Long Product Life Cycles - Grocery Brands Stand the Test of Time

Looking back through some articles I flagged for follow-up, I came across this excellent piece from March 2010 reporting on the best-selling grocery brands in the UK during 2009. It is particulalrly useful for two reasons…

(1) It highlights how most of the top-selling grocery brands have been around for a very long time. Strong grocery brands build around are a core product seem to enjoy a significantly longer product life cycle than other consumer products. Coco-Cola, Dairy Milk, Robinsons Juice, Hovis are just some of the examples listed

(2) During the recent recession in the UK, the top branded grocery goods still did relatively well. When consumers felt less confident about their financial circumstances, they increasingly turned to brands that they could trust.

As the article states, the 2009 sales value of the top 100 brands accounted for £16.7 billion (12.9%) of the total £130 billion UK grocery market, an increase of 4.5% YoY. The growth was ahead of total market growths which were 3.8% for the year.

Long-standing grocery brands have a well-established history of successful product extensions - which help to explain the longevity of the core product life cycle.