The consumer goods industry builds relationships through repetition and reward. These brands live in our pantries, freezers, and cupboards as the quiet companions of daily life. They can also help build intimate connections with people through their sensorial nature and their proximity to our homes and bodies.
In our 2025 Brand Intimacy Study, Hellmann’s leads the category, followed by Betty Crocker and Hershey’s, reflecting a landscape where practicality meets pleasure, and nostalgia meets nourishment.
From Pantry Staples to Emotional Essentials
Indulgence dominates the emotional landscape. The category ranks second overall for the indulgence archetype, just behind fast food, creating a close relationship centered on moments of pampering and gratification. Brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Nutella, Lindt, Hershey’s, and Häagen-Dazs transform simple moments into joyful experiences. A spoonful of ice cream, a spread of chocolate, or a piece of silky praline becomes a small act of self-care, a micro-pleasure that punctuates an otherwise demanding day. Indulgence is no longer about excess; it’s about permission. These brands invite consumers to feel grounded, gratified, and momentarily free.
At the same time, legacy staples such as Hellmann’s and Kellogg’s evoke deep trust through tradition. Their power lies in consistency: the label that hasn’t changed much in decades, the flavors that taste like childhood, and the logo that feels like home. These brands celebrate heritage storytelling and anchor emotional relevance in authenticity. Nostalgia is no longer a look back; it’s a lens looking forward, a way to remind consumers of who they are and what endures.
Hellmann’s, in particular, has redefined practicality with purpose. Its “Make Taste, Not Waste”1 initiative reframes its staple mayonnaise as a statement on sustainability and care. By encouraging people to rediscover the potential of what they already have in the fridge through creative leftover recipes and the right mayo, Hellmann’s transforms the problem of “nothing to eat” into the joy of making something meaningful.
Snack and confectionery brands add another layer of intimacy through personalization and play. Lay’s, Pringles, Doritos, and Smartfood engage consumers with bold flavors, limited editions, and interactive campaigns that reflect individuality and mood. Choice becomes self-expression: a flavor for every personality and a bag for every feeling. In this sense, the snack aisle becomes a stage where indulgence meets creativity, and consumption becomes participation.
Collectively, consumer goods excel at making the mundane feel meaningful. Through taste, texture, scent, and habit, they occupy emotional real estate few other industries can touch.
When Familiarity Breeds Fragility
Despite their emotional depth, brands of consumer goods face mounting pressure. The industry ranks 16th overall in our 2025 study, with an average Brand Intimacy Quotient (BIQ) of 22.4, well below the cross-industry average. For brands that live closest to consumers’ daily lives, that gap signals both ubiquity and vulnerability.
One of the biggest threats is price fatigue. Inflation and supply chain pressures have forced widespread price hikes, while shrinkflation (i.e., smaller packages at the same price) has eroded trust. For this reason, PepsiCo is limiting its shrinkflation strategy to select bags of Lay’s and Doritos to win back frustrated customers.2 Even beloved brands risk being seen as opportunistic when their perceived value declines. With private labels offering comparable quality at lower prices, intimacy risks being replaced by pragmatism.
Another challenge is commoditization. In a crowded market of near-identical products, Brand Intimacy must work overtime. A jar of mayo or a box of cereal is easily swapped unless the brand carries symbolic weight. To stay distinct, these brands must continually reinvent the narrative through design, humor, or purpose. Without that emotional spark, functionally similar products dissolve into a blur of sameness.
Health consciousness adds a new layer of complexity. As consumers scrutinize sugar, fat, and ingredient transparency, indulgent icons like Hershey’s, Lindt, Nutella, and Ben & Jerry’s face tension between pleasure and guilt. How can they celebrate joy without alienating wellness-driven consumers? Many brands have launched “better-for-you” lines, portion control initiatives, or sustainability efforts, but the risk of tokenism looms large. Authentic transformation requires more than lighter recipes; it demands a redefinition of what “treating yourself” means in a health-centric era.
The New Recipe for Connection
As routines re-center around home life, the meaning of “consumer goods” is shifting from convenience to connection. Pantry staples and cooking brands have reasserted relevance by aligning with wellness, creativity, and comfort. Barilla, Knorr, Quaker, and Campbell’s all capitalize on cooking as a form of self-care and togetherness. The kitchen becomes a site of connection, replacing the on-the-go convenience of pre-pandemic life.
Still, a delicate emotional tension defines the category: pleasure versus restraint. Consumers want to indulge, but they also want to feel in control. The most successful brands manage to reconcile the two, offering experiences that feel deserved, balanced, and emotionally rewarding.
For heritage icons, the task is not to abandon tradition but to refresh its meaning and connect timeless comfort with modern values of clean labels, diversity, sustainability, and digital storytelling. The future of intimacy for these brands depends on how deftly they modernize their voice without severing their emotional roots.
Everyday Brands, Extraordinary Bond
Brands of consumer goods exist in a paradox of being deeply intimate yet increasingly fragile. Their strength lies in daily familiarity: rituals of taste, touch, and trust that have woven them into the fabric of life. But that very familiarity can dull differentiation, making them vulnerable to price fatigue, health scrutiny, and shifting values.
The brands that will thrive turn practicality and pleasure into purposeful connection, where indulgence feels responsible, nostalgia feels new, and simplicity feels soulful. Whether it’s a spoon of Nutella, a jar of Hellmann’s, or a box of Kraft mac and cheese, the winning formula remains the same: Transform the everyday into something emotionally extraordinary.
Get an overview of Brand Intimacy here.
Read our detailed methodology here. Our Amazon best-selling book is available at all your favorite booksellers. To learn more about how we help clients enhance their consumer bonds, visit mblm.com/services.
Sources
1Make Taste, Not Waste: Our Commitment to Reducing Food Waste,” Hellmann’s. February 24, 2026 https://www.hellmanns.com/us/en/food-waste.html
2Hyslop, Gill, “PepsiCo Responds to Shrinkflation Backlash,” Bakery and Snacks, October 17, 2024. https://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/Article/2024/10/17/PepsiCo-responds-to-shrinkflation-backlash.