Is there a consumer brand that is sold in every country in the world?
Coca-Cola is known to be one of the most widely distributed brands in the world. From the vast deserts of Chad to the remote beaches of Papua New Guinea, you will never be far from a refreshingly chilled bottle of carbonated sugar water. Following an entry into Myanmar in 2017, Cuba and North Korea are now the only two countries in the world where Coca-Cola is not distributed or sold.
This got us thinking: is there actually a consumer brand that is officially sold in every one of the world’s 206 sovereign states?
The Bare Necessities
Our first consideration is for the simple things in life — necessities like soap, toothpaste, detergent, diapers and food seasoning. Global conglomerates like the Procter and Gamble (USA — Pantene, Head and Shoulders, Pampers), Unilever (UK and The Netherlands — Dove, Lipton, Omo and Knorr), Colgate-Palmolive (USA — well, Colgate and Palmolive!) and food empire Nestlé (Switzerland — Maggi, Nescafé and KitKat along with various regional water- and milk brands) have blanketed most of the world with their vast range of consumer necessities. While each operates in 180–200 states, like Coca-Cola they are all restricted from selling in North Korea as a result of current trade sanctions.
While each operates in 180–200 states, like Coca-Cola they are all restricted from selling in North Korea as a result of current trade sanctions.
Big Tobacco, Pharma and Oil
While the majority of the world’s mega-conglomerates and multi-nationals are subject to the same North Korean sanctions, we’ll still take a look at them to see how close they come to Coca-Cola’s global reach.
Tobacco companies operate in a notoriously oligopolistic market, a fancy term used by economists to describe a market with only a few dominant players. Philip Morris (USA — Marlboro, Benson and Hedges), Imperial Brands (UK — Davidoff, West, Montecristo) and British American Tobacco (UK — Camel, Lucky Strike, Dunhill) each distribute to between 160 and 200 global states. However, in addition to sanctions, none of these companies sells in Bhutan, which restricted the production and sale of tobacco and tobacco products in 2010 as part of their effort to maximise the nation’s Gross National Happiness.
In the pharmaceutical field, Swiss conglomerates GlaxoSmithKline and Norvatis have the widest global representation with distribution to 150–160 countries. This number is lower than expected and is likely explained by the fact that many medical products are supplied to hospitals and pharmacies around the globe through third-party distributors.
Similarly, the Big Oil companies including ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and Total only operate in around 70–130 countries*. This is largely due to the geopolitical dynamics surrounding oil; in some countries, lucrative petroleum products are primarily distributed through state-run enterprise (e.g. Libya's OilLibyia and Venezuela’s PDV), even if Big Oil companies are granted drilling and exploration rights in the region.
Payments and Tech
Payment providers and platforms like Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union have a natural incentive to operate in as many countries as possible. The examples above are each US firms with operations in more than 200 states, however, unlike Coca-Cola, each now has an official presence in Cuba following the recent easing on US trade sanctions and travel restrictions.
Software companies might be other good contenders for our list. While Microsoft is only listed as officially operating in 127 countries, we are quite certain that there is an active copy of Windows running in every sovereign state of the world. Social networks like Facebook are held back from winning our title thanks to their growing political controversy. As of today, the site is blocked in China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau), Iran and North Korea, with a recent Bangladeshi ban lifted in 2017.
Supermarkets in the Vatican City
A seasoned traveller might suggest Toyota as one of the most present brands around the globe. Camrys, Corollas and Land Cruisers are found peppering everywhere from the highly competitive highways of the US to the potholed streets of Zimbabwe. Although Toyota vehicles are sold in an impressive 170 regions in the world, there are a few states, like the Holy Sea, that are simply too small to host a car dealership. Instead, the Vatican City is home to an international supermarket that hosts many of the global brands discussed here. Access to this tax-free haven is restricted to citizens of the state.
New(er) kids on the block
The political situations in Iran, North Korea and Syria prevent many of today’s mega consumer brands from achieving true global dominance. Until this changes, a near-future contender for our truly global consumer brand could probably only come from China. The country’s rapidly growing technology companies like Huawei, Lenovo and ZTE trade more liberally with heavily sanctioned states, though this has, of course, lead to some tensions with the US. Huawei, a leading manufacturer of mobile phones and telecommunications equipment, has become one of China’s largest brands, impressively growing its reach to over 170 countries in only 21 years. Lenovo, which acquired IBM’s personal computer business in 2005, has now become one of the largest personal computer vendors in the world with presence in over 160 countries.
With sustained growth, we predict a Chinese technology giant could likely assume the role of the first truly global consumer brand within the next half-decade. This, of course, assumes that the Vatican City supermarket sells computer equipment.
Are there any other contenders for truly global consumer brands that we’ve missed? Feel free to drop us any comments, ideas and feedback below, or on Facebook and Twitter!
*We were not able to obtain a reliable figure for the number of countries that ExxonMobil operates in. If anyone has the answer, please kindly share!
