British Beverage Brand Footprint
Brand Footprint ranking of the most chosen beverage brands.
Brand Footprint
The British ranking of the most
chosen beverage brands
Beverages
Setting the scene and introducing the top 20 brands of 2019.
Standing out
from the crowd
The challenge for all the drinks brands in this year’s Brand Footprint ranking is finding a way to stand out to the consumer. Competition to be chosen is fierce within, and even across, soft drinks, hot drinks and alcohol, with simple tap water often available too. The most successful brands we examined in this report have pulled the levers of growth, often adding something new in terms of flavour or function.
Drinks brands of course need to understand the needs of the consumer at a particular point of time, at the occasion on which they are consuming. For example, are people looking for refreshment or energy at lunchtime, convenience or hydration when exercising? These insights can lead to a genuine breakthrough in a crowded sector.
This Brand Footprint report is being published at a time of huge behavioural and economic change due to COVID-19.
At the time of writing this situation is ongoing and the long-term outlook is unclear.
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British Top 20 Beverage Brands
With 13 out of the Brand Footprint Top 20 Beverages Brands in growth this year, there are many examples of brands that have found innovative ways to respond to consumer needs and find new opportunities to develop.
Super-powered ingredients
To be healthy isn’t just about taking out, it can be adding in.
Health has been a focus across food and drink for some time and the introduction of the soft drinks levy in 2019 focused people’s minds on the sugar content of beverages. As many soft drinks reformulated, products that some had previously considered healthy, such as juices and smoothies, had an especially challenging time. However, health is a multi-faceted and personal concept. By focusing on particular ingredients such as superfruits like acai and goji berries, as well as botanicals and herbs, some brands, even those whose products have a higher sugar content, have managed to strike a healthy chord. By identifying with people’s health needs and positioning themselves around the functional benefits of their products, smoothies for example have managed to grow by 2% despite the overall juices and smoothies category declining by 5% in the last year.
Innocent in position 7 increased their CRPs by 7% in this year’s Brand Footprint ranking. This was driven by their Innocent Plus range which achieved £6 million in sales in the first six months and 4% penetration. The most recent figures show that this has continued on an upward trajectory with the spend levels doubling.
The brand really captured the zeitgeist this year when they replaced their super juices with the Innocent plus range. Full of premium ingredients such as goji berries, spirulina and ginger, the juices are a mixture of fruit, vegetables, botanicals and all have added vitamins. Playing into the brand’s playful nature, the juices really stand out on shelf in an array of rainbow colours and new bottle shape.
Supported with a strong communications investment, including a campaign with Duncan James from the boy band Blue for their Bolt from the Blue variant, the juices were well supported when they launched in April 2019.
The launch attracted many additional shoppers – two-thirds of those buying the range were new to Innocent, and one-third were new to the category altogether.
Tropicana in position 9 looked to a new need, as research revealed 90% of people aren’t getting enough fibre. The launch of the Whole Fruit range was supported by a multi-million-pound advertising campaign.
Fever-Tree in position 17, with a CRP increase of 10% this year, included a selection of flavours using botanical ingredients in their range of premium tonics. Fever-Tree also launched a ready-to-drink range of gin and tonic and introduced mixers for dark spirits, taking the brand into new occasions.
Robinsons in position 4, had benefitted from the CO2 supply issues suffered by the carbonated category last year. This year there was continued but slower growth in the premium Creation and Cordials ranges which include botanicals. Refresh’d has performed well in the out of home market and Britvic launched a special summer edition for Wimbledon.
Hear more on why understanding consumers' drinking choices are vital to discovering future growth opportunities.
Redefining categories
Taking a brand across consumer or fixture boundaries can open up new space to grow.
There have been a number of brands this year who have not simply expanded into new categories, they have redefined the category they play in altogether.
Tetley in position 12 with a CRP growth of 3% was successful with Cold Infusions, their biggest innovation in several years. Although launched in summer 2018, the full effect is captured in this year’s data. While the black tea category, and hot drinks in general, are in decline, cold drinks are growing so this was a smart redefinition of the category in which Tetley operate. The intention was to retain their brand strength while appealing to new trends for a healthy, but flavourful, cold drink.
Tetley weren’t the only hot brand going cold with the continued growth of the cold brew trend. For example, Costa debuted a ready to drink can capturing part of the on the go market.
Hot drinks decline while cold drinks grow
There was a marked slowdown in growth of coffee pods – which were in 18% growth in 2018 and only 4% in 2019. Perhaps helped by consumer concerns about plastic, we are now seeing an explosion of growth in coffee bags. This is another redefinition, with coffee brewed in a bag like tea. Taylor’s of Harrogate launched a new campaign asking why the idea hadn’t been thought of before.
Kopparberg is a classic example of a brand expanding into new categories with the launch of a gin line last year. As well as attracting new buyers to the brand, they have flipped the concept by actually taking their loyal consumers beyond cider and into the spirits. By launching two gins in their well-known cider flavours: Strawberry and Lime, and Mixed Fruit they were able to appeal to the 30% of consumers who prefer a sweeter taste. Both are designed to be mixed with lemonade rather than the more traditional tonic. The brand was launched in a ready-to-drink can as well as a bottle. The launch was so successful, it placed 8th in Kantar’s 2019 FMCG Innovation ranking.
Flavours of success
Keeping it interesting for consumers and securing more presence on the shelf.
Introducing new flavours is one way for a brand to gain more shelf space and stand out in a crowded market.
Fanta in position 11, with a CRP growth of 10%, had another strong year and further developed their presence at Halloween with the launch of the dark orange variant. The brand also launched a grape flavour which achieved sales of £5 million. For the brand as a whole it's Fanta Zero which is driving growth - an increase of 27% - and Fanta have in the last year significantly increased their physical presence in the discounters.
Lucozade in position 5 is seeing particular growth from the Energy range. This is driven by flavours which were up by 48% and supported by widespread £1 pricing of the litre bottles. This year’s launches included watermelon and strawberry although cherry was the most successful. Lucozade Sport also performed well, contributing to the 2% CRP growth.
Coca-Cola, the top beverages brand this year has a CRP increase of 7% with innovation contributing 10% of their growth. The key growth came from Coca-Cola Energy and the mixer range which has been developed to accompany dark spirits.
For number two brand Pepsi, the core flavour Pepsi Max is the main driver of growth, but the launch of the raspberry flavour was very successful with 6% annual penetration in the take home market and 3% out-of-home.
Valuable moderation
Drinking less, drinking better, drinking differently.
There is clearly a mood to reduce the consumption of alcohol with 45% of people trying to moderate their drinking. Kantar data shows that low and no alcohol products are being bought as a direct substitute for alcohol rather than stealing share from soft drinks, once again highlighting the importance of the specific occasion. This will be a relief to soft drinks brands as they are often positioned in the same aisles of the store. Retailers are also giving more space to premium squashes and own label too.
The focus on moderation is also quite clear when we look at the out-of-home market where people are buying more hot drinks in pubs, for example people spent 32% more on coffee in Wetherspoons last year than in Pret.
A number of the smaller, premium soft drinks brands have performed well this year. San Pellegrino, Belvoir and Fentimans are all returning solid growth in CRPs and reflect the choices that people are making for quality soft drinks over alcohol.
Many brands are innovating in the low and no alcohol market. For example: Brewdog have added to their range of products with the likes of Punk AF, Hazy AF and Wake Up Call. Particularly for substitute spirits brands price framing is key – designed to be drunk in place of alcohol and positioned at a similar price point. Gin alternative Seedlip is a prime example and retails around the same price as the real thing.
Smirnoff offered a lower ABV alternative to Vodka with the launch of their Smirnoff Infusions range this year, a spritz-style drink at 23% ABV which comes in two different flavours and is recommended to be paired with soda for a low calorie serve. Moving to the no alcohol option, Shloer introduced two new products, their first to not be based on grapes. Shloer Spritzed was launched as an aperitif and alternative to gin and tonic whilst Shloer Pressed is a sparkling fruit blend available in a ready-to-drink can as an alternative to cider.
New product development, especially new flavours and variants, have helped drinks brands grow in the last year. Consumers' desire for novelty and the exotic is matched by the desire to be healthier in their drinking choices, at least some of the time. To grow brands must pull on one and ideally several of the five levers for growth, here are some examples from the last year.
Levers for Growth in action
The 2020 Brand Footprint ranking has examples of brands responding to trends and using all of the levers for growth to find new ways to grow. Here are a few of the notable examples.
Fanta - owned the Halloween occasion with TV and instore ghost train, Instagram and Snapchat
Yorkshire Tea – listings in the discounters and bargain stores is driving brand growth
Schweppes – introduced premium 1783 mixers
Tetley – launched Cold Infusions
Carling – created ‘Made Local’ campaign around Brexit as well as TV advert about a LGBT football team
Robinsons – created a summer edition for Wimbledon to help attract a younger audience
Ribena - blackcurrant water Frusion heavily focused on distribution through garage forecourts
Fever-Tree – launched a ready-made drink which is more convenient and can be enjoyed on the go
Kopparberg – launched a gin mixed with lemonade to appeal to consumers with a sweeter tooth
Shloer - light variant tapped into demand for a lower sugar/healthier drink
Disruptors
Challenges and opportunities coming into view.
Low carb adult soft drinks
The food trend moves into beverages
Fruit syrups instead of sugar
A search for more natural sweetness
2022 Plastics Tax
Under consultation for packaging containing less than 30% recycled plastics
Further reading
Kantar’s study of 65,000 people across 24 countries about the use of plastic by FMCG companies.
Coming soon:
British ranking of the most chosen dairy brands
British ranking of the most chosen homecare brands
Further reading
The British Brand Footprint series also includes:
Coming soon:
British ranking of the most chosen dairy brands
British ranking of the most chosen homecare brands
Kantar’s study of 65,000 people across 24 countries about the use of plastic by FMCG companies.
