The goal of any brand is getting the consumer to buy, buy, buy, whether that’s an expensive piece of tech or just a humble hamburger. But it seems the bigger and more famous a brand, the better the chance it has of attracting customers. Indeed, 82% of people who shop online go with a brand they’re familiar with.
Previously, http://businessfinancing.co.uk“>BusinessFinancing.co.uk analysts used Google search data to reveal the world’s most popular consumer brands. But considering a brand’s popularity can ebb and flow on a minute-by-minute basis, this time around, we were inspired to ask: which of the world’s biggest brands have recently gotten more popular in a particular country?
We returned to Google searches between 2021 and 2023 to explore which brands have gained and lost the most popularity in the UK, U.S., Canada and Australia.
About This Study
For more than 1,000 of the world’s most popular consumer brands, we used Ahrefs to gather the volume of Google searches for branded terms made in different countries between September 2021 and September 2023. We could then calculate the percentage year-on-year change in search volume for each brand across all countries and isolate the brand that had seen the greatest year-on-year increase in search volume.
Key Findings
- In the UK, the Spanish beer brand Cruzcampo has seen a +372.76% year-on-year increase in Google searches. That’s more than any other brand in any category.
- In the U.S., Dunkin’ has gained the most popularity of any brand, seeing a +1212.77% year-on-year increase in Google searches.
- In Australia, the distinctive shoe brand Crocs comes top with a +106.58% year-on-year increase in local Google searches.
- On a global level, beauty and fashion brands take the top spot in 36 countries (more than any other category of brand).
The Brand that Has Gained the Most Popularity in Each Country
Our map reveals the individual brands in 135 countries that have gained the most popularity over time, based on the year-on-year increase in local online searches. Brands in the fashion and beauty category claim the top spot in 36 countries (more than any other category).
It’s also clear that American brands — most notably Bud Light, McDonald’s and New Balance — dominate the map, reflecting the world’s growing appetite for star-spangled products. In 2024, the U.S. claims six of the world’s top 10 most valuable brands.
But non-American brands come top elsewhere. In Ukraine, the Japanese beer brand Asahi has seen a staggering +338% year-on-year increase in local online searches. Perhaps increasing the brand’s local popularity was its decision in 2022 to cease exporting products to Russia and Belarus as a result of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. The brand also donated one million euros to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
In the UK, a Spanish Beer Has Gained More Popularity than Any Other Brand
In the UK, Cruzcampo ranks as the brand that’s gained the most popularity locally, boasting a +372.76% year-on-year search volume increase. Brits’ taste for the Spanish beer brand led Heineken to launch it in the UK in 2023. “People in the UK want Spanish lager, so we thought we’d make it more accessible by launching Cruzcampo into the mainstream,” commented Serena Smith of Heineken UK. “If you go to Spain on holiday and just ask for a beer, this is what you will get.”
In the same time frame, other brands have lost popularity in the UK. Haidilao leads in this respect, a Chinese hot pot eatery that’s seen a 59.01% drop in search volume. As restaurant chains go, Haidilao is a rare sight in the UK, with only a handful of locations nationwide.
MAC Cosmetics Has Lost the Most Popularity of Any Brand in the U.S.
Across the pond, Dunkin’ comes top as having gained the most popularity of any brand in recent years, having seen a staggering +1212.77% year-on-year search volume increase. In 2019, Dunkin’ changed its name from Dunkin’ Donuts, signalling a pivot away from baked goods to make coffee the main product marketed. It worked: Dunkin’ is now the second-biggest coffee chain in the U.S. after Starbucks. Bud Light comes in second place (+455.82%), one of the most well-known beer brands in the country.
In contrast, MAC Cosmetics has lost popularity over time (-58.59% decrease in search volume). It could have something to do with MAC’s non-cruelty-free status, seeing as the brand sells in China, where beauty products are required to be tested on animals by law.
“After [MAC’s] peak in popularity,” one Reddit user summarises, “there was [a] wave of consumers and influencers who became passionate about cruelty-free makeup … With how many cruelty-free makeup brands there are now, it was easy for people to move away from [MAC]. With [fewer] reviews and hype, their online presence went down.”
Bud Light Ranks as the Brand That’s Gained the Most Popularity in Canada
In Canada, too, Bud Light is the brand that’s gained the most popularity when measuring year-on-year search volume increase (+390.95%). McDonald’s comes next (+230.21%). In 2023, the world-famous fast-food chain launched a Canadian campaign to “[reignite] Gen Z’s love for the Big Mac,” partnering with young artists and designers to create art based around the iconic burger. Not far behind McDonald’s are two imported beer brands: Modelo Especial (+222.83%) and Miller Lite (128.89%).
Meanwhile, the video game company Mojang has lost more popularity (-76.98%) over time than any other brandin Canada. Swedish brand Mojang is best known for developing Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time. American Express comes next (-75.63%).
In Australia, Crocs Is among the Top Brands for Popularity Gained Locally
Looking at year-on-year search volume increase, one of the top brands that have gained popularity in Australia is Crocs (+106.58%), the iconic shoe brand known for its brightly coloured rubber clogs. According to Dr Jason Pallan, a senior lecturer at the RMIT University in Melbourne, one of the main reasons why Australians have embraced this shoe is to look too cool to care.
“It’s like are you cool enough to get away with wearing something that looks ridiculous and doesn’t look cool. But you are actually so cool, you can get away with that,” he commented.
Domino’s Pizza, meanwhile, ranks among the brands that have lost the most popularity down under (67.00% decrease in year-on-year search volume). In 2022, the brand faced controversy in Australia as a result of severely underpaying in-store staff and delivery workers. E-commerce firm Zulily comes next (-64.19%), a brand that (as of December 2023) is going into liquidation.
The Fashion & Beauty Brand That Has Gained the Most Popularity in Each Country
Our next map reveals the fashion and beauty brand that has gained the most popularity according to search volume increase in 120 countries around the world. Crocs — often spotted on the feet of trend-setting celebrities — comes top in 23 countries, more than any other brand.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brits increased their spending on fashion and beauty products, keen to invest in their IRL appearances after a few years stuck inside. Here, Levi Strauss & Co. comes top (+146%), also the country’s most popular specialist of jeans in terms of buyers.
The Beer Brand That Has Gained the Most Popularity in Each Country
Next, we discovered that Bud Light has gained the most popularity of any beer brand in 45 countries, among them the brand’s native U.S., where the brand was the target of a highly publicised boycott by far-right organisers in 2023. Here, the year-on-year search volume for Bud Light jumped by +456%.
Heineken comes top in a further seven countries. Interestingly, in terms of global sales, 2023 was a “challenging” year for the Dutch brand, with the amount of beer not sold enough to fill the O2 stadium almost nine times over. Meanwhile, Irish brand Guinness comes top in only Uganda and Slovakia.
The Gaming Brand That Has Gained the Most Popularity in Each Country
The global gaming community can be quick to pile on a brand they’re not happy with; just take Electronic Arts, which lays claim to the most downvoted Reddit comment of all time. But on a more positive note, our map below reveals which gaming brand in each country has gotten more popular over time.
Nintendo comes top in 30 countries, a higher count than any other brand. 2023 saw several exciting developments for the Japanese brand: Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood was opened, the Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed more than a billion dollars at the box office and the long-awaited The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom game hit store shelves.
The Restaurant Brand That Has Gained the Most Popularity in Each Country
McDonald’s is the world’s most ubiquitous fast food chain, counting over 40,000 locations across the world. Its popularity shows no sign of slowing, either: in 31 countries, the Golden Arches comes top as the restaurant brand that’s gained the most popularity in recent years.
In other countries, the top restaurant brand is one that’s likely seen increased local attention thanks to the brand setting up shop there for the first time. Take Canada’s beloved coffee and eatery brand Tim Horton’s in Pakistan — here, the volume of local searches has increased by a whopping +1255% year-on-year, with 2023 marking the opening of the country’s first Tim Horton’s in Lahore.
The Smartphone Brand That Has Gained the Most Popularity in Each Country
Over half of the world’s population owns a smartphone in 2023, and the number of users globally is expected to keep increasing for the foreseeable future. But looking at how much they’re searched online, which smartphone brands have gained the most popularity over recent years in every country?
The UK is among 28 countries where Infinix comes top: here, the local number of searches for the Chinese brand has increased year-on-year by +90%. 2023 also marked Infinix’s biggest year-on-year increase in the number of smartphones shipped. Meanwhile, tech behemoths like Apple and Samsung are a rare sight on the map, only coming top in Nigeria (+26%)and Rwanda (+2%) respectively.
When Increased Attention Is a Bad Thing
You might think that all brands jump for joy over a surge in Google searches — but you’d be hard-pressed to find a big brand that hasn’t at some point seen an increase in attention simply because of a marketing misstep. Take, for example, Whole Foodsin March 2016, which went viral after a customer questioned the grocery chain’s eco-unfriendly decision to package pre-peeled oranges in plastic containers. The brand’s quick decision to rectify its mistake by pulling them from shelves is an example of how brands — big and small — can turn criticism into useful feedback and bad publicity into responsible, customer-focused action.
Methodology & Sources
To identify the consumer brand that has gained the most popularity in each country, we first compiled a seed list of more than 1,000 of the most popular global consumer brands via FT.com, BrandDirectory.com and Comparably.com.
Next, we gathered the volume of Google searches for each brand over the last two years using the keyword explorer inside Ahrefs. This process was carried out for each country with a population exceeding two million. This allowed us to calculate the percentage change in search volume for each brand across all countries in the study.
Finally, we isolated the brand exhibiting the greatest year-over-year (YOY) increase in search volume for each respective country. We repeated this process for brands within the beer industry, smartphones, fashion & beauty, fast food and gaming.
The analysis of this data was completed in March 2024.
Oliver says
This article shows how data can be misleading! Bud Light didn’t gain popularity, it lost popularity (or at least, I know that it lost money), but people searched for it on Google much more, presumably because they were wondering what the controversy was about. The boycott controversy is mentioned in the “Beer Brand That Has Gained the Most Popularity in Each Country” section, which is helpful, and it is also helpful that the article is clear with how it measured its data. Still, it seems to me that the controversy should have been mentioned earlier and much more prominently, because a cursory reading would lead one to believe that Bud Light has gained popularity overall, which can’t be true.