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The consumer goods industry has an average Brand Intimacy Quotient of 38.7, slightly above the cross-industry average of 38.3. Hershey’s remains in the top position, and Ben & Jerry's has moved up to second place. Consumer preference for Kellogg’s and Nabisco has increased, whereas preference for Campbell’s and Quaker has declined.
The consumer goods industry ranks fifth this year, the same position as in our last study. The industry has increased its average Quotient Score by 2.4 percent. Consumer goods performs better with women than with men and with older versus younger consumers.
Although the industry has faced manufacturing and supply chain challenges related to COVID, Brand Intimacy performance has increased by an average of 3 percent since before the pandemic. Despite the hardships imposed by COVID on people and businesses, this period has actually drawn consumers closer to brands and created stronger emotional relationships.
Although the consumer goods industry’s performance in the nostalgia and indulgence archetypes has decreased, the category continues to outperform industry averages for those archetypes. It has also improved its performance in all other archetypes: fulfillment, identity, enhancement, and ritual. The category declined its sharing performance, the earliest stage of Brand Intimacy, by 17 percent. However, the industry improved in the two more advanced stages of Brand Intimacy, bonding and fusing; this suggests that once users are emotionally connected to consumer goods brands, they can move to more significant emotional relationships.
Nostalgia remains the dominant industry archetype, and the industry ranks first across all 10 industries for nostalgia. Compared to our previous COVID study, more than 32 percent of consumers have an increased positive emotional connection with consumer goods brands. Consumer goods performs better with women than with men and with consumers over 35 years old versus those under 35.
Comparing the top two consumer goods brands, Hershey’s and Ben and Jerry’s, we see identical performance in the indulgence archetype but a split across the other archetypes. Hershey’s exhibits stronger associations in nostalgia, which is the dominant category archetype. Ben and Jerry's performs better with fulfillment, identity, and ritual. In terms of stages, Hershey's leads across sharing and fusing, with bonding about equal for both brands. Compared to Ben and Jerry's customers, Hershey’s customers are more willing to pay 20 percent more for the brand.
* This is a ranked sub-brand. We share its industry performance. Given its similar profile, see parent brand for overall ranking.
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