With the market shouldering what appears to be an excess of optimism, investors who don't want to see their portfolios crumble may want to consider a long-term defensive game plan. Consumer-staples companies are a classic choice here. But instead of heading straight for company metrics, why not start our search by delving into fundamentals on the sector's bread and butter -- the actual consumer?

Deeper pockets abroad
We'll be doing some globetrotting in this analysis, but it makes sense to start at home. Now, for all the distressing stats on the U.S. consumer, some U.S.-focused consumer names have been doing just fine recently. Witness the most recent quarterly resultsof packaged-foods provider J.M. Smucker , for instance. Other companies, however, have suffered meaningful volume declines as Joe and Jane Six-Pack run leaner pantries or look to save a buck with cheaper store brands.

Will these penny-pinching habits persist? Hmm, let's see. The tediously titled statistic known as "U.S. household debt service payments as a percent of disposable personal income" may be improving recently, but the figure remains near multidecade highs. Meanwhile, as of May, there were nearly six unemployed workers per available job -- oh, and Deutsche Bank sees almost half of U.S. mortgages falling underwater by 2011.

In short, yeah, U.S. consumers might remain tightfisted for quite some time. And if trying to pick the companies that will actually be able to grow in the U.S. feels too stressful, then it's time to go global.

Starting with the developed world, European consumers seem in somewhat better shape. As of year-end 2008, gross household debt in the EU area stood at 94% of gross disposable income, compared to a much larger 130% for the U.S. And unlike U.S. consumer sentiment, Eurozone confidence hasn't fallen off its 2009 highs in the past months. Still, I wouldn't necessarily assume that Europeans will outspend their U.S. counterparts, or even that sales will decline less severely. After all, Europeans' more sensible habits arguably held down their household debt in the first place.

But don't fret. Emerging markets still look promising. Brookings Institution researcher Homi Kharas sees the world's middle class expanding to 52% of the total population by 2020, up from roughly 30% now. And the near-term outlook isn't bad, either: The International Monetary Fund sees emerging markets growing 1.5% this year and 4.7% the following. That beats the pants off expected U.S. growth.

With these facts in mind, I put together the following table, which includes two popular consumer names that might not be so familiar to U.S. investors. None of these companies are formal recommendations, but they're a good place to start researching.

Company

Product Categories

Market Cap

Dividend Yield

% ex-North America Sales

% Emerging Markets Sales

Nestle
(OTC BB: NSRGY.PK)

Packaged food & water, nutrition, pet care, pharma

$143.0 B

3.2%

73.2%*

Not available

Danone
(OTC BB: DANOY.PK)

Fresh dairy, bottled water, nutrition

$35.2 B

3.2%

91.2%

> 40%

Unilever
(NYSE: UL)

Home & personal care, packaged food

$75.8 B

3.4%

< 33%

47%

Colgate-Palmolive
(NYSE: CL)

Home & personal care, pet nutrition

$35.8 B

2.5%

Approx. 75%

Not available

Procter & Gamble
(NYSE: PG)

Home & personal care, paper products, pet nutrition Continued...