Yogurt Innovations Columbus OH

Leading brands in the yogurt category are responding to consumer demand for great-tasting, good-for-you products with a boatload of new introductions directed at specific consumer segments and which offer new wellness features and benefits.

After several consecutive years of sales growth estimated at 5% to 8%, the increased appeal of yogurt and an accelerating demand by consumers for healthier foods that don't require them to sacrifice enjoyment, the category is on track to eclipse those earlier results.

Within the yogurt category, the leading brands are striving to meet and, indeed, anticipate consumer demands while also seeking to differentiate their products with specific features and benefits. Those leading brands include Dannon, Stonyfield Farm, Yoplait and Horizon Organic.

Dannon's Activia, for example, with its Bifidus Regularis probiotic cultures and its money-back guarantee to improve digestion when eaten daily for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle, generated first-year sales estimated at $130 million. And the new Activia Light product has been "enthusiastically received by retailers," a spokesman observes. A probiotic dairy drink, DanActive was launched early this year, and Danimals, with probiotic LGG was relaunched with a new functional benefit for children, along with its kid- pleasing taste.

Stonyfield Farm introduced its YoBaby yogurt with DHA last year, followed by its Shift energy drink, its 2-a-Day yogurt with twice the calcium of the typical yogurt, and its new Oikos Greek yogurt, with twice the protein and half the carbohydrates. In January 2008, Stonyfield Farm will debut its YoBaby Simply Plain, positioned as baby's first yogurt.

"The success of Activia has highlighted this growing consumer awareness of the benefits of probiotics," says Tim Kenny, vice president of sales and marketing, Stonyfield Farm, Londonerry, N.H. "Stonyfield Farm yogurt has always contained six different live and active cultures, including four probiotic strains. Most other brands only contain one or two probiotic strains. So we welcome more consumer knowledge about probiotics because it is an area where we have a distinctive advantage and have led in innovation."

Horizon Organic is reaching out to two distinctly different consumer groups with kid-friendly products such as its baby yogurt, Yo-Yo's and yogurt tubes, while also introducing its new Rachel's brand, in two lines, Essence and Exotic. Rachel's products, from the United Kingdom, are "thick and creamy with just the right sweetness to suit a grown-up palette," says Carolina Fryer, brand manager, Horizon Organic, Broomfield, Colo. She also cites data from Information Resources Inc., Chicago, showing that organic yogurt sales are growing at an annual pace of 14.5% for the 52-week period ending in July.

In recent weeks, Yoplait has brought three distinctively different new products to market. It's Yoplait Yo-Plus, with six flavors, "provides yogurt lovers with the benefits of probiotic cultures and fiber, with the great taste consumers can always expect from Yoplait," says Katie Lay, associate marketing manager for Yo-Plus. And then there is the new Go-Gurt Fizzix, a carbonated yo-gurt-in-a-tube snack with fruit flavors and positioned to appeal to tweens. And lastly, Yoplait Kids Yogurt Drink is available in a sip-able, portable beverage containing Omega 3-DHA, and has 25% less sugar than the average of leading kids' yogurt, with no artificial flavors or sweeteners.

Surging Demand

"Historically, the yogurt category in the U.S. has been driven by incremental innovation," says Michael Neuwirth, senior director of public relations, The Dannon Company, White Plains, N.Y. He notes that the first yogurt products from 60 years ago were plain, and tart. Then came "Fruit on the Bottom," which added sweetness and enjoyment. Next came yogurt products that are light, products for children and drinkable yogurt for on-the-go.

"During the first 60 years, yogurt was consumed occasionally, infrequently. People used to buy it but only eat it once every six weeks or maybe when they were on a diet. Products like Activia have revolutionized how people think of yogurt and how they consume it. Yogurt is now a daily staple, especially with Activia. People think of yogurt as a food that helps them in a tangible way. Good taste is a requirement, not an option, and yogurt should offer a good price-value against competing options. But now there's a new dynamic. When people start thinking about food as a way to improve their quality of life, yogurt is the perfect food," he adds.

Since Activia's success, Dannon has followed with Activia Light, which Neuwirth says was "enthusiastically embraced by retailers" during the sell in. "We have consumers buying Activia Light who didn't buy Activia. It's a second wave of incremental users."

Kenny of Stonyfield Farm says, "Consumers are becoming more aware of the probiotics in yogurt and the variety of health benefits which they provide to digestive and immune health. However, awareness in Europe and many other countries of these probiotic benefits is much higher and consequently, per capita consumption is much higher than in the U.S. today."

With the yogurt category expanding so rapidly and with diverse products, Kenny suggests shoppers would benefit from store-level guidance.

"Yogurt is a big category, with many sub segments and, consequently, it's sometimes difficult for consumers to differentiate between offerings. I expect one of the major retail innovations in the next year will be to bring better signage to the shelf to help highlight the many distinctive benefits of yogurt and fuel further growth in per capita consumption to be more comparable with other developed countries," he observes.

While Stonyfield Farm can certainly promote the probiotic benefits of its own yogurt, its 2-a-Day yogurt offers twice the calcium of the typical yogurt. As Kenny explains, "Eating just two of these yogurts a day provides 100% of your daily calcium requirement."

The new Oikos Greek yogurt line, also from Stonyfield Farm, is the result of a partnership with a maker of Greek dairy products. Oikos yogurt offers a thick and creamy texture, in addition to its higher protein and lower carbohydrate benefits.

Horizon Organic, headquartered in Bloomfield, Colo., has a basic marketing message for moms buying yogurt for the family. "Horizon Organic is a simple choice moms can make that can make a big difference for their family," says Fryer. "Choosing to serve your kids Horizon Organic is a convenient way to give them nutritious foods free of pesticides, added growth hormones and antibiotics."

For its Rachel brand, the company emphasizes its Omega-3 DHA, healthy pre- and probiotics, calcium and vitamins A and D, but as Fryer explains, it's also "wickedly delicious!" The products under the Rachel brand are divided between Essence and Exotic, with Essence's five flavors "inspired by the notion of scrumptious satisfaction." They include: Vitality: pomegranate acai, Relax: vanilla chai, and Calm: plum honey lavendar. The Exotic line offers pomegranate blueberry, cherry black currant, and kiwi passion fruit lime.

Yoplait, a General Mills company based in Minneapolis, Minn., was especially active this summer announcing a diverse lineup of new products.

Yoplait's Yo-Plus contains "a unique blend of probiotic cultures and a natural fiber," says Lay, associate marketing manager, representing "the newest way to help naturally regulate your digestive health." Yo-Plus flavors include: strawberry, vanilla, cherry and peach.

Fizzix, announced earlier this month, is positioned as "a cool and edgier version of Go-Gurt," and delivers the same nutritional benefits as the original. With 80 calories per tube, Fizzix is "a good source of calcium and also provides the benefit of live and active cultures" for tweeners. Fizzix yogurt snacks are available in three packages that contain eight tubes of flavor pairings: blue raspberry rage and strawberry watermelon rush; wild cherry zing and strawberry lemonade jolt, and fruit punch charge and triple berry fusion.

Yoplait Kids Yogurt drink arrived in stores during July, offering youngsters a healthy beverage containing Omega 3-DHA, 25% less sugar, in four flavors: strawberry, strawberry banana, mixed berry and banana.

"We think both kids and their parents will be pleased with the new yogurt drinks," says Phillip Zinda, Yoplait marketing. "With calcium, vitamins A and D and now Omega 3-DHA, Yoplait has broadened the dietary benefits for young yogurt lovers."