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Wegmans launches a private label Greek yogurt line with a digital approach you'll want to replicate.

Christine Kapperman, Senior Content Director

August 31, 2014

2 Min Read
Breaking down the Wegmans Organic Greek Yogurt launch

Going organic isn't Greek to Wegmans. The grocer launched its Organic Greek Yogurt line in late August with a digital campaign that does more than sell.

The Wegmans Greek Yogurt was wildly popular with our customers, and yet more and more shoppers were choosing organic products in the store. So it seemed logical to develop an Organic Greek Yogurt. - See more at: http://www.wegmans.com/blog/2014/08/now-organic-greek-yogurt/#sthash.XFBLkC7A.dpuf

wegmans-greek-yogurt-pinter.jpg
Natural news takeways:

What a launch. No boring press releases for Wegmans! The grocer built out a nice, creatively (while not overdone) interactive webpage, created a Pinterest page including recipes, blogged about the product's creation and told the story of the organic farmers in words and video (hit play above).

This exemplifies storytelling and using web platforms to do what they do best. Today's customer demands more than a tagline-packed package. They want real. They want authentic. They want the whole story. 

And customers respond, as this early tweet shows:

 

Greek yogurt market measures. Yogurt continues to show strong growth in the wake of the Greek yogurt revolution, according to Research and Markets, which projects the U.S. yogurt market to total $9.3 billion by 2017. The market is about $6.5 billion today. Research and Markets tracks the niche as part of two trends: the insatiable power of protein and the continue rise of the Mediterranean diet.

Major organic moves. Conventional grocers continue to add—and promote—natural and organic offerings as customers demand these products. The conventional channel remained 40 percent of the total natural and organic market, according the NFM 2014 Market Overview, with a natural products sales growth rate of 10.7 percent compared with the natural channel's 10.3 percent. 

Private label power. Private label is key to many conventional grocers' organic growth strategy as consumers seek monetary value in their healthy, values-minded purchases. Private label growth has averaged 4.1 percent annually in recent years, according to IRI, outpacing a CPG industry average of 2.8 percent. Once considered lesser products, consumers who gave private-labeled products a try during the recession have emerged fans. More than 90 percent of consumers believe private label solutions offer the same or better value versus their national brand counterpart, and more than 80 percent say the quality is the same or better, IRI found.

About the Author(s)

Christine Kapperman

Senior Content Director, New Hope Network

As the senior content director at New Hope Network, Christine Kapperman combines her 20-year journalism background with her passion for business to cover the natural products industry for newhope.com and Natural Foods Merchandiser magazine. She also led content at worldteanews.com. She loves tracking (and tasting) trends as she shares what’s next to show up in cups, plates and in pantries across the United States.

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