Interact Category Specialists: Yogurt

Whether you find yogurt to be a delightful breakfast, beautiful afternoon snack or culinary ingredient, the truth is the past five years yogurt has grown as a category within the US from 1.1 Billion in 2010 to 7.7 billion in 2015. With the market experiencing such a lift, it's easy to understand why there has been such interest and product development in such a basic category. We've watched a few major trends rise to the top at shelf:

ORIGIN

Fage and Chobani lead the charge in the US market in introducing consumers to different yogurt types from across the world. With "plain" and "greek" being the first two true yogurt options consumers at shelf are now met with a bevy of options: Greek, Icelandic Skyr, Australian, Bulgarian and Indian to name a few. We've watched categories like wine and coffee profit from celebrating the exclusivity of the origin of coffee beans and grapes. Yogurt seems to lean into origin as a product point of difference as a way to explain a different texture, process or inclusions. The shelf seems saturated in product differentiation in this way but it will be interesting to watch what part of the world will make a splash in the dairy section in 2017.

FORM FACTOR

With our eye constantly on emerging markets we've watched wellness shots make a huge splash in the past year. In a world full of yogurt squeeze pouches, drinkable kifirs, and individual servings, the shot trend has even extended into the dairy category. Quick on-the-go servings of yogurt allow all the convenience of juice and wellness shots with the probiotic slant of the dairy category. From a design perspective, we love how Siggis maintains its simple, honest shape language at shelf with its drinkable yogurt offering. The energy of the flavor inclusion of Chobani's drinkable Kifir adds some great movement at shelf.With giants like General Mills still struggling to win within the yogurt category, GM looked to form innovation to continue to try to steal market share in 2016. Focused on a teenage demographic, Yoplait Go Big launched with a strong social play via their Go Big Amazing Kids Campaign. While the form doesn't appeal to the widest market we enjoy the rip + grip language and simple, straightforward design.

FAT VS. PROTEIN

When Greek yogurt gained popularity in the past several years, much of the interest revolved around not only the texture/quality but also heavy protein content that came with its processing. That protein allows for higher satiation in a product that's so often used to kick off one's day for breakfast. As the ketogenic and fat-centric diets become more mainstream it's great to watch people embrace full fat yogurts. This platform creates a unique foundation for brands like Peak, Maple Hill or Saint Benoit. As the anti-sugar movement continues to grow we'll look to see how sugar content inspires additional product innovation in the yogurt category.

Interested in hearing more of our expert grocery insights? Stay tuned, as we'll be delving into different categories on shelf every Friday!