When the Dannon Co. was founded 66 years ago, it brought yogurt, a new product for most Americans at the time, to stores ”“ but there was no space on the shelves for it.
Over time, as yogurt has become a more popular snack, it has outgrown the space on the shelves with various brands, flavors and functions.
“Yogurt is about a $4.5 billion dollar food category today,” said Michael Neuwirth, senior vice president of public relations for White Plains, N.Y.-based Dannon. “However, the space allocated on shelves is too small for a category of its size. The yogurt category continues to grow, but the space allocated has not kept pace.”
To help combat this problem, in 2007 Dannon formed a three-person “shelf- obsession” team to provide retailers with category management for all yogurt products.
Since then, Neuwirth said the team has added more than 6 miles of linear feet for yogurt merchandising in more than 2,000 stores across the country.
“Shoppers say that the dairy isle is a cold and dark place,” Neuwirth said. “What we”™ve recommended to retailers are ways for them to improve the shopping experience for people in their stores.”
The color-coded, expanded and reorganized shelves include other brands, with yogurts arranged by function such as digestive health, immune system function, weight management and kids”™ products.
Neuwirth said segmenting products by benefit helps retailers because “increasingly, that”™s the way people are buying yogurt.
“We”™ve been very pleased with the level of response and enthusiasm from retailers,” he said.
Dannon products with specific health benefits, such as Activia (digestive health) and Dan Active (immune system function) have been successfully introduced in the past three years.
The delivery of products with specific health benefits has helped raise per capita yogurt consumption in the U.S., which is seven times less than it is in Spain, according to Neuwirth.
“We learn from more developed markets what the future looks like for yogurt in the U.S.,” Neuwirth said.
In America, “education is the key marketing strategy,” said Marc Jove, Dannon”™s newest senior vice president of marketing.
Jove said pairing yogurt products with commentary from health care professionals help raise public awareness of the benefits of yogurt consumption.
Dietician Pat Baird said most yogurts are “pretty much the same” in terms of health benefits, and what consumers really need to look for is the live active symbol on yogurt containers.
“One way for customers to be sure they”™re getting live, active cultures is to look for a symbol that is designated through the National Yogurt Association that says ”˜live and active,”™” said Baird, author of the award-winning book “Be Good to your Gut.” “As a dietician, I always recommend that if people are looking for specific probiotic benefits, they should get it through food rather than supplements.”
Neuwirth said resetting the shelves is an ongoing process, and the shelf-obsession team maintains relationships with retailers, category managers and dairy buyers.
“We have really sought to very clearly delineate between the benefits of out products
by function and segment the market,” Neuwirth said. “At the end of the day it”™s the retailer that implements it.”
