Yoplait Usa

1. INTRODUCTION

Yoplait USA, a successful company in Yogurt industry, is going to launch Custard-style yogurt to expand its current product line. Concept and product prototype testing in focus groups has shown Custard-Style Yogurt to be a potentially viable addition to the existing Yoplait line. In-home concept fulfillment test shows the combination of snack positioning/full-fat product/Vercon cup/6-oz. size to be a winner in terms of delivered profit margins (60.4 delivered margin index). This concept is more attractive to light users and it matches the yogurt market development potential. However, a dessert positioning/full-fat/traditional cup/4-oz. concept also seems promising in terms of its sales volume potential (48.8 volume index). The company also did a creative group interview; it confirmed the importance of texture for the users, and the potential that the custard-style can take market share from other brand name like Dannon. However, as some marketing mix issues and uncertainties remain, we are recommending a test market to solve these problems and further test the fitting of the new product within the exiting product line.

2. WHY DO A TEST MARKET?

Yoplait Custard-style, our new innovative product would be a good reason to do a test market. Although we already have experience from our Yoplait Original-style, we cannot simply apply to that. Customers view and yogurt usage changed from meal to snack/dessert. This is a good opportunity for the launch of a new dessert/snack-like product such as the Custard-style yogurt, which will give Yoplait more leverage against competition. But there are certainly some unsolved issues regarding the marketing mix of the new Yoplait Custard-style yogurt, which we will discuss further in the next section. Yogurt is mostly consumed by young women and women over 63 years, so that would be the first criteria when segmenting. But targeting married women with kids, might increase the chances to convert as many non-users as possible. Following factors should be considered when segmenting the market: Gender, age, education, income, geographic, yogurt usage, and household situation.

The reason why do a test market is because the results of it will help to solve Marketing Mix Issues and other decisions that need to be made.

3. MARKETING MIX ISSUES (Exhibit 1)

● Positioning: Snack or dessert? A snack positioned new product is definitely better than dessert, based on the tests Yoplait has done. The concept fulfillment test, snack positioned concept scored about 20% better than dessert positioned concept in terms of delivered profit margins (60.4 delivered margin index vs. 50.3). Although the snack concept lost on sales volume, it was only 4% less than dessert concept(48.8 volume index vs. 47.2). A Gallup national survey of