Coca-Cola remains the biggest selling brand in Irish grocery, retaining its position at the top of the annual Checkout Top 100 Brands report for the ninth year in a row.
Milk brand Avonmore places 2nd, Brennan’s bread comes 3rd and Lucozade is 4th. Cadbury Dairy Milk, which places 5th, is the first new entry to the top five since 2009, overtaking Tayto (6th). 7Up (7th), Jacobs (8th), Walkers (9th) and Danone (10th) complete the Top 10.
In addition, Budweiser retains its position as Ireland’s Number One off-trade alcohol brand, Blossom Hill is Ireland’s leading wine brand, Smirnoff is Ireland’s top spirit, and Silk Cut holds on to its position as Ireland’s leading tobacco brand.
According to Maureen Mooney, Commercial Director, Nielsen, while big brands traditionally rely on advertising to communicate their brand identity, those at the top increasingly need to be savvier about how they engage with consumers.
"Ad spend is a major part of the success of many brands, but if you look at the overall market, ad spend in traditional media has declined a little bit," she explains.
"The brands that have been most successful are the ones that have continued to maintain spend, but have also combined that with promotions, new product development and in-store engagement.
"There's no set formula: some brands are doing a bit of everything in order to come out as a winner; others rely on word of mouth and product quality to gain a foothold."
The grocery category that is represented most in the Checkout Top 100 Brands is Confectionery, with a total of 12 confectionery brands featured in the list; Cadbury Dairy Milk (5th), Galaxy (36th), Nestlé KitKat (49th), Haribo (53rd), Maltesers (55th), Kinder (56th), Nestlé Rowntree (67th), Cadbury Roses (75th), Nestlé Aero (82nd), Cadbury Snack (87th), Cadbury Twirl (95th) and Mars (100th).
Big movers in this year’s Checkout Top 100 Brands include Innocent, with its juice range rising 23 places since last year to sit in 30th position, one spot behind its closest rival, Tropicana.
Yoghurt brand Muller rises six places to 20th, with Glenisk, another popular yoghurt brand, rising 13 places to 39th. Interestingly, while Muller and Glenisk both posted gains, Danone, the leading brand in the category, dropped two places, to 10th.
Other eye-openers include Pringles, up 11 places to 34th following the brand’s high profile takeover by Kellogg’s last year. The brand is actually the strongest performing in the Kellogg’s portfolio, ahead of Special K (78th) and Corn Flakes (79th). Wrigley’s Extra is up four places to 15th, while Dairygold also rises four places to 19th, on the back of its successful ‘Butter It, Scoop It, Dollop It’ campaign last year. Cordial brand MiWadi rises 13 places to 62nd; Andrex is up 17 places to 72nd; Galtee sliced meat is up an impressive 42 places to 81st; and Cully & Sully is a notable debutante in the list this year, rising 28 places to sit at 91st.
Going the other way are Club (soft drinks), which drops three places and out of the top 20, to sit in 21st; Pedigree, down four places to 24th and Red Bull, down four places to 26th. Further down the list, Johnston Mooney & O’Brien drops eight places to 37th; bottled water brand Volvic is down nine places to 47th, with Deep River Rock dropping eight places to 51st; Nestlé KitKat drops nine places to 49th; Denny Sausages are down nine places to 63rd; Cadbury Roses are down 11 places to 75th; Kellogg’s Special K is down 13 places to 78th; Birds Eye (Frozen Poultry) is down 15 places to 84th; and Benecol is down 12 places to 94th.
“When weighing up leading brands’ performance, it’s important to note, as well, that it’s not all about price,” says Mooney. “Premium products are selling very well in certain categories. For example, the yoghurt category is actually declining, but luxury yoghurt is growing by 9%. For brands competing in that marketplace, you have to be able to hit all those consumer touchpoints.
“Another interesting one is single serve premium cat food, a category that is growing by 20% year on year, while overall cat food is declining. Consumers might be buying private label for themselves, but still buying luxury single serve cat food for their pets.”
About the Checkout Top 100 Brands
The Checkout Top 100 Brands lists the Top 100 selling brands in Ireland (Value Sales) through mainstream grocery outlets and is produced in association with Nielsen. For the purposes of the listings, a ‘brand’ is defined as every product falling under a brand banner within a specific product class. No Private Label products are included.
© 2013 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine by Ellen Lunney
