The most popular brands in Europe? Kinder Ferrero second only to Coca Cola

Three of the twenty FMCG brands most chosen by European consumers are Italian. And three other Made in Italy banners stand out for their performance in the top 100. This was revealed by the new edition of the Brand Footprint Europe Report, produced by CPS GfK in collaboration with Kantar Worldpanel on the basis of shoppers' preferences towards brands as measured by the Consumer Reach Point (Crp) index, elaborated on the basis of population penetration and purchase frequency.

"This study confirms that brands grow primarily through the acquisition of new shoppers and less through increased frequency or purchase tickets," comments Federico Capeci, managing director of Kantar Italia. "Moreover, it consolidates the evidence that brands with high equity have better, healthier and longer-lasting growth. In fact, those that are relevant to the consumer and perceived as different from others ('meaningfully different') have five times the capacity to grow".

Whilst Coca-Cola remains the most popular brand in Europe, Kinder strengthened its position as the second most popular brand in Europe, performing well after difficult years and despite an unfavourable economic scenario. In 2023, Ferrero's historic brand increased its Crp by 4.2%, achieving the best result among the top 20 brands in Europe, penalised by a critical year in terms of consumption and very challenging on the competitive level.

The only other brand that managed to grow was Haribo (ninth in the ranking), which improved its Crp by +1.8% thanks to increased household penetration. On the other hand, Kinder mainly benefited from an increased frequency of purchase (8.6 acts per year) by the 52.2% of European households that buy its products. And who, in total, bought them 961 million times during 2023. Kinder's Crp grew in 12 of the 21 countries surveyed (thanks mainly to the contribution of Hungary, Bulgaria and Belgium) and peaked at +8% in the discount channel.

Less brilliant was the performance of the other two Italian brands in the top 20: -4.3% Crp for Barilla (15th) and -1.7% for Mulino Bianco (16th). Also worth noting is the rise of Nutella, which climbed three places in a year to 21st place in the European FMCG ranking despite a slightly negative Crp figure (-0.1%).