Magazine: Yogurt brands: active communication

Last year yogurt sales declined, mainly because of lower fruit yogurt sales – as it is indicated by Nielsen data. Beáta Kiss, external corporate relations director of Danone Kft. told our magazine that demand grew for plain yogurts and yogurt drinks in the last two years, but two thirds of the market is still dominated by flavoured ‘ordinary’ yogurts.

Contrary to international trends, in Hungary the plain yogurt segment is much smaller than the flavoured segment – we learned from Bernadett Strasser-Kátai, owner of Real Nature Kft. Private labels’ importance has been growing, but consumers want quality in this category too – opines Éva Gereczné Rudnai, trade marketing manager with Real Nature Kft. László Gombos, managing director of Tejmanufaktúra Kft. told us that yogurts and kefirs have always been popular because consumers think of these products as healthy food that generate a feeling of well-being. Early this year Danone came out with Görög Extreme two-layer yogurt. In March the company launched a worldwide campaign with its Activia brand, with popular Columbian pop star Shakira as the face of the integrated campaign. Danone’s latest innovation is Activia Porridge: it is available in two versions – apple-cinnamon and dried plum. Oatmeal is one of the most exciting cereal varieties, it can be used in many ways and the popularity of porridge has been growing recently in Hungary. It is an important source of energy and is traditionally eaten for breakfast all over the world. It is often said about Hungarian consumers that they are price-sensitive. However, Real Nature’s experience with their Good Milk brand is that quality is key to domestic consumers too, they like delicious taste and are receptive to new flavours. In cooperation with Austrian dairy company NÖM AG, Real Nature has been championing the cause of using healthy ingredients, offering special flavours and communicating in a new fashion (it is enough to think of the successful Facebook and viral marketing solutions they used with Good Milk last year). The company never stops innovating: their new product is Real Nature 4×100 yogurt drinks. Real Nature communicates actively with both the Joya and the Good Milk brand. They continue to cooperate with Budapest Zoo and they were sponsors of the highly successful Fittbalance programme. Tejmanufaktúra Kft. managed to increase their fruit yogurt sales a little, in terms of both value and volume; their plain yogurt volume sales also improved, contrary to the general market trend in the segment. Tejmanufaktúra uses its own name as a brand, offering two product lines: fruit yogurts and fruit flavoured kefirs. At the moment their innovation work focuses on developing new flavours and are dedicated to making quality children’s yogurts too. n

A joghurtpiacon az elmúlt két évben nőtt a natúr termékek és az ivójoghurtok iránti kereslet –
de az eladások kétharmadát még mindig a „kanalas” ízesített joghurtok adják