Consumer Packaged Goods in the United States: National Brands, Local Branding

Abstract

The authors document several striking general geographic patterns in the performance of national brands using a large longitudinal scanner database that spans many consumer packaged goods categories and U.S. regional markets. Across markets, they observe that for a typical national brand, the geographic variation in market shares, perceived quality levels, and local dominance is so large that it questions the concept and relevance of a “national brand.” Across time, the authors find that the geographic differences in market shares for national brands are persistent and thus are attributed to “long-term” outcomes. The objective of this article is to open a discussion on these surprising stylized findings related to geography in the food and beverage industries. The authors argue that geographically indexed consumer packaged goods data contain rich information about long-term marketing outcomes that offer several new directions for further research.