Natureview Farm Case

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

Trader Joe’s is an organic grocery food store that is one of the best known organic food chains. By listening to the consumer and adjusting to the changing consumer market, Trader Joe’s had built a brand equity that is continuously growing. Trader Joe’s faces stiff competition from other large organic food chains therefore must stand out and adapt to the consumers’ needs. Marketing strategies are important to communicate to the consumer more effectively and help target the consumer to their product. Trader Joe’s segments its products by psychographic, behavioral and demographic characteristics

The organic food industry has seen a huge spike in growth that is expected to continue into the future due to an increase in consumption. This will provide Whole Foods Market with huge opportunities. In addition, a wave of ethical and responsible consumption has swept across America. Whole Foods’ decision to pursue sustainable activities will certainly give consumers an added incentive to purchase its organic products.

Consequently, this company can expand the fruit nectar production line to attract new consumers. The down-side to utilizing this structure is that the price at retail will be significantly higher than the other modes of distribution. However, since the target consumer is not sensitive to price and have high disposable incomes, this should not pose a systemic problem for this firm.

Every retail location carries a variety of products that distinguishes it from other stores in the same chain. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to achieve economies of scale. Supply Chain Mackey describes his consumers as being “part of a cult”. Whole Foods believes that the company’s emphasis on perishables and locally-sourced produce differentiates their stores from run-of-the-mill supermarkets and attracts loyal and devoted customers. However, “fresh produce” is one of the most challenging product categories to operate due to limited product shelf life and high cost of spoilage. Whole Foods has tried to circumvent most of the problems inherent in supplying fresh produce to its stores by sourcing locally and having short and flexible supply chains. In the case of fruits and vegetables, Whole Foods has buying relationships with local farmers who supply the store with seasonal produce. Thus, if one farmer is unable to produce a sufficient amount of yellow corn or heirloom tomatoes, the shortfall can be made up by another farmer. Although challenging to perfect, these short supply chains are agile and difficult for other big retailers to duplicate.

The threat of substitutes in the food retail industry can be high among the ‘Big Four’ as switching costs are relatively low and products can be similar. However, most have their own private labels and also target slightly different markets, such as Sainsbury’s having more upmarket positioning and Tesco’s cost leadership. Waitrose offers unique and differentiated products, which are, in the eyes of the consumer, significantly superior. No other supermarket offers such premium quality products with great service and such a large range of organic products as Waitrose, so this makes them extremely difficult to substitute. (Euromonitor, 2008).

Whole Foods was established in 1980 with one store in Austin, Texas. Today, Whole Foods is the world’s largest leader in natural and organic foods. There are over 310 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods is committed to the finest natural and organic foods available, sustainable agriculture and have one of the strictest of quality standards. Whole Foods offers customers a wide variety of products. “Natural” refers to food that is free of growth hormones or antibiotics, where “certificated

Larger stores also offer people the convenience of additional services along with their shopping, for example post office, pharmacy and opticians. By addressing consumer’s expectations and using their buyer power they can offer a choice of products to reflect consumer’s diverse budgetary, dietary, ethical and environmental requirements. Furthermore their global buyer power enables consumers to benefit from choosing exotic produce all year round. With 30,000,000 customers (Bevan cited in Allen, 2009) choosing to use the big four supermarkets on a weekly basis it would suggest that they provide a format that consumers want.

The company distinguishes its products from the competition by using natural ingredients and a special process that gives the yogurt it creamy and smooth texture without having to use thickeners.  Other distinguishing factors for Natureview includes using milk form cows that have not been treated with rGBH and the average shelf life of Natureview yogurt is 50 days instead of 30 days. Over the past 10 years, Natureview revenues have increased from $1000,000 to $13 million. Natureview offers 8oz and 32 oz. cups for purchase. Initially starting out with two flavors, Natureview has expanded to offer twelve flavors in the 8 oz. cups and four flavors in the 32 oz. cups.  Sales of the 8 oz. cups made up 86% of Natureview’s revenue while sales of the 32 oz. cups made up the rest (14%). Natureview has found a niche market in the natural foods channel. Customer can find Natureview yogurt at a variety of natural food retailers including Wild Oats, and Whole foods. The price for Natureview yogurt at natural food stores was  $0.88 for an 8oz cup and $3.19 for a 32 oz. cup. Compared to supermarket channels ($0.74 for 8oz, $2.70 for 32 oz.), prices for Natureview yogurt was higher due to multiple parties involved in the distribution.  Natureview has to use three distributors in order to get the product to consumers.  Each distributor collect their margins, which leads to higher prices.

Nantucket Nectars' numerous strengths have led to their success. They produce all natural products that have a great taste, have a very strong management team as well as a strong branding, guerilla marketing skills, possess the ability to exploit small, rapidly changing market opportunities, last good access to single-serve distribution in the New Age beverage market, and is the best vehicle for juice companies to expand into the juice cocktail category without risking their own brand equity. In addition, Nantucket Nectars' management team has the required knowledge and experience with the single-serve business and thus has the ability to add value to large player who wants to roll out new single-serve products.

Five Forces model for a closer look at Kroger and the industry. Competition is a big threat and

Besides, the company’s focus on the 8-oz and 32-oz, the sizes that were not being offered by other companies, made Nature view to effectively compete with other established companies that ultimately granted it breakthrough in the market. In the natural food channel, Natureview’s brand had 45% share that was attained through the company’s unique quantity of packaging.

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

The clients leave their stores with a better feeling about themselves since they understand that when they choose Jamba, they have opted for a healthier lifestyle.”(jambajucie.com) Jamba Juice must try to execute this vision statement by adding organic fruits and vegetables and advertising on the new addition. People want to sat healthy and aren’t going to go to Jamba Juice if they find out it is not healthy. Jamba Juice needs to market them so that it can make a better impression of the store in people’s mind.

Another option for Cowgirl Creamery is to launch a new brand of cheeses dedicated to another market. This strategy would likely see the biggest return at the grocery stores and other retailers that they sell to. The products that Cowgirl Creamery currently produces are sold to a very specific segment of consumers, cheese connoisseurs. By launching a product more geared toward the average shopper rather than the specialty consumer, Cowgirl Creamery could greatly increase the consumption of their products. The drawback to this option requires cost cutting in other areas to develop a new products because Cowgirl Creamery currently cannot secure bank loans. Cutting segments of their product line to make this an option could sway some consumers to Cowgirl Creamery’s competitors. Closing their own retail stores would also provide additional revenue, although, it may also reduce the products relevance in the market without their own retail store. Even if launching a new brand was affordable, this strategy would also require a supplemental strategy to increase the likelihood of success. In addition to launching a new brand, this approach should be combined with including new features to maximize the success of a new brand.