Doesn’t everyone have favorite brands? Speaking for myself, I’ve never really thought about the “parents” of brands I prefer or brands I avoid. But, lo and behold! It turns out that just a few companies control almost every major food and beverage brand worldwide.
Nestlé’s Brands
“N-e-s-t-l-e-s, Nestlé’s makes the very best chocolate” or so the old jingle goes. Nestlé is chocolate, right? Think again. The Nestlé company makes more than 2,000 brands, from global icons to local favorites. Among the ones I think most familiar to Americans:
- Nescafe coffee
- Coffee Mate
- Nesquik
- Starbucks Coffee at home
- Purina pet food
- Alpo
- Beneful
- Beggin’ dog treats
- Fancy Feast
- Tidy Cat
- Nature’s Bounty nutritionals
- Osteo-Biflex supplements
- Puritan’s Pride supplements
- Perrier
- San Pellegrino
- DiGiorno
- Häagen-Dazs
- Carnation
- Cheerios
- Trix
- Gerber
- Heinz
- Maggi seasonings
- Hot Pockets
- Lean Cuisine
- Stauffers
- KitKat
- Toll House
Mars Brands
The Nestlé company isn’t alone in product diversity. Mars, more than 100 years old and still family owned, for example, makes one think candy, but think again! Their products include many candies, of course, such as:
- 3 Musketeers
- American Heritage Chocolate
- Dove
- Dove Bar
- Kudos
- M-Azing
- M&M’s
- M&M’s World
- Mars
- Milky Way
- My M&M’s
- Snickers
- Twix
Wrigley
The Wrigley Company brands (Mars being the parent company) include:
- Altoids
- Big Red
- Doublemint
- Eclipse
- Eclipse Ice
- Excel
- Extra
- Freedent
- Juicy Fruit
- Life Savers
- Orbit
- Skittles
- Starburst
- Wrigley’s
- Wrigley’s Spearmint
- Winterfresh
Mars Veterinary Division
Veterinary care and research are a wholly unexpected (by me) Mars endeavor, but maybe you thought pet products?
- Cesar Canine Cuisine
- Chappi
- Crave
- Iams Kit-e-Kat
- Max
- My Dog
- Natura
- Nutro Products
- Pedigree
- PrettyLitter
- Temptations
- Whiskas
Quaker Oats Brands
Quaker Oats registered the first trademark for a breakfast cereal in 1877, and since then, Quaker means oats, right? Well, yes. But it also means so much more now!
- Old Fashioned & Quick Oats
- Instant Oatmeal
- Steel Cut Oats Instant
- Oatmeal Cups
- Gluten Free Oatmeal
- Organic Oatmeal
- Oat bran
But also
- Granola (in a couple of varieties)
- Grits (several versions)
- Rice cakes
- Rice crisps
- Rice thins
- Rice chips
- Chewy Granola Bars
- Variety Bundles
- Protein Granola Bars
- Oatmeal squares (brown sugar, cinnamon, & honey nut)
- Barley
- Corn Meal
- Mixes
- Oat Flour
Pepsi Brands
Although you might think of Quaker Oats Company as a stand-alone, think again! It was actually acquired by PepsiCo in 200l, primarily to gain control of Gatorade. So now one umbrella company also produces these, among others:
- Pepsi
- Lay’s
- Mtn Dew
- Doritos
- Gatorade
- Ruffles
- Cheetos
- Brisk
- Propel
- Pasta Roni
- Sabra
- Simply Baked
- Rice A Roni
- SunChips
- Jack Link’s
So, what’s my point? There isn’t one, really, just my shock and awe that when it comes to commercial brands, earlobes are connected to elbows—i.e., bodies of products that seem to have no relation to each other.
Bottom Line: It seems multi-national companies are “all over the map” when it comes to diversifying product lines. And does it matter?