Chobani Making Greek Yogurt a Household Name

Consumers are increasingly skipping breakfast and morning food sales are on the decline. Yogurt tastes are changing as well, with many consumers opting for Greek yogurt as opposed to regular yogurt. GIS was greatly impacted by these changes in consumer preferences and saw US cereal sales drop 3% from 2017 to 2016 while US yogurt sales dropped 18% year-over-year. In July of 2017, GIS introduced a new French Style yogurt brand to appeal to changing consumer tastes and increase yogurt sales. One positive for the industry is that consumers are snacking more often. Consumers want convenient filling foods that fit in with their busy lifestyles. The packaged food industry can take advantage of this growth capitalize on the growing popularity of quick meals and nutritious snacks. Snacks comprise 21% of GIS’s total net sales and this is expected to continue to grow as GIS introduces more healthy options. Another concern is aging populations in the developed world. As consumers age, their dietary needs change. Older populations move away from many foods products with high levels of sugar and fat in favor of more nutritional products. There is slow population growth with birth rates below the replacement level in many developed nations. This decline in new consumers is a problem for the industry as they can no longer rely on consumer growth

Through sustaining the customer relationships, leaders of the company have realized that “becoming nearer to the consumer” is vital for the progression.

In contemporary China, people not only focus on what’s delicious, but also the health benefits that the food product had to offer. Frozen yogurt is a hybrid food, offering both a delicious taste and health benefits. The usage of fresh fruit and lower calorie ingredients has thrust frozen yogurt into popularity amongst dessert lovers worldwide, while still capturing the health food sector of the market. High quality and healthy food defined the Yogen Fruz culture and allow the company to appeal to its target market.

In response to your concerns of the possible conducting Research Market Testing on multipack holders to hold six, 6 oz. cups of Clover Valley Yogurt together. If we choose to invest in conducting Market Research, it will support the decision of whether continuation of investing, producing, and marketing the multipack yogurts will be a profitable, and a permanent addition to the Clover Valley Dairy Company product line.

The product that I am choosing to write about is noosa® finest yoghurt. I am somewhat familiar with yogurt, but noosa® brand is new to me. I have never purchased this product, nor I have I ever witnessed anyone talking about it or eating it. In a recent Business Communications class assignment, we were assigned to watch a funny YouTube video of a poorly planned conference call- this commercial was a 16 second clip preceding the main YouTube feature (Shake Your Yummy Maker- noosa raspberry yoghurt, n.d.).

The founder of Chobani Inc, Hamdi Ulukaya started in the summer of 2005 and he began creating this Greek yogurt with about five people. They spent eighteen months trying to make this yogurt as pure as possible and natural so that it would be a good product for others. Chobani’s Greek yogurt disrupted the attire category because of how good and natural it is and the fact that it is simple and perfect for many. They created the packaging with all sorts of colors because they wanted to stand out on the shelfs and grab people’s attention. Chobani’s main focus was the taste of the yogurt and they made it rich and creamy. Every time Chobani is mentioned they wanted people to feel happy and communicate enjoyment. Chobani sponsors

In addition to the decreased in pH, the color and texture of the sample also changed as time passed. Instead of the initial color of milk, the sample turned into a milky mixture that contains both a solid and liquid part. As for two agar plates, MRS and ST that were inoculated with yogurt sample, there was some growth on both plates. Through further observations, the colony on each plate was shown to have distinct morphology, cell shape and gram stain. For the colony on MRS plate, it was determined to be Lactobacillus, because it is a Gram-positive bacillus. As for the colony on the ST plate, it was determined to be S. thermophilus, since it is a Gram-positive

The company constrained itself within the already available marketing budget that significantly cut down the cost that could have used to advertise the new company plans, that in turn increased the revenues. The company also succeeds due to the unique flavor that it offered in the yoghurt, which was organic and naturally made unlike the competitors who at time incorporated artificial flavors. Finally the company focused on the target consumer group that comprised of women and children. This helped the company to increase its sales that contributed to its success.

Yoghurt is basically a product of lactose fermentation (a milk sugar) to produce lactic acid. The decrease in pH due to the formation of acid, causes the milk to change physically and form the soft gel that we associate with the physical characteristics of yoghurt (Pillsbury et al,

Chobani is a greatly successful company based in New York, where their Founder Hamdi Ulukaya moved to when he came to the states from Turkey (Chobani History 2016). Chobani is a company known for having the best Greek yogurt in the United States. Chobani prides themselves on having a high quality yogurt that is incomparable with any other brand of yogurt out on the market. This dedication the quality is what sets Chobani above everybody else is directly causing their positive business growth. By the end of 2015 Chobani’s revenue was at “$1.5 billion where their competitors were at $250 million” (Giammona 2015). What differentiates Chobani between its competitors is its dedication to the quality and the fact that the Chobani Greek yogurt is healthier than that of Dannon and in any other competitors brings as they use all natural ingredients on where others may have antibiotics and other unhealthy byproducts in their yogurt which can be poorer for health of the consumer. With Chobani’s small staff of 2000 employees and their solo headquarters and different type of product manufacturing, Chobani makes a huge difference in less mechanical and robotic form of creating the yogurt that those of the competitor’s process to creating quality within the product. Companies such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi Co would want to buy a Chobani there has been no offers them product differentiation such as the purchases the Coca-Cola has made with Vitaminwater (Martin, Sorkin

Innovation is important to both distribution channels, but more important to the finished goods model since the juice category has seen a decrease on both volume and market share. At the same time the carbonated soft drinks market has grown in both volume and market share. In order to increase the volume sold in the juice aisle a brand extension should be developed. By adding more SKU’s and promoting to the eight to twelve year old group, sales

Cosmopolitan has 58 international editions, is published in 36 languages and is distributed in more than 100 countries, making it one of the most dynamic brands on the planet. In 1999, Cosmopolitan launched a line of low-fat yogurt and cheese in the UK. The yogurts, intended to be “sophisticated and aspirational,” were priced higher than competing brands. However, consumers didn’t want to eat a fashionable yoghurt. From the time of its release, the yogurt was supposedly off of the shelves in 18 months.

Customer loyalty is much harder to obtain that customer service satisfaction. The most important first step is to satisfy the customer by meeting their expectations. Customers only give a company one chance and if they aren’t satisfied they will not do business with that company again, as well as tell others of their experience. The next step would be to exceed the customer’s expectations. If a business goes above and beyond to assist the customer they begin to build loyalty. The next step is to truly surprise the customer. In order to dominate the marketplace the company must find a way to make them selves stand out with their product or service, accompanied with phenomenal customer service. Once this has been done customer satisfaction and loyalty will be gained. “Acquiring a new customer can cost four or five times more than keeping a current customer” (Bestmark, 2013). So it’s essential to keep the current customer’s happy and coming back for more.

All of the ingredients were of the highest quality and freshness. To ensure this, the parent company came up rigorous standards for product uniformity and quality, which were to be met by all of their suppliers regardless of the region.

Negatives of this structure include cost inefficiencies, possibility of affiliates having incompatible “back-office” systems (i.e. IT, accounting, HR) making company-wide planning more difficult, logistics difficulties (i.e. clients in NY and China require staffing for different shifts due to time difference, mastering different languages, cultures, etc.) and lack of synergies (i.e. each unit is in a silo structure so unit A that provides service Z may never hear of the desperate need for service Z from a Fortune 100 company that Unit B knows of).