YouGov Brand Footprint 2025: the favourite FMCG brands of shoppers

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/8-9.

The analysis is based on the CRP (Consumer Reach Points) indicator, which combines three factors: population size, brand penetration (how many households have purchased the brand at least once) and purchase frequency. The 2025 edition features a total of more than 30,000 FMCG brands from 56 countries around the world, including Hungary, using data from the period between November 2023 and October 2024.

Global favourites: Coca-Cola at the top

Coca-Cola continues to lead the global FMCG ranking (8,297 million CRP), albeit with a small decline of 0.5%. Laundry detergent brand Omo made it into the top 3 this year with a 12.5% growth, while Colgate fell back to the third place. Kinder and Coca-Cola continue to dominate the Hungarian FMCG ranking with stable CRP values and outstanding penetration. However, it wasn’t them who realised the largest CRP growth, but HELL energy drinks (+16.2%), Apenta (+21%) and Zewa (+18.5%). As for these three brands, not only did the number of purchases increase, but household penetration also grew.

Europe’s favourite FMCG brands

Coca-Cola topped the European rankings again in 2024: the world’s best-known soft drink brand achieved a 1.56 billion consumer reach, having grown by 1%. Kinder came second with 972 million CRP, while Dr. Oetker took the third spot on the podium. The stable leaders show that product choice is determined by consumer confidence, distribution coverage and the practical relevance of brands in everyday life. The food and beverage category is dominated by products bought for home consumption, such as Lipton tea, Milka and Lindt chocolates, Nescafé and the Danette dessert brand. Brands with functional or “caring” messages such as Alpro and Actimel also have stable positions.

Competing for new customers

Four of the five European FMCG brands with the biggest customer growth in the 2023–2024 period were from the food category. Twix led the way with 3.7 million new customers and a 1.6 percentage point rise in penetration, but was closely followed by Danone (3.2 million), Philadelphia (3.4 million) and Actimel (3 million). In fifth place, however, was a non-food brand, Fairy: the dishwashing detergent brand reached 3 million new households, mainly thanks to its MaxPower product innovation. Not only the largest FMCG brands, but also smaller players have achieved growth in Europe, according to the YouGov Brand Footprint 2025. Among small brands, Fox’s (+14%), Lurpak (+13%), Rana (+12%), Monster Energy (+7%) and Cristaline (+5%) realised the biggest CRP-based growth.

Consumers in a new decision-making matrix

One of the key findings of the 2024 YouGov Brand Footprint report is that consumer decision-making has never been more complex. Although more brands are appearing on store shelves, the proportion of people who feel they have fewer choices increased by 10 percentage points, making differentiation between brands more challenging than ever. Today shoppers don’t just choose based on taste or price, but also evaluate products according to availability, functionality, healthiness and sustainability. People want added value: products fortified with vitamins, probiotics or protein are no longer considered innovative, but rather expected as a basic standard of care. The report identifies three key success factors: health consciousness, sustainability and functional value. As for the performance of domestic brands: the YouGov Shopper Awards will be presented at the Business Days conference on 25 September 2025.