Yoplait stirs up the traditional yogurt segment

Yoplait is giving consumers a whole lot to love with a new line of whole milk yogurt. The stirred yogurt has 3.25% milk fat and comes in nine flavours including strawberry, blueberry, mango and coconut.

The General Mills-owned brand saw stirred, traditional yogurt was growing five times faster than the category as a whole, but there was no innovation in the category.

“People are moving away from artificial sweeteners and weight management and coming back to traditional yogurts,” says Yoplait marketing manager Samuel Bussières. “We saw an opportunity to bring new innovation given that the segment was already growing organically.”

Consumer research conducted by Yoplait also found Canadians are going back to basics. “Consumers are looking for more wholesome ingredients and cleaner products, with no gelatin and no preservatives,” says Bussières. “ willing to have a better taste experience and to go with a bit more fat in their dairy products. We saw that in Greek yogurt, and some new products are now 5% milk fat in that category.”

To support the launch, Yoplait has developed an integrated marketing campaign with the tagline, “a whole lot to love.” A TV spot shows a young girl eating yogurt, and when her dad asks if he can have some, she says it’s half empty. He counters that it’s half full, and she proceeds to finish it off.

The idea is to communicate “the goodness of whole milk and the great taste of the product,” says Bussières.

To promote the launch in the Quebec market, Yoplait has partnered with the SRC television show Les enfants de la télé for a contest that offers a grand prize of $10,000 worth of kitchen appliances and a one-year supply of Yoplait yogurt.

The campaign also includes online video and banners, social media, coupons, POS materials and in-store demos.

“The texture of this product is really the hook, so we want consumers to be able to try it and discover whole milk yogurt,” says Bussières.

Bussières says Yoplait Whole Milk has an “all family” target. “If we have to narrow it down, I would say the bull’s eye is millennial parents. There are no pieces of fruit, so it even appeals to younger children.”

Yoplait Whole Milk retails for $5.99 for a 12-pack of 100g cups. The product also has a short ingredient list with no gelatin, no preservatives and no artificial sweeteners, colours or flavours.