We have measured brand strength for over 50 FMCG brands, and have identified which could potentially charge more.
Our brand framework, Brand XP, quantifies brand strength, and ESA Retail collects pricing data across the supermarket sector.
Innovative research in the FMCG sector ties this together. We assessed how brand strength and pricing (we used Tesco prices here) correlate across 11 FMCG categories.
Firstly, people tend to overestimate the price of food
In food and drink categories, prices (e.g., crisps, bread, chocolate, beer, bottled water) are mostly cheaper than expected, though ice-cream and tea bags are exceptions.
But this is not the case for non-food categories.
In categories like washing powder, toilet paper, and deodorants prices tend to be more expensive than predicted.
Food is a ‘hedonic product’, consumed at least partially for sensory pleasure and emotional satisfaction. It is a ‘high engagement’ category where people are interested and indeed take some joy in what they buy. This can lead to a greater sense of value for money.
There is also a link to the ‘IKEA effect’, where people place a high value on products, they partially create themselves. Foodstuffs are used to make meals, which form the basis of social occasions – even if it is just the family evening meal, while non-food FMCG categories tend to be more ‘strictly utilitarian’ in nature, which means there is lower emotional involvement in the purchase.
Our analysis quantifies and visualises the power of iconic brands
Many categories have an ‘iconic brand’ that stands head and shoulders above others in the category and ‘could’ potentially command higher prices.
An example of this is Walkers in the (multipack) crisp sector. Based (only) on the perceived quality of Walkers crisps, we would expect them to be priced higher.
Perceived Quality vs. Actual Price
In the chart below, essentially, if a brand scores higher on perceived quality than it does on price (i.e. above the dotted line of best fit), then we feel it is in credit with consumers and in a good position to maintain or even increase price.
Walkers may well choose not to realise this brand strength by charging higher price (for fear of losing market share), but it does illustrate the strength of the Walkers brand.
In other sectors, the power of long-standing iconic brands was also obvious, with the following brands all standing out as having a ‘quality predicted price’ (the price we’d expect given perceived quality) higher than the actual price:
- Persil, Ariel (washing powder)
- Andrex (toilet paper)
- Cadbury (chocolate and ice cream)
- Guinness (beer)
Most of these brands fell into the ‘High quality, expensive but potentially under-priced’ segment within their category.
Other brands without perhaps quite such a long pedigree that also appeared in this segment of the matrix were Yorkshire Tea and Häagen-Dazs – arguably both have emerged as ‘iconic brands’ in the last decade or two.
Other brands score strongly in the research
As well as highlighting the strength of these dominant brands, the research also showed how some brands also have potential – even if they perhaps would not qualify as ‘iconic’.
- Seabrook – its quality predicted price was 19% higher than its actual price for multipack crisps.
- H.W. Nevill’s – this branded private label baked goods brand pleasantly surprised many consumers with its low prices (less than half the price compared to expectations). Within the chocolate category Miss Molly’s also had similar results.
- Kingsmill – seen as similar quality to more expensive (sliced bread) branded competitors.
- Carte D’Or – perceived as higher quality than average AND cheaper than the average of ice cream brands.
We also identified some brands that may* struggle to command their price premium in their specific categories – these included Cushelle, Peroni, Hackney Gelato, Daz and Buxton Water.
We have comprehensive price and brand strength information for over 50 brands across 11 sectors.
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*This tranche of data looks at prices on 06.05.25 from Tesco in one narrow product category, and compares actual prices with ‘quality predicted prices’ – the price we’d expect given perceptions of product quality. We realise this isn’t the only factor that influences product prices and can also look at prices across a wider range of supermarkets and potentially incorporate additional branding metrics into the analysis.
