A blog article on food fads was recently published on Harvard Business Review’s Blog Network, and it caught our attention: “Why the Greek Yogurt Craze Should be a Wake-Up Call to Big Food.” Food fads develop quickly as you’ll see below in one of our previous blog posts, Greek Yogurt is the Celebrity Ingredient. With consumers so tightly connected to each other through social media and word-of-mouth, they are more likely to follow advice from others than in the past. According to the Harvard Business Review blog article, major food manufacturers need to consider steps to their marketing approach that are more customer-centric rather than marketer-centric. The Greek yogurt craze left a lot of major food companies to play catch up rather than take off like Chobani, the second largest yogurt seller in the U.S.
Greek Yogurt is the Celebrity Ingredient
Originally posted Oct. 3, 2013
Author: Mark Hughes
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Greek yogurt is becoming a refrigerator staple as consumers seek healthy, “authentic” foods, even though it’s often pricier. In fact, Greek yogurt now accounts for a quarter of the sales in the total yogurt market. In an article posted by the Los Angeles Times, Greek yogurt, overall, has had one of the fastest growth spurts the food and beverage industry has seen in years.
A social media post introducing Yasso’s Greek yogurt smoothies sparked a lot of discussion around Greek yogurt and its newfound popularity. Greek yogurt is on an accelerated growth spurt and many popular brands are modifying their products to keep up.
The increase in popularity behind Greek yogurt led to Ben & Jerry’s introduction of their line of frozen treats. According to their press release, four flavors contain real Greek Yogurt. The flavors of yogurt, still regarded as indulgent desserts, reap the benefits of containing real Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is made through a traditional straining process allowing more of the whey to drain out, leaving a thicker, smoother yogurt that’s high in protein and low in fat.
Expect to see more brands incorporating Greek yogurt into their health and wellness products. There always seems to be at least one “celebrity ingredient” in the market and Greek yogurt looks to be it for 2013.