2020 was a truly unique year as the Philippines went into lockdown as early as mid-March. Whilst shoppers initially rushed to stores to stock up on essentials such as hygiene products and food staples, the rest of the year was marked by an all-time low frequency of shopping – a unique situation for the most frequent shoppers in the world. Nearly a billion shopping trips disappeared in 2020 compared with 2019, reducing the opportunities for each brand to be purchased. In this context, the highest-ranking brands confirmed their positions as essentials in Filipino cupboards. They maintained their relevance through continuous communication and adaptation. With most Filipinos at home, the fastest-growing brands grew by reaching more shoppers and leveraging trends such as a growing need for health, safety and immunity, more in-home cooking and in-home snacking.
Philippines
Attracting more shoppers (increasing penetration) remained essential in 2020. This is particularly important in the current context thanks to the range of quarantine formats in the Philippines, which have had a drastic impact on mobility and, therefore, on frequency of shopping. Our Top 10 brands confirmed their status as essentials in Filipinos’ cupboards and pantries.
Lucky Me, a local noodle brand, continues to be the most chosen consumer brand in the Philippines. It was able to leverage the success of instant noodles as an essential stock-up item during the pandemic. Due to its affordability, Lucky Me is a growing choice and has reached 98% of Filipino homes. Aside from its wide variety of products, the brand also communicated “Easy Pancit Canton Recipes” to develop more consumption occasions.
Silver Swan ranks 2nd in 2020, moving one spot higher than in 2019. With families spending so much time at home, in-home cooking has gained even more relevance and Silver Swan was a primary choice of Filipino households. The brand continues to communicate recipes to use at home, with a focus on classic well-loved Filipino dishes.
Safeguard climbs to the 8th spot, up from a previous rank of 16. Due to the pandemic, health and safety has become critical for shoppers. Safeguard strongly leveraged this need for anti-bacterial products, even introducing new formats aside from its bar soaps.
In Food, Bear Brand gains relevance, climbing one spot in the 2020 ranking – consistently highlighting health and immunity in communications across its portfolio.
The brands in the top 8 fastest rising brands have achieved success via their ability to leverage relevance during the pandemic and attract more shoppers. Mostly household staples for cooking, snacking, and hygiene, these brands adapted well to the challenges of 2020 by highlighting their role in shoppers’ lives.
Instant noodles were one of the first products Filipino shoppers stocked up on in the early weeks of the pandemic. It is therefore no surprise that our fastest riser is Payless, an instant noodle brand, strongly leveraging its value proposition to reach an extra +2.3 million homes in 2020.
With the increased importance of health and hygiene, Bioderm, a local soap brand, was also in a strong position to grow, adding 2.3 million homes in 2020.
Birch Tree, a powdered milk brand, continues to be among the fastest risers. From 9.6 million homes in 2019, Birch Tree added another 2.4 million Filipino homes in 2020. Living up to its proposition as “Everybody’s Milk”, Birch Tree also recently launched its own Adult Milk brand.
Eden, a cheese brand, leveraged the increase in in-home snacking and cooking/baking trends by communicating more recipes, highlighting the versatility of its products.
Mega Sardines achieved fast growth in 2020 by sustaining distribution efforts in key channels and highlighting value and versatility in its communications. Canned fish were one of the most highly gifted/donated categories during lockdown. Mega Sardines also expanded its channels by catering to businesses and local government units, helping the brand reach an additional 2.2 million homes.
Coffee remains to be a staple in the Filipino household led by Nescafe and Kopiko.
Coca-Cola elevated its efforts by providing assistance to small store owners hit by pandemic restrictions. This, together with its strong brand equity and consistent communication on in-home meal occasions, enabled Coca-Cola to reach more homes in 2020.
Powdered Milk and Choco brands top the Dairy sector. With consistent communication around nutrition, immunity, vitamins and minerals, these brands continue to be more relevant to Filipinos than ever.
Aside from Lucky Me, the top Food brands are all staple condiments and seasonings used for home cooking.
Prolonged government restrictions forced most Filipinos to stay at home, boosting the role of in-home cooking. Maggi tapped this opportunity by communicating new and diverse dish applications to strengthen relevance of its products.
Surf, Downy, and Ariel maintained their places as the top 3 most chosen brands in Home Care. As health and hygiene became a primary concern, these brands highlighted anti-bacterial benefits more in communications.
With limited opportunities to go out in 2020, the Health and Beauty sector was challenged as Filipinos prioritize Food. Palmolive and Sunsilk continued to communicate to their shoppers with sustained support through TV and digital ads, particularly for core variants.
Payless Instant Noodles achieved impressive growth as the fastest rising brand for 2020, driven by its growing shopper base, which increased from 6.8 million households to add another 2.3 million homes reached (+35% growth). Instant Noodles were in high demand in the Philippines during the pandemic, helping to boost Payless’ performance as well.
Payless’ proposition played a large part in its success. The brand highlighted functional and affordable benefits, with the message that the brand is “Xtra Sulit” (extra affordable/value for money), “Xtra Sarap” (extra delicious) and “Xtra Saya” (brings extra happiness).
Affordability is even more important to Filipino homes as a result of the difficult economic situation caused by the pandemic. With a more affordable price and a bigger pack size than its leading competitor, Payless attracted more shoppers. For its Pancit Canton (dry noodles) line, Payless has a range of variants to cater to varied needs and taste preferences of consumers. Positioning the brand as value for money yet still delicious is proving to be a winning formula for Payless.
Nova, a snacking brand, was among the fastest risers in 2020, reaching 1.1 million more homes and also maintaining frequency of trips. Its manufacturer, Universal Robina Corporation (URC), is the leader in the Snacks category in the Philippines. While the pandemic brought challenges to manufacturers such as stock and supply issues, URC was able to keep a hold on distribution.
The brand also adapted well to changes in the channel landscape, as the lockdown forced Sari-Sari Stores to close. Hypermarkets and supermarkets remained resilient and Nova was able to leverage on its strong position in these channels, helping ensure availability.
As Filipinos spend more time at home, Nova rode on this trend by communicating work-from-home and workout-from-home snacking occasions. The brand also further highlighted its “4-fiber rich grains” ingredients making for a guilt-free, healthy snack at home.
Spokesperson Ampy Rio, Chief Marketing Officer of Nutri-Asia
What makes Silver Swan unique as a brand? Silver Swan has been serving Filipino households for 80 years, making it one of the most iconic brands in the country. Its strength lies in fully understanding Filipino consumers’ palates, and this has enabled the brand to continuously produce culinary products with the tamang-timpla that shoppers are looking for. The brand is best known for its #1 soy sauce, a product expertly made using high-quality soy beans that have been delicately blended to perfection.
What are your challenges under COVID-19? The immense impact of COVID-19 on the country challenged Silver Swan to pivot as fast as market demands and consumer needs were changing. But as a brand that knew its core value of being every housewife’s ally in the kitchen, adapting with agility came naturally. Despite being a mature brand, it allowed itself to be led to new spaces and platforms as it continuously kept attuned to how every Filipino was being reshaped by the pandemic, without letting go of its promise to bring quality meals to households.
What did you do differently to reach your consumers? In 2020, Silver Swan embraced change wholly. It stepped out of traditional media and went full-on in penetrating the digital space with fresh communications. The brand protected its reach through old platforms, but expanded outside of them, too, as it saw opportunities in creating valuable engagement in emerging channels like TikTok.
Alongside that, Silver Swan also displayed boldness in communicating differentiated themes: when most brands talked about hope, the brand spoke of entertainment. And by being quick to act in following what Filipinos wanted and where they were headed when they were stuck at home, Silver Swan enjoyed benefits like being able to recruit new consumers and building usage.
How did you utilise Kantar’s Worldpanel data to stay relevant in these challenging times? Platforms like Kantar’s Worldpanel connected brands like Silver Swan to their consumers as closely as anyone could get, especially when mobility was restricted. Seeing consumption behaviour through numbers exposed issues and opportunities that the brand was able to leverage quickly and with precision. It was also a tool that helped provide clearer pictures of programme effectiveness in a timely and structured manner, and this proved to be very beneficial at a time when test and learn initiatives mattered significantly.
How did you split your focus/investment between short-term execution and long-term brand building? At Silver Swan, we are firm believers that nothing is short- or long-term in brand building. There are a multitude of ways to reach consumers and myriad possibilities in sharing your brand story – both changing through time – but as long as the connection between the two is clear and precise, then it will always lead back to fulfilled objectives. In that regard, investments were placed where the brand could speak to consumers most effectively, specifically tailored for the period in which it was needed.
What makes Datu Puti unique as a brand? First introduced in 1975, Datu Puti prides itself in delivering superior quality and delicious sourness, which has made it the country’s no.1 vinegar brand. Datu Puti has since established itself as a condiment megabrand, with the addition of Datu Puti Soy Sauce, Datu Puti Fish Sauce, Datu Puti Oysterrific Oyster Sauce, Datu Puti BBQrrific Barbecue Marinade, and Datu Puti Adobo Series. This has cemented the brand as an iconic provider of kitchen essentials that are vital and integral to the everyday lives of the Pinoy.
What are your challenges under COVID-19? Recognising the impact COVID-19 had on reshaping consumer’s lives, Datu Puti quickly pivoted to explore new platforms that would enable it to connect with consumers and unlock shopper habits. Staying true to its vision as a trailblazer, authority and leader in the categories it plays in, Datu Puti spearheaded category conversations, and fulfilled consumers’ changing demands and needs.
What did you do differently to reach consumers? Datu Puti amplified its consumer reach by maintaining its presence in traditional media and by intensifying its presence in online channels, capitalising on its strong digital following. It executed initiatives that engaged consumers through strategic partnerships designed to build usage and consumption, even boldly promoting non-culinary uses for its vinegar, as a disinfectant for example. In addition, the brand entertained consumers at home through a modernised version of its iconic Mukhasim campaign, which drove talkability and Pinoy pride.
How did you utilise Kantar’s Worldpanel data to stay relevant in these challenging times? Kantar’s Worldpanel data is crucial to Datu Puti’s ability to connect with consumers. It helped the brand to determine opportunities for boosting consumption and penetration, and capitalise on them. Lastly, the data enabled the brand to access the effectiveness of its campaign.
How did you split your focus/investment between short-term execution and long-term brand building? Our brand goal remains the same: to generate brand excitement, product stickiness, and customer affinity that results in sustainable and scalable business growth, while staying true to our vision. This hinged on investing in insight that would enable us to connect effectively with the market, and adapt to changing market trends and consumer needs.
