How changing needs impacted our brand choices
The effect of COVID-19 on the grocery landscape has been well-publicised. A significant amount of food and drink consumption moved into the home almost overnight as hospitality venues were forced to close.
Over the course of the year, £17bn less was spent on food and drink out of home and 60% of that spend switched to take home channels. As a result, it was a record year for take home groceries; the average household spent £470 more, delivering 12% growth. A big driver of this was the move to online shopping as we looked to avoid physical stores, and the proportion of the population using retailers’ digital platforms rose from 28% to 39%.
These changed needs impacted what we bought, as well as how we bought it. Only one of the ten best performing categories over the previous decade remains in the top ten at present. And, with our routines disrupted, there were big shifts in CRPs for some brands in the ranking. Snack brands like Walkers (in position five in the ranking), Cadbury Dairy Milk (at number six), KitKat (number 13) and Pringles (19) saw CRPs grow year on year as consumers in lockdown looked to treat themselves. At the top of the ranking, the brand with the highest CRPs, Warburtons, has retained the top spot for three consecutive years, highlighting both the strong performance of staple categories during a year of upheaval, and the tendency for the biggest brands in a category to outperform the competition.
The fastest grower in the top 20 food brands is Silver Spoon – which re-entered the ranking after climbing 18 places. The brand capitalised on the surge in home baking during the first national lockdown - as well as shoppers drinking more hot beverages at home - with icing, caster and granulated sugar driving growth.
McCain moved back into the top 10 food brands this year, with help from rebranding its oven chips to ‘Naked Oven Chips’. The re-brand has given McCain the opportunity to appeal to diet and lifestyle-conscious shoppers in the frozen aisle by providing a healthier, gluten-free and vegan option.
Register for the webinar where our experts go into more detail on how changing needs and habits during an exceptional year impacted our brand choices.
