Morning Consult compiled a list of the fastest-growing brands of 2022.
Consumers turned to established brands as they faced inflation and economic worries.
The top three brands included Meta, Crocs, and Beats by Dre.
Morning Consult’s report ranks the fastest-growing brands of 2022. Inflation weighed heavily on consumers’ minds this year, said Emily Moquin, food and beverage analyst at Morning Consult.
Consumers showed less of a willingness to spend as prices for most goods rose, she said. “There’s also the emotional impact of the uncertainty, the economic turmoil that consumers might be, if not experiencing, anticipating,” Moquin told Insider.
This year, consumers were less interested in new things. “I’ve seen that ticking down throughout 2022,” she said.
Morning Consult created its list by conducting two surveys: One in January and the other in October. The surveys were conducted online and asked consumers which brands they were considering purchasing or using out of a pool of 1,689.
For each brand, Morning Consult calculated the difference between the percentage of consumers who were interested in the brand in January and the percentage who expressed interest in October. The brands with the largest increase made the list.
Different age groups had different favorite brands. The top 5 brands for Gen Z, typically defined as people born from 1995 to 2010, included more digital names:
Millennials, or people born between1981 and 1996, meanwhile, included more food brands among their top 5:
20. Four Loko
Binny’s
Description: Four Loko makes canned malt liquor beverages. The brand gained popularity among college students in the early 2000s because it mixed alcohol and caffeine. Four Loko removed caffeine and all stimulants from its beverages in 2010 after legal challenges and health concerns.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 1.8 percentage points
19. Boost MobileBoost Mobile’s logo
Boost Mobile
Description: Boost Mobile sells cell phones as well as voice and data plans.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 1.9 percentage points
18. Frito-Lay
Hollis Johnson
Description: Frito-Lay sells snacks including Doritos chips, Cheetos puffs, and Smartfood popcorn. The brand is a division of soft drink maker PepsiCo.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 1.9 percentage points
17. Häagen-Dazs
Erin McDowell/Insider
Description: Häagen-Dazs sells ice cream through supermarkets as well as its own chain of stores. The brand is owned by cereal and snack foods maker General Mills.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 1.9 percentage points
16. Chobani
Facebook
Description: Chobani makes yogurt, coffee creamer, oatmilk, and other dairy and dairy substitute products. The company was founded in 2005 when Hamdi Ulukaya bought an abandoned yogurt factory in upstate New York.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 1.9 percentage points
15. Major League BaseballA screen at the Major League Baseball Winter Meeting in San Diego, California on Dec. 6, 2022
Gregory Bull/AP
Description: The world’s oldest professional sports league, Major League Baseball, includes 30 professional baseball teams in the US and Canada.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.1 percentage points
14. Google Sheets
STEFANY LUNA DE LINZY/Shutterstock
Description: Google Sheets is one of the free programs that Google users can access as part of Google Docs.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.1 percentage points
13. Celsius Fitness DrinksCelsius Heat energy drinks
Celsius
Description: Celsius makes energy drinks marketed toward athletes and buyers with an active lifestyle.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.3 percentage points
12. T-MobileA T-Mobile sign on top of a T-Mobile retail store in New York.
Thomson Reuters
Description: T-Mobile sells cell phones and service plans. It’s among the top US cellular providers, along with Verizon and AT&T.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.4 percentage points
11. Chobani Yogurt
Sarah Schmalbruch / INSIDER
Description: Chobani Yogurt appears separately on Morning Consult’s list from the main brand. Moquin said that the surveys asked consumers about brands as well as some specific products, leading some products that are particularly popular with consumers to get their own mention.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.4 percentage points
10. Office DepotOffice Depot store in Encinitas, California
Thomson Reuters
Description: Office Depot operates a chain of just over 1,000 office supply stores across the US. Its parent company, ODP, also owns OfficeMax.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.4 percentage points
9. Gatorade FitBottles of Gatorade Fit
PepsiCo
Description: Gatorade Fit is a line of sports drinks made without added sugar, unlike traditional Gatorade. The brand, which is owned by PepsiCo, rolled out the line at the start of 2022, according to trade publication Food Dive.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.4 percentage points
8. Great Value Cream CheeseThe Walmart logo is seen outside a Walmart store in Burbank, California on August 15, 2022
ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
Description: Walmart makes a variety of food products under Great Value, one of its store brands. This year, Great Value Cream Cheese took eighth place on the fastest-growing brands list.
Moquin said the otherwise mundane product rose high in the ranking this year thanks to “an interesting confluence of factors that are all part of the story of what we’ve been seeing in terms of food and beverage trends this year,” Moquin told Insider.
Inflation hit food, particularly dairy products, heavier than most other product categories over the past year, she said. At the same time, name brands like Philadelphia suffered shortages of cream cheese in late 2021 and early 2022, creating an opening for rivals, Moquin added.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.5 percentage points
7. Adobe
SOPA Images/Contributor/Getty Images
Description: Adobe makes computer software. Its most popular consumer programs include Photoshop and Premiere Pro, a video editing software.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.5 percentage points
6. ZelleZelle
Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Description: Zelle is a digital payments app that allows users to transfer money between their bank accounts.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.7 percentage points
5. Milwaukee Tool
Home Depot
Description: Milwaukee Tools makes household power tools such as chainsaws, drills, and leaf blowers.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.8 percentage points
4. STōK Cold Brew
Amazon
Description: Stok makes cold brew coffee in ready-to-drink bottles as well as espresso shots that can be added to a regular cup of coffee.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.8 percentage points
3. Beats by Dre
Crystal Cox/Business Insider
Description: Founded by music producer Dr. Dre and record executive Jimmy Iovine, Beats by Dre makes headphones and earbuds. The brand has been a subsidiary of Apple since 2014.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 2.9 percentage points
2. CrocsCrocs is suing Walmart, alleging copycat clogs
Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Description: Crocs makes clogs in a variety of shapes and styles. The company has reported strong financial results and kept production rolling during the pandemic while other brands suffered factory shutdowns and other supply chain issues.
Crocs are “no longer your aunt’s favorite gardening shoe,” Morning Consult retail and e-commerce analyst Claire Tassin wrote in a report summarizing Croc’s second-place ranking. “It’s also a fastest-growing brand for each generation except for Gen Z — and that’s just because the shoes are already so popular with young adults.”
Growth in purchasing consideration: 3 percentage points
1. MetaThe Meta logo.
Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
Description: Meta operates social media networks Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. The company changed its name from Facebook to Meta in 2021 after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted Facebook to turn into a “metaverse company.”
That rebrand is why Meta topped the list of fastest-growing brands, Morning Consult Tech Industry analyst Jordan Marlatt wrote in a report on the company.
“We’re seeing a new brand expediently catch up to the universally recognized brand name that is Facebook,” Marlatt wrote.
Growth in purchasing consideration: 6.5 percentage points
