Market research firm YouGov has released its annual Best Brand Rankings, with Australian household hardware and garden chain, Bunnings, claiming the top spot.

The rankings are based on YouGov Brand Index’s Index score, a measure of overall brand health calculated by taking the average of Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend and Reputation.

Bunnings achieved a score of 49.2, edging out tech giant Google and confectionery brand Cadbury, which took second and third places with scores of 46.2 and 46.0 respectively.

The Index Rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average Index scores between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023. All brands have been tracked for at least six months to be included in the rankings.

In addition to the overall brand health rankings, YouGov’s Brand Index also measured the top ten most improved brands over the past year. Australian skincare brand QV topped this list, with an increased score of +4.0 points. Social media platform Facebook (+3.4) and travel fare aggregator Booking.com (+3.3) followed closely behind.

Other brands that made the top ten in the most improved list include Colgate, Toyota, Samsung, YouTube, PayPal, JB Hi-Fi, and Weet-Bix. Brands such as Amazon, Toyota, WhatsApp, Pay in 4 (by PayPal), Qatar Airways, P&O cruises, and Nivea also showed significant improvement.

To appear in the Improvers tables, brands must have been tracked for at least 18 months. All Index scores listed have been rounded to a single decimal place; however, additional precision has been used to assign ranks.