Strategic Marketing Assignment

Gopal P (2015143)
Karna Malde (2015148)
Kaushi G (2015149)
Chinmay Kumbhare (2015152)
Phalguni Bhardwaj (2015163)
Kunal Desai (2015211)

INTRODUCTION

Chobani was incorporated in the year 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya. The founder bought a new
plant in the town of New Berlin, NY, from Kraft Foods. Hamdi Ulukya hired few of the
employees from the Kraft foods including the Youghurt Master and launched the brand under
the name Chobani, which means Shepherd in Persian. Now, Chobani is a strained yoghurt and
the USP about the product is that it only uses natural ingredients. Greek Yoghurt is all about
being simple and natural and that is what Chobani has concentrated on. Their product was
different from the American style yogurt which Hamdi believed was too sugary, watery, and
used artificial sweeteners and colours. After all the trials and span of 18 months the brand
was launched small groceries in Long Island, NY.

PRODUCT OFFERING
Chobani as a brand always paid attention towards the health aspect because of the following
two reasons - obesity rates which has been increasing at an alarming rate and the growing
trend towards healty living and eating. The founder belonged to the farmer family from
turkey and had knowledge about the process of making Greek yogurt.
Now Hamdi was born and bought up in Turkey and had a good idea about making Greek
Yoghurt. In Western Europe and US there has been increase in the popularity of Greek
Yoghurt (Strained Yoghurt) over unstrained Yoghurt. Greek yogurt is strained, which removes
most of the whey and creates a thicker, creamier yogurt that is higher in protein and lower in
sugar than traditional yogurts. It also removes some of the lactose during the straining
process.

Variants
The Chobani brand offers a range of Greek yogurt right from fruit on the bottom to flip-style.
1. Fruit on the Bottom
Fruit on the Bottom yogurts from Chobani come in a variety of flavors, including banana,
pineapple and apple cinnamon. Additionally, they offer flavors that are fat-free and flavors
that contain 2 percent fat.

2. Blended Texture
Like the Fruit on the Bottom yogurt, Chobani Blended yogurts also come in a variety of
flavors, as well as flavors that contain no fat and 2 percent fat.
3. A Small Bite
Chobani Bite yogurts have a small serving size, 3.5 ounces, and come in fun flavor
combinations, including fig with orange zest and mint with dark chocolate chips.
4. The Flip Side
Chobani Flip yogurts combine various yogurt flavors with crunchy mixes, such as nonfat
strawberry yogurt with honey oats and low-fat coconut yogurt with chocolate chips and
almonds.
5. Champions for Kids
Chobani Champions yogurt are small in size like the Bites and are designed to please the
palates of kids. Flavor options include strawberry, blueberry and dragon fruit.
6. Tasty Tubes
Designed for children, Chobani Tubes come in a variety of fruit flavors, including Swirlin'
Strawberry Banana and Rockin' Blueberry.

COMPETITORS
Chobani took risk to beat its competitors. They were fast in execution being ahead of their
competitors. Chobani had market share of 40%, Dannon 26%, Fage 9% and Yoplait 9%.
These competitors were slow as compared to Chobani in bringing their product to market,
which helped Chobani to connect with customers.

Also Chobani spends a lot on TV ads, as compared to its competitors. In 2013, where Dannon
brand Oikos spend $14.6 million, Chobani where one step ahead, they spent $31.4 million on
TV ad in Q1, to have more market share.

This all lead to increase in sales for Chobani product against its competitors brands.

MARKETING STRATEGIES & PROMOTION

1. Remarkable product and positioning introduced high quality yogurt to the mass
market
Most Greek yogurt at that time was only stocked in specialty shops or the supermarkets
gourmet aisles. It was considered a niche market. Chobani thought otherwise and insisted on
having their yogurt accessible to all.
It was to be placed alongside generic yogurt brands in the dairy section of the supermarkets
even though it is costlier and its emphasis on quality was a cut above the rest.

Through this channel, Chobanis first step to success was to introduce its brand to a massive
audience.
2. Encouraged user-generated content started WOM marketing campaign as Love
Stories
Chobani didnt want to start a marketing campaign on a corporate level; instead they wanted
to develop one on a consumers level. They
understood that WOM was key in helping
their brand gain popularity, and
further

encouraged

their

consumers to share their Chobani

experience as a love story.
These

stories

help

create

community of Chobani lovers, even introducing one individual who cycled 80 miles just to
visit the Chobani factory! Word of course quickly spread as more stories flooded in and social
media was abuzz with Chobani love stories.
3. Uses social media to aggressively connect with consumers
Their marketing campaign aptly relied on social media platforms to generate buzz. From
sharing stories to building communities of Chobani fans, they see about 1,500 tweets and
150+ Facebook comments a day.
Constant research on their social
media feed allowed them to
understand their consumers, and
from those stories they created 2
advertisements

based

on

the

experiences that were shared.

One was about the student who
cycled a long distance to the see
how his Chobani was made. The
other was about an office worker who found a secret hiding place for her Chobani yogurt.

Such connection provides valuable insight on how to emotionally connect with your
audience.
Chobani strongly believes in relationship building. Aptly, fans are called Chobaniacs.
Whenever there are new flavors, sample packs would be sent to hundreds of fans.
4. Excellent content marketing in the form of recipes

A popular saying among marketing and sales folk is that people dont buy your product they
buy what they can do with your product. They dont buy drills, they buy holes.
Chobani understands this, and posts high-quality recipes of all sorts of food you can make
with Chobani yogurt as an ingredient.
After all, if you like the recipe and want to try it out, youre likely to try it with Chobani
yogurt.

5. The CHOmobile, a mobile yogurt food truck that people anticipate and talk about
In addition, there is the CHOmobile, a yogurt mobile that travels around the country all year
round.
The CHOmobile has expanded its reach to
outside of the US, into UK and Australia.
Chobani strives to constantly be in touch with
their supporters

TARGETING AUDIENCE

Health Factors:
o Chobani yogurt consists of Probiotic, Natural Ingredients with low in fat.
o Chobani was focusing on its Nutritional values and how the great ways Chobani
can be integrated into a healthy lifestyle rather than just a breakfast.
o They were creating awareness of Chobani Greek yogurt by comparing it with
Regular yogurt. They were also encouraging consumers to consume Yogurt on

regular basis for more health benefits.

Chobani Champions:
o This is a healthy alternative for children with all of the same nutrients that the
original yogurt has.Chobani Champions has helped a lot in creating a brand

amongst children.
Focus on Moms and Tots:
o Middle-class individuals who focused on providing their children with a healthy
lifestyle.
o Use of Cho Mobile to generate health education among school students. They

were trying to increase the involvement of children in purchasing decisions.

Targeting All-Natural baby food:
o Hain Celestial's (HAIN) Ella's Kitchen organic baby food brand has gained
increased shelf space at Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) this year. After this,

Chobani started focusing more on increasing the shelf space in retail markets.
Involvement of Adults:
o For encouraging adults to buy their products, Chobani has created monthly
Recipes for Love - January: New Years, February: Valentines Day, June:
Wedding Season, October: Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Chobani's caf was opened in 2013 has doubled in size to 800 square feet and has also
doubled the size of its menu, venturing into savoury yogurt concoctions featuring
chopped-up cucumbers and olive oil to spread on tortilla chips, hearty soups, and
sandwiches with a Mediterranean flair. Same-store sales at the location are up a stellar
100% from this point last year. Chobani is also finding its way onto the menus of fastfood restaurants.

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS

After buying a yogurt factory which was being closed, Chobani succeeded in successfully
entering the market and capturing the market share. The initial reasons due to which Chobani
was able to increase the awareness of the brand are as follows:

Chobani decided to sell in mainstream groceries rather than specialty stores. Also they
decided to keep the product in the dairy aisle, alongside existing yogurt brands and

not in gourmet or natural food aisle.

Earlier there was another rival company selling Greek yogurt but was being sold in
only specialty shop, but due to limited distribution channel it remained a niche
product. Chobani due to its focus on main stream groceries had tried to establish a

strong distribution channel, with the aim of the product being accessible to everyone.
Other than hiring a yogurt master to perfect the product, Chobani also focused on
packaging of the product. Yogurt was traditionally sold in containers with narrow
opening whereas Chobani offered the containers with wider opening so as to indicate
the product was different than normal yogurt.

After its initial success in the US market, Chobani used various marketing strategies to stay
ahead of its competitors. Some of them are listed below.

The companys website includes recipes and photos, spotlights devotees with its
"featured blogger" series, and lets customers share ideas via Facebook, Pinterest, and

Twitter. The site also forges a meaningful connection with real-world activities.
Chobani became a sponsor of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games
Chobani has started to encourage new kinds of demand for yogurt. With Chobani
Kitchen, for example, the company is educating American consumers about all the
uses of Greek yogurt as an ingredient, which it is doing both digitally and by adding
recipes to some of its packaging.