Hershey's chocolate bar

Hershey’s, Pillsbury, Kellogg’s, Betty Crocker, Campbell Soup, Frito-Lay, Nestle, Lipton, General Mills. These are the food brands that “define American culture and commerce,” according to Morning Consult.

The brand intelligence firm surveyed 250,000 adults to determine America’s Most Loved Brands. Perhaps not surprisingly, eight of the top 25 were food.

Although the survey had several parts, the methodology Morning Consult used to confer “most loved” status was simple. They asked participants whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of brands, and then took the difference between the two scores to come up with a “favorability rating.” Not every survey participant rated all of the brands, but the average number of ratings per brand was 12,000.

We’ve seen quite a few of these types of rankings recently. Just in the past few months, we’ve reported on the Best Corporate Citizens, Most Reputable Companies, Most Innovative Companies, Most Sustainable Companies, and Most Ethical Companies. And some of the top food companies — like Kellogg’s, Campbell Soup, and Nestle — appear over and over on the lists.

The question is whether or not being recognized as a sustainable or ethical company, or even a most-loved company, translates into growth where it counts — the bottom line.

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