Case Study Eko Yogurt #2

Category Creation is lucrative
for new brands

Will marketing to moms create higher acceptance?

CLIENT

SECTOR

EXPERTISE

Challenge

Indian Probiotic yogurt market has been in its nascent stages. The category hasn’t taken off and remained dormant inspite of prevalence of multinational brands. The value of probiotic yogurt was eroded when large brands tried to position yogurt as premium dahi. The challenge was that EKO Yogurt was a further niche within the category of Probiotic Yogurt.

Therefore the task was to straddle multiple communication tasks;
1) Creating Awareness of Probiotic Yogurt while countering perception of Yogurt as just being premium Dahi
2) Introducing the concept of starter cultures
3) Benefits of making probiotic yogurt at home in comparison to ready-to-eat yogurts
4) Make at home yogurt was more economical

Far before the consumers, retailers had to be convinced about this New Brand from an unknown company entering consumer market for the first time.

Strategy and Execution

Women’s role within families have positioned them as promoters of overall family health. Consumer research on existing customers of the brand revealed an interesting insight. Time was generally a constraint in most modern nuclear families; mothers struggled to get healthy meal on the table. Fast. Unlike traditional mothers, modern mothers are conscious of their own self health as well.

EKO Yogurt connected with Mothers well. They saw value in most of the attributes— Homemade, Healthy, Delicious, Fast, Convenient and hassle free, Economical. For everyone in the family. And for their own self. And it can be had anytime of the day. And night.

For us the target segment became the mothers. Mother’s own health is generally packaged with health of the whole family. We targeted mother’s health as the focal point of communication and, an entry point for a dialogue laddering down to the whole family. A full communication package was developed and presented to the retailers along with samples.

It was an instant hit with modern retail and small format supermarkets which was our first port of call for placements. They saw value in the proposition as no such product was available with them till then. So the same retailer who had refused to keep the products earlier— gladly accepted it as the product came packaged with relevant and meaningful communication. The proposition connected very well with the consumers and offtakes started happening. Many times the retailer himself became the influencer trying to convince the customer saying that he himself was using the product and found it very effective.

With the proposition, the brand also countered ready-to-eat yogurt available in these outlets— as they were repositioned as unhealthy and laden with preservatives.