• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 15, 2002

Jane Perrin, ACNielsen Managing Director of Global Services, announced in a recent study that "Despite a proliferation of brands in the marketplace and a focus by major manufacturers on being more global, there are relatively few global mega brands today." The report concludes that only 43 consumer product brands ring up annual sales of more than US$1 billion each and can be considered truly global.

There were 23 manufacturers of these 43 billion-dollar brands. Eight of the 23 companies had more than one brand on the list. Pepisco with six; The Philip Morris Companies and Procter & Gamble each had five brands; The Coca-Cola Company came in at four; Kimberly-Clark Corporation, The Gillette Company, Mars and Nestle with two brands each. The 43 brands reported in the study accounted for more than US$125 billion in sales.

The category with the most billion-dollar brands was beverages, with 13 brands making the final list. The total Coca-Cola brand was number one among beverages at well over US$15 billion in sales, with its two sub-brands, Coke and Diet Coke, being billion dollar brands in their own right. Pepsi Cola and its associated sub-brands, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi (including Pepsi Light, Pepsi Max and Pepsi One), ranked as the number two beverage.

Three snack foods registered over a billion dollars in global sales (Doritos, Lay's and Pringles) and four tobacco brands that had a significant global presence and met the billion-dollar criteria (Benson & Hedges, Camel, L&M and Marlboro).

Ihe annual average sales growth rate across the 43 brands was less than 10%, but 8 of the 43 brands experienced double-digit growth in the most recent year.

Brand details and countries included here.