What are Australia’s favourite grocery brands?
The latest Nielsen Top 100 Brands – released this week – has shown food products dominating the leading grocery products in 2009, with Cadbury claiming top place in consumers’ hearts.
The UK-based confectioner – soon to be purchased by Kraft – saw their Cadbury brand surpass the ever popular Coca-Cola beverage and Bega cheese. Rounding out the top five were Smith’s and Kleenex Cottonelle.
“Recognising that consumers own and determine the performance and strength of a brand, we felt it was appropriate in 2009 to move from a purely sales based measure of brand performance to a Nielsen Brand Score – a unique measurement combining presence of the brand in the home, average annual spend on the brand, and consumer engagement or attitude toward the brand,” Chris Percy, Managing Director of Nielsen Consumer Pacific, explained.
“Cadbury and Coca-Cola have secured the top positions in the report as they scored very highly in all of the key consumer dimensions. Their heritage status among other factors has contributed to consumers’ strong emotional and generational connection with the brand, they are present in households all across Australia and in comparison to the other super brands in the report – consumers spend relatively more on these products.”
The Nielsen Top 100 Brands Report also overlays the total estimated investment in media advertising for each of the brands. And, despite what looked to be a turbulent economic year for advertising, most manufacturers enhanced their spend – led by the now Heinz-owned Golden Circle (up an estimated 177% year-on-year).
In the case of the top three, Cadbury increased its estimated ad spend by 20 per cent, Coca-Cola by 19 per cent, and Bega by an infinite amount as they had not invested in advertising in 2008.
“Cadbury is incredibly proud to be named Australia’s number one brand. Having information that helps us to understand what motivates people to purchase and enjoy our products, greatly influences how we develop and market our products,” Amanda Banfield, Marketing Director at Cadbury Australia and New Zealand, said.
The report discovered that heritage/generational/classic brands dominate with 20 of top 25 brands, while, similarly, food resonates with 20 of the top 25. An estimated 17 of the top 25 increased ad spend in 2009 by a double digit percentage or more, but just six of the top 100 did not advertise at all. And, Cadbury and Coca-Cola received the most media support, with an estimated $23.65 million and $13.68 million in media spend for 2009, respectively.
“While average annual spend and the degree of affinity to a brand varied significantly among the top 100 brands, clearly it is the brands that we identify with, find most relevant to our lifestyles, and kept top of mind, which perform better than most,” Percy concluded.
The Top 25 (those who cut media spend last year are underlined):
- Cadbury
- Coca-Cola
- Bega
- Smith’s
- Kleenex Cottonelle
- Birds Eye
- Mainland
- Berri
- Sorbent
- Colgate
- Bulla
- Golden Circle
- John West
- Quilton
- Vegemite
- Kleenex
- Shapes
- Milo
- Weet-Bix
- Schweppes
- Dairy Farmers
- Coon
- Lindt
- Tim Tam
- Pura
