Parle has solidified its position as India’s most chosen in-home fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand, according to the Kantar Brand Footprint report released on Thursday. This marks the 12th consecutive year that Parle has topped the charts. Meanwhile, Britannia clinched the title of the most chosen out-of-home (OOH) FMCG brand.
The report, which employs a consumer reach points (CRP) metric to measure brand performance, revealed a consistent preference for familiar brands amid inflationary pressures. One CRP represents a single instance of a shopper choosing a brand, integrating data on population, penetration, and frequency to provide a holistic view of brand performance.
With a CRP score of 7,980 million, Parle held the top spot, followed by Britannia, Amul, Clinic Plus and Tata Consumer Products. “Consumers are sticking to brands they know, which is why the ranking remains constant. Parle is one of the highest penetrative brands, and since it is also in the biscuit category, its frequency of consumption is very high. High penetration and frequency with a constant population factor has led to a steady position at the top of the table,” said K Ramakrishnan, managing director – South Asia, Worldpanel Division at Kantar.
He said the company has constantly pushed the envelope while maintaining and growing the penetration by encouraging rural distribution, offering pack sizes at affordable prices, and through effective communication to keep the mental availability alive.
Overall, CRPs have increased almost 33% in the past five years. But every sector, barring dairy, showed slower CRP growth rate last year over the previous one. Haldiram’s and Balaji are the only two brands in the 2024 top 25 in-home brand list to grow by more than 30% in CRPs in 2023. Sunfeast leads the way in the biggest penetration gains in 2023 at 6.4.
The report said seven brands in the top 25 in-home rankings showed more than a 20% penetration increase in the last decade. Britannia led the way, followed by Surf Excel, Sunfeast, Haldiram’s, Patanjali, Brooke Bond and Vim.
Among OOH brands, Britannia leads the way with 628 million CRPs. It is followed by Haldiram’s, Cadbury, Balaji and Parle. The top five rankings are all snacking brands and remain the same as 2023.
Ramakrishnan said the biggest challenge for brands is the smaller attention window of consumers. “The number of brands, variants and products being launched is too many. After catching their attention, getting them to try a product is even harder, and then a company’s product has to be extremely good for them to repeat it,” he said.
The in-home panel covered purchases meant for in-home consumption. It had national coverage with urban, rural, all population strata and all affluence classes. Meanwhile, the OOH panel covered purchases meant for out-of-home consumption. This included over one million towns, NCCS, ABC and food and beverages categories.
Overall, the report covered over 445 brands within FMCG under different categories of foods, home care, health and beauty, beverages, snacking and dairy.