The future of consumer branding as seen from the picture today

Today′s high‐technology, global marketing environment has made consumer product information available across national boundaries. Explores how six multinational consumer product firms(Colgate‐Palmolive, Kraft GF, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble,Quaker Oats and Unilever) maintain, change or adapt different brand names for identical or similar products. Field research was conducted in supermarkets, medium‐sized grocery stores, department stores and drug stores from 1993‐1995 in 67 countries on five continents. Brand and country data were utilized to identify global, regional, spillover and single country brands. Additional information was collected on country of origin as well as point of sale. Product and brand distribution were analyzed by firm and product type. Less than 1% of brands were global brands (those found in 90% or more of the countries surveyed). Procter& Gamble has the most global brands, with 8% of the brands studied distributed in 50% or more of the countries. The majority of brands(50‐72%) are available in three or fewer countries.