By Gopal Nair
This easily available, quick, and nutritious snack may very well be the alternative to the ever elusive fountain of youth, as researchers (you wonder who these guys are) are finding evidence that milk and yoghurt may actually add years to your life. It’s hard to believe but this pudding-like food has come a long way from its Turkish origin of fermented goat’s milk in goat skin bags carried by early nomadic Turks.
Yet, there must be a controversy to every good thing, despite the fact that yoghurt has a long-established reputation as a product consistent with healthy eating and great taste. It is also a product well placed to take advantage of increasing consumer interest in the link between diet and health. However, the thorn in yoghurt’s side is law practitioners who argue that just because something is labelled “yoghurt” doesn’t mean it’s all-natural and good for health. They ferociously contend that it’s nothing but deceptive advertising which encourages the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ordinary yoghurt at puffed up prices to responsible, health-conscious consumers. Still, they do agree (indeed a rarity among them) on this much: yoghurt is a good addition to your diet.
In many ways, yoghurt is referred to as the hottest food trend. Yes, the practice of adding live bacteria to dairy products as a innovative method to boost health standards has apparently gone through rigorous clinical studies and is now supported by peer-reviewed science to prove that this is the road that should be travelled.
Confirming that sales are sky-rocketing year after year, a spokesperson for industry body Dairy UK said, “Consumers are increasingly looking for healthy, tasty, natural products and yoghurt ticks all those boxes”. Analysts around the globe even reported that drinkable yoghurt stands out as the fastest growing seller not just in dairy but also in the food and beverage industry as a whole. These facts are hard to doubt as yoghurt has proved to be a great source of calcium, phosphorous, riboflavin, B12, pantothenic acid, zinc, potassium and protein. It also contains ‘good’ bacteria. What better way to give yourself (and your loved ones) the ‘stealth’ health that we all must have in an increasingly polluted world! It’s also high in protein and calcium, which children need for growth and immune system enhancement, and it’s considerably easier to digest than milk.
According to ACNeilsen, marketing helped the growth of all beverage categories, including drinkable yoghurts. In Spain, Israel and Great Britain, for example, drinkable yoghurt and pro-biotic yoghurt have been positioned as “heart healthy”.
The question is, do we really need these new cultures of food as an addition to our diet? The answer boils down to survival and it is here where marketers of yoghurt must capitalise on consumers’ concerns and desires to live the best lives they possibly can. Farmers make more money with organics. Retailers do better at the marketplace. Biologists are now linking cancers to agricultural chemicals, and the average schoolchild now knows that we are what we eat (and a lot more).
The key challenge for yoghurt manufacturers and marketers is to simplify the marketing message to target consumers who don’t understand why they should buy it and persuade them to buy on a reguslar basis. While it is not backed by official figures, major yoghurt manufacturers face intense pressure from private label products and substitute products. They all compete for consumers’ spending. Competition from private label products has forced branded products to drop their price drastically.
In addition, competition from substitute products, including lactic acid bacteria drinks, vegetable juice and desserts test the positioning of yoghurt products in the marketplace. According to Research and Markets Ltd, the focus of product development has shifted in the past decade; good taste profiles and functional features are expected to be the emphasis of the market these days.
What is the way forward? There is an urgent need to focus on the direction of new product development and the concentration on good taste profiles and functional features are expected to be the key emphasis for yoghurt manufacturers. The benefits of the product definitely need to be promoted on a national level and single portion size and convenience are key points in packaging.
There are several marketers who believe that the product has grown more quickly than they have been able to properly develop a strong marketing program to support it. There are a few yoghurt suppliers in Malaysia and among the big ones Dutch Lady Milk Industries Berhad, Eltean Incorporated Sdn Bhd, Saturn (M) Sdn Bhd and Magic Foods Sdn Bhd. You can find any flavour in any shopping complex or kiosks around the country. “Chill Out” place like Starbucks, Secret recipe and Dome offer yoghurts as part of their daily menu as well. You can choose from hundreds of toppings leading to thousands of combinations with different variants. However, the marketing and brand name of these products are barely made known to the public and their marketing aggressiveness is still far behind their western counterparts.
However, getting consumers to act out their plans is a task that falls mainly in the hands of marketers, and many frozen and drinkable yoghurt makers agree wholeheartedly that more marketing is needed to raise consumer awareness of the product. There are many consumers who still cringe when they hear the name frozen yoghurt. That may be the reason why many marketing approaches so far revolve around positioning frozen yoghurt as a better choice than ice cream.
Yoghurt companies have always targeted women in their marketing campaigns, and the biggest mistake is when the stereotyping of both women and men occurs. There were yoghurt advertisements from Brazil that read, “Forget about it. Men’s preference will never change”. Fit Light Yoghurt may have been attempting light humour, as they used rather large women to replace Sharon Stone in a Basic Instinct-type ad and indicated that Fit Light will help you to look like Angelina Jolie, but the whole thing fell flat. And that’s when people will start going back to ice cream…
… marketers of yoghurt must capitalise on consumers’ concerns and desires to live the best lives they possibly can…