Name: Malaysia Brand Footprint 2026: Decoding FMCG Shopper Choices and Growth Opportunities
Uploaded: 2026-09-17T09:16:53.602Z
Duration: 29 min 44 s
Description: Malaysia Brand Footprint 2026: Decoding FMCG Shopper Choices and Growth Opportunities

Transcript for "Malaysia Brand Footprint 2026: Decoding FMCG Shopper Choices and Growth Opportunities": Good afternoon, and welcome to Malaysia's brand footprint 2026. My name is Brenda, and I will be taking you through some of the findings together with my colleague, Wei Jie. So this current 2026 footprint is actually based off our findings in 2025. What we do know in 2025 is that it has not been a particularly easy year for the Malaysian consumers. We did continue to feel cost of living pressure. We saw the beginning of the Pudin 95 subsidy cutbacks from the government and also ongoing wars across the globe. Yet despite these challenges, some brands did continue to grow, and they did continue to strengthen their position in consumer baskets. So in today's presentation, we'll be exploring which brands were most chosen by Malaysians and what it takes for a brand to make a significant footprint in Malaysia. If you have any questions, there's a chat on your right hand side, so feel free to input your questions. You can also choose to submit your questions anonymously, and we'll actually be answering those questions during this presentation itself. So let's get into the brand footprint for 2026. So for today, we'll actually be structuring it into four parts. In the introduction, we will just briefly go through what exactly is BFP and how BFP is measured. In the second one, we will be unpacking which growth drivers is likely to drive brand growth. Is it penetration? Is it frequency? Does it even differ between a bigger or a smaller brand? And in the third one, we will then review which were the most chosen brands and also the fastest growing brands across the key FMCG sectors. And in the final section, we'll be highlighting some interesting brands to really take a deeper look into what specifically drove their growth. So let's get into what exactly is brand footprint. Brand footprint is actually or as we call it, BFP in short, is a world panel global annual ranking. So this current finding is actually just for Malaysia. And what we will do is we will be ranking the most chosen FMCG brands using something we call CRP or consumer reach points. So in the next few slides, I will be explaining exactly how CRP is calculated. So that's all you need to know before we go in further. Before I move into showing you how CRP is calculated, just wanna let you take a look in terms of the scale behind this analysis. So for this edition, it actually covers more than 500 brands across over 110 FMCG categories. So this is actually pretty comfy comprehensive where it covers across five major sectors. And this is mainly to ensure that whatever you see here is a robust view of how Malaysians are choosing their brands today. Yeah. So consumer reach point is actually calculated using two key components, penetration and consumer choice or frequency. So looking at penetration alone may tell us how many people buy a brand, and frequency tells us how often someone buys it. What brand footprint does is that it multiplies these two numbers to tell you the total number of times that a shopper is actively choosing a brand. Now that we've established how brand footprint works, let's actually move into the main theme of this year's report. We'll be unpacking some of the sustainable growth strategies across the brands. One of the more significant trends that we see this year is that growth is becoming increasingly harder for brands, and this is reflected because what we see in 2024, the number of growing brands was at 60%. But at the current year, we would see that number drop to 47% where brands do struggle to grow their CRP. And at the same time, we do see that shoppers are still stagnating in terms of the number of brands that they purchase, and they do make fewer purchase occasions in a year, dropping from 97 to 90 and to 85. So what this means is that brands now have to compete harder to really grow in a shrinking pool of shopping occasions. Plus, these challenges were not unique to a specific sector. And in fact, it's something that was apparent across all the sectors where we see less and less sectors being able to drive CRP, particularly so in beverage and dairy where we see the number of brands who grow in terms of CRP falling more significantly in 2025 versus a year ago. So now that we have established growth in CRP in 2025 versus 2024 is difficult across the different segments. Let's zoom into the brands that did manage to grow their CRP and what exactly are their growth levers. So from this chart over here, we can see that penetration is actually continuing to be the cornerstone of sustainable growth. As we all know, penetration is king. But frequency is actually something that has been increasing importance to drive CRP. So if you recall from the earlier slides, shoppers were actually making less and less trips. What this means is that for brands that really want to be successful, you will need to continue to drive your penetration, but, also, you need to compete for the occasions that remain to drive sustainable growth. Zooming into the different sectors, we again see that the increasing importance of frequency is apparent across the different sectors, but particularly so within beverage, dairy, as well as personal care. Nevertheless, penetration still remains a fundamental driver to continue driving brand growth. And does this growth driver actually differ between different brand sizes? Our next few analysis analysis actually looks at how penetration and frequency are driven differently between larger and smaller brands. So just to give you some context, larger brands are classified as stores above a 30 penetration, medium brands between 10 to 30, and smaller brands under 10. What we can see from this chart is that the large proportion of brands within Malaysia are actually smaller brands or brands that are less than 10 in penetration. However, smaller brands as well as medium brands were the ones that did struggle to grow. We can see from the chart here that versus a year ago, the smaller and medium brands did fall almost 15% in terms of the number of brands that they grow. And as compared to the larger brands, they do remain to be a bit more stable. So if you are a smaller or a medium brand, there needs to be more focused effort in terms of what specifically what specific control lever that you want to drive to compete with the more stable and larger brands. This was also reflected in the average penetration where if you are a larger brand or the larger the brand is, the more likely you are to achieve a larger penetration gain. And the smaller you are, then the more likely you will struggle to gain that penetration. When we zoom into the drivers, we do see differences between the smaller and larger brands. Larger brands have the ability to drive both penetration and frequency. We can see that where the driver of both these metrics are higher in 2025 versus 2024. However, in terms of a smaller brand, the likelihood of them being to pull both levers of penetration and frequency is significantly smaller than a larger brand, meaning that they are able to either pull penetration or frequency because they are a smaller brand. So that really ties into the importance that as a smaller and medium brand where it has been harder to grow. And in terms of the levers you pull, it tends to be one or the other. Then you really need to be more focused in terms of your efforts to drive growth within the market. That concludes our second section of how we can unlock sustainable growth across the different brand sizes and across the different segments. In this next section, we will finally review who were the top ranking brands, who were also the fastest growing brands. What will happen is that I will quickly play a quick video, and following the video where it will review some of the top brands, my colleague, Wei Jie, will take you through some of the interesting case studies that drive brand growth. So stay tuned for that. And meanwhile, if you have any questions, again, feel free to put it on the chat on the right hand side, and we'll get to those questions during this call itself. Alright. Now we will go through eight examples of brands that have been driving sustainable growth across the past three years. First off, we have Munchies, which has maintained a third place for food sectors, sitting at 81.6% in penetration, which has been picked up by more than five times in a year by average Malaysian household. Munchie's was able to cater for different consumption occasion and meet states of its shoppers by offering a wide range of portfolio across different biscuit segments. It is particularly relevant amongst the central low mid income Malay household with kids who mainly shops in the supermarket and mini market. Then we have eight chong, which grew to ninth place for beverage sector. Sitting at 31.5 in penetration, it was picked up about three times in a year by average Malaysian household. HCOM was able to create excitement for its new launches and cater to different life stages preferences by being innovative with its variant launch and also flavors launch. This is particularly relevant amongst the low mid income Malay for both household with adults and also household with kids. They're mainly shops in the supermarket and also hardware store, which sees a fast growth. Whereas me setup was able to go to 15 place for food sectors sitting at 53.6 in penetration and being picked up by more than two times in a year by average Malaysian household. Was able to sort of generate awareness and also interest in its new launches or even just existing core products by engaging with the right KOLs, garnering millions of views in its YouTube channels. This is particularly relevant amongst the central low mid income Malay teenage household, which sees more recruitment and also occasions. And we see a strong pickup coming from the supermarket and mini market for. Within the home care sector, Magic Leap grew to twenty seventh place at 10.7% in penetration. It it is picked up by two times in a year from the average Malaysian household. MagicLing was able to reinforce its cleaning expertise and encourage different usage occasion by offering an extensive portfolio within the cleaning categories itself. This is particularly relevant amongst the central region, mid income, and the Chinese household, which you'll see is a strong pickup coming from the supermarket, mini market, and also hydro market. Then within the health and beauty sectors, we have Dettol, which grew to fourth place at 49.3% in penetration. It is picked up by more than three times in a year from the average Malaysian household. Dettol was able to be innovative when it comes to launching new variants and also scents, offering a large assortment for a different audience to find, products that will fit their need. This is particularly relevant amongst the central Chinese household of adults, which sees also strong pickup coming from the supermarket, mini market, and hypermarket. Similarly, for Light Boy, within the health and beauty sectors, it grew to fifth place. At 44.8% in penetration. It is also being picked up more than three times in a year by the average Malaysian household. Similarly, in terms of, what's driving the success of itself, it is innovative when it comes to launching new variants and scents and also offering a large assortment that caters to different household needs. Different to what Datto has been seeing when it comes to the demographic, LifeOne was able to do well particularly amongst the East Coast, low income, and Malay household with kids, which also sees a fast growth coming from the supermarket, hypermarket, and mini market. Within the daily and daily substitute sector, we have Magnolia, which grew to twenty second place. Sitting at 22.1% in penetration, it is picked up at around two times a year by average Malaysian household. What drives the success for Magnolia is through the effective communication of its functional benefits, which encourage more consumption amongst its shopper. This is particularly relevant amongst the central region coming from both the Malay and Chinese shoppers and from the teenage households. Strong growth are seen coming from the mini market and supermarket for Magnolia. Lastly, we have good day from the daily and daily substitute sector, which grew to eighth place at 32.8% in penetration. It is picked up around three times a year by average Malaysian household. Goodday was able to offer a variety when it comes to pack size and flavors and catering to different household needs at a competitive price. This is particularly relevant amongst the central region, mid to high income household, and the Malay household kids, where we see strong growth coming from supermarket and the hypermarket for a good day. To sum up a recap for the session of today, growth is becoming harder across segments, and shoppers are making fewer trips and consolidating them. In order to accelerate growth, brands must focus on recruiting more buyers and creating broader consumption occasions. Penetration growth is fueled by three interconnected levers. Expanding market footprint to reach more shoppers, that's number one. Winning at the points of purchase to drive conversion, that's number two. Capturing more usage occasions by strengthening brand choice and relevance, that's number three. Together, these levers help brands recruit more shoppers and create a sustainable long term growth for the brand. That should conclude the brand footprint for 2026. Currently, we will have the floor, sort of, open up a bit for q and a sessions, and here are some of the, common questions that we get from, clients that Brenda and I will sort of address. Brenda, we want to go through the, some of the questions. Yeah. So one of the questions that the clients typically ask me during presentation is what is sort of the common theme that drives growth across different brands? Like, what do you think about that? From the case study that I sort of went through, it seems like, a lot of the growth drivers seems to come from the brand innovations and some of the assortment that kind of resonate to what shopper need. And this is what essentially pulls in the shoppers when it comes to recruitment and also driving the usage occasion. Yeah. And I I think another question that we typically get asked also, are there any specific channels that would drive the growth of brands moving forward? With the modernization of things, it seems like, similar to what we sort of seen from the case study as well. Since our modern trade will be the key things that we wanna focus on, sort of driving our products in and especially the likes of media market, which is has been a consistent driver, especially with my car seat eligibility is consistently growing. And also the likes of the hyper and supermarket when it comes to new launches and also innovations where you need space, specifically when it comes to the hypermarket. Okay. Alright. So, in terms of the key takeaways for the findings in the brand switching, what would you sort of, conclude it for, Brenda? So mainly the one thing that we see is growth is definitely becoming harder and harder for brands we see, like, especially for the smaller and medium brands. The less the number of brands that are growing are actually declining. So what we know is that penetration is definitely still king. So that's something that you should really prioritize. But apart from that, frequency is something that is playing and a growing importance across the different brands as well. So if you wanna be a successful brand, don't just purely think about penetration, also figure out how you wanna increase the occasions among your existing shoppers so that you can really drive a very good brand. Yeah. Okay. That's a good take. Thank you, Brenda. So let's say if, let's say, my brand is actually declining. Yeah. What will be the key focus that I should do to recover? Yeah. So that's where the panel data becomes really important because when you purchase the panel data, you don't just get insights into your brand's performance, you also get the total category performance. So if you have Maggie, then you also get total instant noodle. And that's where we can really look at how our brand differs with how the market is, performing. So for example, if we zoom into penetration again because we wanna look at how penetration can really lead your growth. If the discrepancy between your penetration versus the total market in certain channels is very big, then we can further zoom in to figure out how we can narrow this gap. So once we look at that, then we can further identify what are your pinpoints. Is it something to do with brand reach? Is it something to do with, the visibility in the store? Is it there's an issue with the consideration part? Like, is, our shoppers just knowing about your brand, but they're not even considering to purchase you? That's also an issue as well. So that's something that, after we take a look at the data, we can further deep dive to see what are specific pinpoints we can do to help, recover your brands. Yep. Okay. Well, that will sums up for the key question that we'll address for this section. And please please please do keep the questions flowing and, make sure that, to sort of the the session is engaging as well because, ultimately, we will still take note of the question and be sure to cascade it to the servicing team and have it addressed in the following email. Thank you very much for everyone attending this session, and hope you have a nice and pleasant day.