Forget Greek Yogurt, French-Style Yogurt Is Here
Yogurt fashion is shifting again. Several years ago, people got the hint that all that low-fat yogurt was loaded with sugar. Greek yogurt became a thing. Chobani was hot. Yoplait started tanking. Now low-fat Greek yogurt seems stale. Too tart. Yoplait is seizing the opportunity by going back to its roots in France and launching Oui. They call it French-style yogurt.
What Is French-Style Yogurt?
The short answer to this is that it’s what Yoplait says it is. The marketing research geniuses at General Mills figured out that authenticity is what consumers want in their food these days. Yoplait is an authentic French brand. So what could be more authentic than French-style yogurt from Yoplait?
Next, the food engineers went to work to define French-style yogurt. Hand-in-hand with the marketers, they came up with cute little glass pots that look French. Instead of making the yogurt in big batches and filling little plastic cups with it, they found a way to make it in the little glass pots. All the ingredients go into the pot and it ferments right there. It’s almost like the French farmers used to do it. And, it has no GMOs!
Engineering Cool Nutrition
The goal was innovation that would put consumer nutrition preferences into a product that seems cool. It has less sugar. There’s a bit more fat (that stuff’s OK now).
Where Greek yogurt is tart and maybe a little stiff, Yoplait is telling us that French-style yogurt is creamier and a little more indulgent. The serving size is smaller than Yoplait original – five ounces instead of six. Even so, it has ten more calories.
Will it work? General Mills, which owns Yoplait, certainly hopes so. Tanking yogurt sales are hurting the parent company. Yoplait sales dropped by 22% in the most recently reported quarter (ouch). Even Greek style yogurt sales are down.
Such a problem can be turned around with a cool new innovation. Maybe these cute little glass pots of French-style yogurt will be just the thing.
Click here to read more from the New York Times.
Oui by Yoplait, photograph © Yoplait USA / flickr
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June 29, 2017
June 29, 2017 at 6:53 am, David Brown said:
A bit more fat? Actually, it’s a lot more fat, mostly saturated. Why? Because consumers are realizing that saturated fats are not a health hazard.
“Consumers are making new choices, switching away from carbs to food containing fat such as red meat, butter and eggs. This trend offers powerful investment ideas, according to a study by the Credit Suisse Research Institute…A high intake of vegetable oils (containing omega-6 polyunsaturated fats) has not been proved to be as beneficial as earlier thought, and trans-fats have been shown to have negative effects on our health. In short, saturated fats and monounsaturated fats are not behind the high rates of obesity and metabolic syndrome in the US. The two leading culprits are the higher intakes of vegetable oils and the increase in carbohydrate consumption.” https://www.credit-suisse.com/us/en/articles/articles/news-and-expertise/2015/09/en/fat-the-new-health-paradigm.html .
June 29, 2017 at 9:17 am, Ted said:
Thanks, David, for sharing your insight.