BELLEVUE, Wa. – Consumer packaged goods suppliers may be asking themselves, “Is my brand a ‘power brand’?” According to The Hartman Group (THG), a consumer-centric market research firm, power brands are those whose position in food culture and shrewd management have allowed them to remain contemporary and to continue to drive profit growth, for years at a time.

While many leaders in the industry define power brands purely on the basis of scale (usually in excess of $1 billion in annual sales), in a new study, THG suggests a more future-leaning definition, based on selecting for a proven track record of above-average market growth. Using Euromonitor data, THG analyzed 213 global brands based on four specific “power brand” criteria:

1. Brands with greater than $1 billion in sales in the past year
2. Brands with conventional channel distribution prior to 1980 (i.e., legacy brands)
3. Brands that grew faster than inflation for the past ten years (i.e., > 21%)
4. Brands that outperformed their respective sector growth rates during the past four years by at least 1% (i.e., 7.2% for packaged food, 6.4% for soft and hot beverages)

Of the 213 brands analyzed, only 17, or 8%, met the consultancy's "more future-leaning" definition of power-brands (and their respective percentages of absolute dollar growth between 2011 and 2014): Velveeta (+43.6%); Little Debbie (38.6%); Jack Link's (37%); Entenmann's (+34.8%); Oreo (+26.9%); Jimmy Dean (+23.9%); Doritos (+20.9%); Tyson (+20.7%); Fritos (+14.5%); Haagen-Dazs (+14.5%); Coffee-mate (+14.1%); M&M's (+13.3%); Lay's (+12.7%); Poland Spring (+11.2%): Lipton (+10.7%); Oscar Mayer (+10.3%); and Land O'Lakes (+10.3%).

THG’s findings confirm that the legacy brands showing healthy growth have positioned and extended themselves in ways that fit with Americans' changing health goals and eating patterns in recent years. For example, the list includes mostly snack brands and brands sold on the fresh perimeter. There are few beverage brands, and the two that made the list have a noticeable health and wellness orientation. For the most part, processed center-store convenience meal brands did not make the list, with many of the successful brands adapting to the American snacking trend by “snackifying” the meal offer.

“Standing back from this list, we see that long-term structural changes in: 1) how Americans eat, 2) where they shop in the store (fresh perimeter $ growth) and 3) dietary practices to achieve health and wellness goals, not just good marketing, are driving the results,” suggested THG in their report. “Companies that are weighted toward products not on the list need to look beyond mere renovation strategies for their base brands. … Legacy brands that have become so iconic as to weather the growing trends against processed food and beverage are ones that: 1) are highly focused on one product form, one food and 2) have built an iconic brand reputation around that specific food form. Focus is not sufficient to guarantee long-term growth in a legacy brand, but it appears to be a requirement of true power brands in today’s market.”