Only 14% of Brands Are Growing: What to Do When Brand Consideration Hits a Five-Year Low
If it has felt harder to get your brand onto a shopper's list this year, you are not imagining it. Morning Consult's Fastest Growing Brands 2026 report, published in September, found that only 14% of the more than 2,800 brands it tracks grew brand consideration over the past year. That is a five-year low, and it follows a year in which 94% of brands grew. The data covers U.S. adults, so other markets may look different, but the direction matters to anyone running a brand: when consumers tighten up, the shortlist in their heads gets shorter first. Here is what the report says, and three things a brand can do about it now.
Brand Consideration Hits a Five-Year Low: What the Numbers Say
Consideration is the share of consumers who say they are considering buying from a brand. Morning Consult compared May 15 to August 15 of this year with the same window last year. The headline findings:
- Only 14% of brands grew consideration, down from 94% the year before.
- The typical brand lost nearly 2 points.
- Of 1,101 brands tracked continuously for five years, only 40 grew every single year.
- Gen X pulled back the most: real spending fell 5.9%, 46% say they are worse off than a year ago, and only 9% of brands grew with this group.
The authors also note that the cooling is not limited to consideration. Usage, trust and favorability are softening together, while real consumer spending is roughly flat. They describe consideration as an early-warning sign: when fewer brands make the shortlist, purchases are moving somewhere else. Consideration tells you before revenue does.
Who Is Still Growing: Kitchen-Table Brands and One Returning Name
Growth is concentrated in everyday places. Kitchen-table categories make up 35% of tracked brands but 60 of the 100 fastest growers. Trade outlet Mass Market Retailers notes that carbonated soft drinks, juice, chips and frozen food were among the few industries where at least half the brands grew. Consumers are going back to familiar staples and small treats.
The top spot went to Mr. Pibb, a soda brand that is about 50 years old. Its consideration rose 11.2 points, far ahead of the runner-up at 4.7. According to Beverage Daily, Coca-Cola retired the Pibb Xtra name after 24 years and brought Mr. Pibb back with a new formula. Consideration doubled, and it followed a rise in awareness. The brand ranked first in nine of the report's twelve audience lists.
Drive-thru coffee chain 7 Brew is the other example. It expanded from 38 stands in 2022 to more than 700, awareness rose from 33% to 43%, and consideration moved from 12% to 16%.
Both stories share one thing: people have to recognize you before they consider you. The report also observes that growth clustered among brands that already had high awareness, and that their consideration rose together with favorability and trust.
The New Variable: AI Chatbots Are Now the No. 3 Research Channel
One number in the report is easy to skip. The share of U.S. adults who name AI chatbots as their most common online source for researching brands rose from 2.6% to 9.2% in five quarters. Chatbots are now the third-largest research channel.
AI brands themselves are not more loved for it. Most saw trust and favorability flatten or slip. Gemini is the exception, with consideration up 4.6 points, which placed it fourth overall. People are using AI more without necessarily trusting it more.
For brands, the implication is direct. The shortlist is getting shorter, and part of it is now drafted by AI. As we covered in citations are the new rankings, who AI cites depends on whether your information is clear, consistent and trustworthy.
Three Things to Do When Brand Consideration Slips
1. Treat consideration as an early warning and measure it regularly
You do not need a large research panel. Once a quarter, ask customers and prospects one short question: "Next time you buy this kind of product, which brands would you consider?" Add branded search volume, direct traffic and repeat purchase rate, and a trend appears. What matters is measuring on a schedule, not looking for causes after revenue drops.
2. Make the brand easier to recognize
What Mr. Pibb did is not complicated. It went back to the name people remembered and gave them a new reason that fits in one sentence. Check that your name, visual identity and core promise look and sound the same on your website, your packaging and your social channels. In a cautious market, shoppers will not work to understand a blurry brand.
3. Make sure AI can name you, and gets you right
Open a few AI assistants and ask which brands to buy in your category and what yours is known for. If you are missing or described wrongly, go back to the product information, FAQs and brand story on your website.
The split between people and AI in this work can be clear:
- AI handles: pulling survey and search data together, tracking brand mentions in AI answers, and flagging unusual changes.
- People handle: deciding who the brand exists for, which promise is worth repeating, and what should change and what should not.
Conclusion: When the Shortlist Shrinks, Be Worth Remembering
The 14% figure is a reminder that brand growth is never automatic. When consumers get careful, the brands that stay on the list are the ones that are easy to recognize, credible, and clear about who they are. That is what TitApeX means by "AI handles perfection, people handle what moves us": data and monitoring can go to AI, but the reason people remember you has to be decided by people.
If you want to review your brand identity, your website, or how your brand looks to AI, see our services or get in touch.
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