grow in the Australian market.

Volkswagen was second on the improver list and now has a BrandHealth score of 8.1. Malaysia Airlines and 7-Eleven, while still struggling with negative scores are among the top improvers. While they still have a lot of work to do, it shows that brand repair is starting to happen for all three brands after some challenging times.

The Index Rankings list shows the brands with the highest average Index scores between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.  The Index Improvers list ranks the brands with the highest increase in Index comparing scores from the previous year. Both scores are representative of the general population. Detailed industry breakdowns and global lists are available on the YouGov site.

Michael Hughes

Michael is Managing Partner and Strategy Director at Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years’ experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in unlocking the strategic power of your brand to create a differentiated, compelling and authentic brand proposition that will engage all your audiences. Michael has extensive experience working across Australia and the Middle East working with leading Australian and International organisations across just about every sector.