Bunnings has toppled Woolworths as Australia’s most ‘trusted’ brand – what makes us trust a brand in the first place?

Louise Grimmer, University of TasmaniaThink of some of the world’s biggest brands: Nike, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Apple. With what do you associate them? Are they positive associations? Now consider, do you trust them? Brand trust is a measure of how customers feel about a brand in terms of how well the brand delivers on its promises. Trust is an important measure for any organisation, large or small. Whether or not customers trust a brand can be the difference between choosing that brand’s products or services over another. In Australia, Woolworths held the title of our most trusted brand for three and a half years. But recent cost-of-living pressures have put supermarkets in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Roy Morgan Research’s most recent trust rankings show Woolworths has slipped to number two, handing its crown to hardware behemoth Bunnings. It’s clear that trust is fragile and can be quickly squandered when brands lose touch with those they serve. So what makes us trust a brand in the first place? And why do we trust some more than others? What makes us...
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The LA fires have prompted a reckoning for the insurance industry – Australian premiums could soar as a result

Paula Jarzabkowski, The University of Queensland; Katie Meissner, The University of Queensland; Rosie Gallagher, The University of Queensland, and Tyler Riordan, The University of QueenslandA series of wildfires in Los Angeles County have caused widespread devastation in California, including at least 24 deaths and the destruction of more than 12,000 homes and structures. Thousands of residents have been evacuated, and the danger isn’t over yet. Some estimates have put the cost of the damage and economic loss at between A$400 billion and A$450 billion, of which only A$32 billion is insured. This is a stark illustration of the insurance protection gap – the difference between insured and uninsured losses. As California rebuilds, it means the bill for uninsured losses will fall on the property owners themselves and public funds. These catastrophic fires should ring alarm bells in Australia, where global ripple effects are likely to force up our own insurance premiums. Most importantly, we must grapple with and prepare for the grim prospect of our own similar disaster. Uninsurable...
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Australia sets goal of ending HIV transmission by 2030

Canberra, (IANS): The Australian government has set a goal of ending the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the country by 2030.The Minister for Health Mark Butler on Thursday released Australia's ninth National HIV Strategy for 2024-2030, describing it as a final step towards achieving the elimination of HIV transmission in Australia, Xinhua news agency reported."Through this strategy, we establish a path to be the first country to virtually eliminate HIV transmission by 2030," the strategy said.According to the strategy, HIV diagnoses in Australia declined by 33 per cent between 2014 and 2023.It estimated that the population-wide prevalence of HIV in Australia in 2023 was 0.14 per cent."In the 40 years since HIV/AIDS reached Australia, we have made remarkable progress," Butler said in a statement.The strategy said that if the transmission of HIV is eliminated in Australia, the country's response will shift to supporting people with the virus to live healthy lives.Butler pledged that nobody with HIV would be left behind and that Australia would continue offering...
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