FDBusiness.com

A survey of 70,000 consumers in 15 major international markets has found that Nestlé is the fifth most loved brand in the world. Nestlé was the highest ranked food and beverage company in the research which was carried out by APCO Insight, a global opinion research company.

The rankings are the result of a decade-long research project including the global survey of more than 600 of the world’s largest corporate brands.

Every day Nestlé produces around a billion products that are sold in almost every country in the world. In 2012 global sales were more than SFr92 billion (Eur75 billion). 43% of those sales were in emerging markets.

The APCO study identified eight different emotions including pride, understanding and curiosity, that are critical to effective brand communication. Nestlé scored highest on relevance and understanding.

The researchers named Walt Disney as the world’s most loved company, followed by Yahoo, Google and Sony. Kellogg’s was 12th, Coca Cola 14th and Pepsico 17th.

“The best brands are those that build a strong, enduring emotional attachment with consumers,” says Bryan Dumont, president of APCO Insight.

The company’s “Brand Building the Nestlé Way” programme provides a framework for marketeers to build great brands that appeal to consumers. Nestlé has also invested heavily in digital and social media to complement these efforts and drive profitable brand conversations.

Today there are more than 850 Nestlé brand pages on Facebook in addition to more than a thousand websites dedicated to the company’s brands around the world. In total the company has around 180 million Facebook fans.

Earlier this year Nestlé was named one of the world’s top ten most reputable companies in the annual ‘Global Rep Trak’ study. The company achieved ninth place in the study, which is designed to understand how organisations build trust and support with the general public worldwide.