Qantas has suffered a huge plunge in the estimated value of its brand after a horror year dealing with lawsuits and waves of public criticism, falling 22 places in the national rankings.

It’s a long fall from grace for Qantas, which in 2019 was rated Australia’s strongest brand.

Analysis published on Wednesday by Brand Finance Australia also named Bunnings as Australia’s strongest brand for the third consecutive year, and Woolworths as the nation’s most valuable brand.

But it was the national carrier that had the most extraordinary result, falling some seven per cent in brand value by dollar, and with its brand rated just 71st out of the top 100, due to “reputational issues [generating] negative media coverage”.

The 22-place fall worsens a four-rank slide seen last year as Qantas’ woes deepened, particularly amid an ACCC lawsuit alleging the airline planned flight cancellations.

Interestingly, however, Qantas’ discount carrier Jetstar avoided the malaise and actually climbed 20 places in the rankings to 46th, suggesting fallout had been contained to the Flying Kangaroo.

Overall, the 2024 brand rankings showed major retailers continuing to dominate, but not without issue amid rising consumer anger about high inflation for consumer goods such as groceries.

Woolworths, for example, maintained its spot as the most valuable brand, but experienced a 5 per cent decline to $15.4 billion.

Telstra, the second most valuable, fell 1 per cent to about $13 billion.

Brand Finance Australia managing director Mark Crowe said the cost-of-living crisis and a slowing economy were affecting brands in the latest rankings.

“This year’s Australia 100 highlights the important role of strong brands during challenging economic times in growing or minimising loss of value and mitigating reputational risk while providing reassurance to consumers confronted by cost-of-living pressures,” he explained.

Those pressures didn’t appear to have much of an effect on hardware chain Bunnings, which saw its brand value soar 20 per cent to $6.5 billion in the year and took top gong as the strongest brand in the rankings for the third straight year on the back of 88.2/100 scoring.

Bunnings is reaping the financial rewards too. Its sales rose 3.7 per cent last year nationally and by 1.8 per cent on a same-store basis, according to financial reports from parent Wesfarmers.

Second place in the brand-strength rankings went to surprise rising star NRMA Insurance, which saw its brand value skyrocket 91 per cent to $2 billion and jumped seven places in the rankings to finish just behind Bunnings.

That also saw it displace Woolworths, which fell to third on the strongest brand list, but was still the most valuable brand surveyed by Brand Finance.

Telstra came second on that measure (valued at $13 billion), and Commonwealth Bank ($10.6 billion) was third.

Interestingly, Coles managed to maintain its position as the third-most-valuable brand in Australia despite suffering a 9 per cent decrease to $9.8 billion over the year.

Both major supermarkets saw their brand values decline in a year marred by high inflation and mounting outrage from the public about grocery prices, with an upcoming public review set to consider a crackdown on the way prices transfer from farm gates to supermarket shelves.

The research was put together in October, so it has not captured the more recent anger at the supermarkets over their prices.