Bakery and snack leaders in Kantar’s Brand Footprint global ranking
In 2018, Lay’s grew Consumer Reach Points (CRPs) by 5% – gaining 29.6% in penetration points – placing it securely in ‘the FMCG billionaire club’, in 5th position.
CRPs are the basis of Kantar’s Brand Footprint ranking, measuring how many households around the world are buying a brand (penetration) and how often (consumer choice).
Seventeen brands were chosen over one billion times during 2018 – the golden ticket to the exclusive ‘billionaire club’ – along with 14 local brands from China and India.
Indian biscuit and snack producer Parle took the top spot of the local billionaire brands – a consistent contender on Kantar’s Brand Footprint rankings in India.
Coca-Cola remained the world’s most chosen brand, for the seventh year running.
Growth is hard to find
According to Kantar, growth in the global FMCG market has slowed, down to 2.1% last year versus 2.8% in 2017.
This was also reflected in the number of brands growing and declining, with 54% seeing a fall in CRPs in 2018 versus 51% in 2017.
However, it reported the overall number of times brands are chosen each year is increasing.
Global brands
Local brands in India saw an increase in the number of times they are chosen by local consumers, with its share rising to 64.8% versus global brands’ 35.2%.
Parle, for example, added more shoppers in 2018 to reach 74% penetration. According to Kantar, one of Parle’s wins was communication during the Indian Premier League, which was watched by nearly 700 million people.
Elsewhere, Kellogg’s remained the fastest growing brand in RTE cereals in Nigeria; while in Greece, biscuit and cookie manufacturer Violanta saw incredible growth, reaching almost 25% of domestic households after increasing penetration by 14%.
Irish family-owned snack brand Keogh also experienced huge growth in CRPs – increasing penetration points by 11.4%, which Kantar credits to the brand story around its potato chips that emphasizes its ‘Irishness’, featuring illustrations of local landmarks and scenes of the Keogh’s farm on its packaging. Being gluten-free also helped.
McVitie’s secured a top three ranking in Kantar’s UK report – up from its 4th place position last year and placing it higher than Hovis and Walkers.
pladis-owned McVitie’s was purchased 284 million times from supermarket shelves in 2018, making it one of the brands in the ranking to reach more than 80% of the UK population. McVitie’s acclaims the growth in part to its trend-led product launches, including McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes Nibbles, which achieved sales of £2.5m in its first three months on-shelf.
In Kantar’s online brand ranking, McVitie’s was placed 15th, behind PepsiCo’s Quaker (14th), but ahead of Lay’s (24th) and Mondelēz International’s Oreos (25th).
Win on-the-go
Kantar’s report also included an out-of-home ranking for the first time.
A large percentage of snacking purchases are made for out-of-home (OOH) consumption, mainly driven by impulse purchases, but with health and wellbeing on top of mind.
“Understanding this and having a strategy to win on-the-go – particularly in the channels outside of modern trade that perform stronger in OOH – can help brands achieve growth when they would otherwise be struggling,” said Maria Josep Martínez, Global OOH director, Worldpanel Division.
In snacking OOH, Lay’s ranked second (+5%) behind Unilever’s Walls, followed by Cheetos in fifth spot (+6%), Oreos in sixth place (+6%) and Doritos, tenth (-14%).
Takeaway trends:
Kantar highlighted four trends that are dramatically impacting brand and category dynamism in both the short and the long-term.
- Having an online offer is a must-have for every brand;
- Don’t underestimate the importance of older shoppers. Consumers over 50 are more important to FMCG brands than millennials and Generation Z combined;
- Shopping and consumption frontiers are evolving, as out-of-home and take-home occasions continue to blur;
- 10 Indian and Chinese brands would be in the Top 25 ranking if they expanded globally.
