The findings, published August 25, are based on YouGov BrandIndex data drawn from surveys of more than 23,000 U.S. adults, tracking nearly 140 beverage brands daily across 16 brand-health metrics. The overall ranking spans four subsectors: carbonated soft drinks; coffee, juice and tea; energy and hydration; and water. A separate ranking covering beer, wine and spirits is due in September.
Rounding out the overall top 10 are Starbucks, Tropicana, Ocean Spray, Arizona Iced Tea, Minute Maid, Pepsi and Dunkin'.
- Soft drinks: Coca-Cola leads at 35.6%, ahead of Pepsi (26.7%), Sprite (25.1%) and Dr Pepper (23.0%).
- Coffee, juice and tea: Lipton tops the category at 32.3%, followed by Starbucks (28.6%) and Tropicana (28.2%).
- Energy and hydration: Gatorade dominates with 41.0% Consideration, more than 19 points ahead of second-place Powerade (21.3%). Red Bull ranks third at 16.7%.
- Water: Aquafina leads at 23.2%, ahead of Dasani (19.6%) and Smartwater (18.6%).
Dasani posted the largest year-over-year improvement in Consideration, rising 3.8 percentage points to 19.6%. Starbucks recorded the second-largest gain (+3.5 points to 28.6%), followed by Dr Pepper (+3.1 points to 23.0%), Fiji (+2.6 points) and Minute Maid (+2.5 points).
Comparing the top 25 most-considered brands on YouGov's Value and Quality metrics, Gatorade again led both categories, with a Value score of 33.2 and a Quality score of 45.5. Lipton ranked second on both measures, with scores of 32.5 and 40.8 respectively.
The report noted that consideration alone doesn't tell the full story — Starbucks, for instance, ranks fourth overall for Consideration but posts a negative Value score of -15.1 and falls outside the top 25 for Quality perception.
