Chocolate, cereal, and snack brands rank among Morning Consult’s 50 Most Loved Brands list

The final rankings were determined using surveys conducted online among a national sample of adults who rated over 1,900 companies over the recent two-month period. Morning Consult based rankings on four key consumer metrics: favorability, trust, community impact, and net promoter score (calculated by asking survey respondents on a scale of 1-10 how likely they would be to promote a given brand).

“These metrics matter more than ever during the pandemic, as they become more closely predictive of overall and more frequent usage when consumers’ choices are limited and finances are strained,” said​ Morning Consult.

This year’s most loved brands spanned 14 product categories, with nearly half (48%) being food & beverage or household brand names such as Clorox and Ziploc.

As a category, food & beverage products gained +4.7 points in Morning Consult’s love index score since March.

Among the food and beverage brands to make it on the list, chocolate snagged five spots on the list as many US consumers seek out comfort foods including chocolate during periods of high stress.

In fact, sales of chocolate have been on the rise since March. According to Nielsen data, chocolate sales hit $3.7bn for the 17-week period that ended on June 27, a 6.3% increase from the comparable period last year.

M&Ms was the only food brand to crack the top ten ranking at #8 coming in behind The United States Postal Service (USPS), Google, UPS, Amazon, Netflix, Clorox, and Prime.

Other food CPG brands to follow included Cheerios (#11), Kellogg’s (#16), Oreo (#20), The Hershey Company (#22), Reese’s (#24), Heinz Tomato Ketchup (#25), Doritos (#29), Snickers (#30), KitKat (#34), Coca-Cola (#37), Kraft Heinz (#45), Ritz (#46), and Lay’s (#47).

CLICK HERE​​ to see Morning Consult's full report.