M&S named UK’s top brand for fourth year in a row

Marks & Spencer has topped the list of the strongest brands in the UK for the fourth year running.

The top ten, compiled by YouGov’s BrandIndex tool, shows M&S with an overall index score of 52.7, ahead of Ikea with 45.6.

Retailers John Lewis and Boots also made the list, in fourth and ninth place, respectively.

M&S CEO Stuart Machin said “We deeply appreciate being named the UK’s Best Brand by YouGov for the fourth year in a row.

“This one means a lot, because it’s based on what our customers say about us. Your trust is at the heart of everything we do.”

He added: “Thank you to our colleagues also for their hard work to make the magic happen. It’s a real team effort.

“This motivates us to be even better. We’re staying positively dissatisfied as we look forward, because we know there is still so much to do, and so much opportunity ahead of us.”

The Post Office was named the UK’s most improved brand, followed by Royal Mail, as the business recovers from the sub-postmaster scandal.

To compile the top brand lists, more than six million interviews were conducted across 28 global markets.

The rankings were then derived from YouGov’s BrandIndex data analysis tool, which delivers “always-on” tracking across key brand health metrics to give a complete and granular picture of brands’ public perception over time.

YouGov’s global analysis looks at the brands with the highest ‘Index’ score, which combines metrics for Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend and Reputation scores to give an overall picture of brand health.

The rankings also measure which brands made the greatest improvements to their Index score during 2025.

“The key to Marks & Spencer’s success is broad based strength across multiple BrandIndex measures,” said a YouGov statement.

“It has achieved the highest score in the top ten for Impression, Quality, Reputation, Satisfaction and Recommend. That strength in depth is a key indicator of long term brand resilience.”

The statement added: “The achievement is all the more impressive given that Marks & Spencer suffered a cyber-attack in 2025 which left shoppers unable to buy online from the company for months.

“The fact that the brand was able to withstand the damage from this attack shows just how strong it is in the UK.

YouGov’s top 10 brands in the UK, based on average impression, quality, value, reputation, satisfaction and recommend scores for the last 12 months

1.    Marks & Spencer
2.    Ikea
3.    Samsung
4.    John Lewis
5.    Netflix
6.    WhatsApp
7.    Sony
8.    Lindt
9.    Boots
10.  Cadbury

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter