CHOBANI GREEK YOGURT
HOW MATTERS
Marketing Mix for Chobani in China
Product
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Natural Ingredients
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Wide Variety of Flavors and Styles
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No rBST, Preservatives, and Natural Sweeteners
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Sustainability Focused
For the Chinese market Chobani products will follow its corporate vision, a high quality yogurt brand, that uses only natural ingredients, natural sweeteners, no growth hormone (rBST) and leaves out preservatives. Using authentic straining processes to produce the thick Greek Yogurt resulting in consistency of twice as much protein compared to regular unstrained yogurts (Chobani, 2014).
Chinese yogurt consumers’ favorite flavors are plain yogurt, followed by strawberry and blueberry. As they are a market of consumers, who are more likely to try new things than other markets, new Chinese oriented flavors – Aloe and Honey Green Tea - will be introduced as additional flavors (The Economist, 2014).
Five types of products will be implemented in order to serve our target market: Snack Cups, Flips, Fruit on the bottom, Blended and Simply 100. Snack Cups are for our Target Segment which prefers to eat Yogurt as a snack. Flips give the opportunity to sweeten the plain yogurt with something additional, if required and stands for a product innovation in the Chinese market. Simply 100 is especially targeted for the health-oriented potential customers.
Place
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B2B Distribution Channels
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Dairy Aisle Placement
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Factory in Australia
Distribution will be conducted through B2B channels, grocery and convenient stores middle to high-class; Olé, Carrefour, Lawson, FamilyMart, etc., and more specifically, products will be sold in the dairy aisle.
In order to supply the Chinese market, the existing production facilities of Chobani in Australia will be used. Recently, on the 17th of November 2014, China and Australia signed the Chinese- Australian Free Trade Agreement. Within 11 years tariffs for dairy products from Australia to China should decrease to zero as part of this FTA (China – Australia FTA, 2014). In the short term no local production site will be built in China, as the standards for the milk producers, in order to qualify as Chobani milk suppliers, are not met in China yet.
Price
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Affordable Price
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9.43 CNY
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Sustainable Pricing
Chobani will provide yogurt at an affordable price compared to foreign competitors. With the current average tariff Chobani’s price point would be roughly 9.43 CNY for a 150g cup of yogurt. According to the focus group findings Chinese consumers are willing to pay higher prices for trustworthy foreign brands, especially when only natural ingredients are being used.
Promotion
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Social Media
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Events
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Charity
Chobani will focus on Social Media for promotional activities. QR Codes on the product packaging will lead customers to WeChat with a Chobani Channel. Additionally Weibo, YouKu are used for promotions. Chobani will also place advertisements in magazines as well as in taxis in form of digital ads on the seat screens. Implementing ads in taxis can specifically create brand awareness, as the CEO of ‘WOW gal’ video for taxi passengers Micky Fung also noticed: “You have nothing to do for 15, 20, and 30 minutes and you have interactivity. What better ways to know about the actual advertisement than if you’re actually playing a game on it or answering a question” (Advertising Age, 2011).
Events will be used to continuously promote the Chobani brand in public. Sponsoring Sports and music events is very efficient in grasping the opinion leaders, innovators, and forming favorable links between the audience and a sponsor’s brand image (Fan, Y., & Pfitzenmaier, N., 2002).
Chobani is going to fortify it’s media presence in the Chinese market by sponsoring a wide variety of events such as music events, soccer matches, fashion shows, blogger events, golf, Tennis, and Horse-riding events. Chobani will continue to fund charities with 10% of the company’s profits, which will be funneled into the ‘Chobani Foundation’, but specifically focusing on charity in Shanghai (Chobani, 2014).
