Brand Footprint ranking reveals how consumers around the world are buying FMCG brands today, highlighting the opportunities that remain for brands to improve their position.
For the seventh year running, Coca-Cola has been ranked as the world’s most chosen consumer brand. Kantar’s Brand Footprint report ranks 17 companies that saw their fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) chosen from shelves more than one billion times in 2018.
Of these, 14 were local brands in China and India, and these local brands saw an increase in the number of times they were chosen by consumers, with their share rising to 64.8%, versus 35.2% for global brands. Following Coca-Cola in second place was Colgate, which was also the only brand picked by more than half of all global households—with 60.5% penetration globally.
Vim was the fastest-growing Top 50 brand, after seeing 10% growth in consumers’ choice, seeing it rose seven places up the rankings and entered the billionaire club, placed at No.13.
Global brands
The Brand Footprint rankings measure which brands are being bought by most consumers most often. At a global level, Coca-Cola is the world’s most chosen brand, picked from the shelves 5.9bn times in a year. Colgate and Maggi both kept their overall podium positions, while also being the world’s most chosen personal care and food brands, respectively.
Maggi continued its strong performance, seeing how consumer’s choice raised up to 7% to cement its spot as the third most chosen brand in the world. Ferrero’s Kinder climbed seven steps up the rankings, winning over 18.5 million households in one year. Brooke Bond, Dettol and Doritos were the other brands that make up the Top 5 largest global penetration gains and in turn saw an increase in their 2018 global rank.
Local brands
The publication also shows that local brands grew in 2018, taking
64.8% of all brand-consumer choices, versus global brands’ 35.2% share – a gain of 0.3% share, which is a slowdown compared to the 0.5% gain in 2017. The biggest achievement for local brands was in the Health & Beauty category, in which such products managed to rise by +0.7% the number of times consumers chose them. Although local brands’ winning share continues, global manufacturers such as Unilever have shown how they can succeed at a local level, too, by adapting their products to local markets’ needs with brands such as Wheel and Surf Excel in the homecare sector and Clinic Plus in the beauty and personal care sector.
The Brand Footprint report reveals that for global brands it is imperative to win in their biggest market—of the Top 50 brands that grew in their number one market, 82% grew overall, whereas of those that didn’t grow in their number one market, 91% experienced a decline. Josep Montserrat, CEO of Kantar’s Worldpanel Division, explained: “Global FMCG brands have great opportunities to grow by considering local market specificities and by adapting their offer to local consumers’ choices, preferences and purchasing behaviour. “Those brands who can respond to the challenge with agility will continue achieving growth.”