Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
- Behavior Dimensions of
the Consumer Market
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
http://www.mhhe.com/fourps
155
http://www.mhhe.com/fourps
in the yogurt category was
pretty much tapped out. But
by carefully studying con-
sumer behavior, Ian Friendly
and others on his marketing
team at Yoplait changed all of
that. Their marketing plan for
a new product, Go-Gurt,
racked up $100 million in
sales in the first year. Much of
that represented new demand
in the yogurt category
because the percentage of
kids eating yogurt doubled.
That was no accident. They
created Go-Gurt to have kid
appeal.
Kids need nutritious food,
but research showed that what
they want in snacks is great
taste, convenience, and fun.
Traditional yogurt was conve-
nient, but it still took one hand
for the spoon and one to hold
the carton. And a carton of
yogurt didn’t exactly impress
the other kids as a cool thing
to eat. Go-Gurt took care of
that. It did away with the
spoon by putting the yogurt in
a 9-inch-long, one-handed
squeeze tube. The creaminess
of the product was adjusted to
make it just right for on-the-go
eating. Kids didn’t have a very
positive attitude about most
standard yogurt flavors, so the
foil-embossed Go-Gurt tube
was filled with flavors kids
could learn to love—like
Strawberry Splash and Water-
melon Meltdown.
Go-Gurt’s introductory ads
were placed on media like
Nickelodeon so they’d reach
kids directly. Then it was up to
them to ask their parents to
buy Go-Gurt at the store. The
ads positioned Go-Gurt not
just as a food but as a lifestyle
accessory for kids. To build
awareness of the benefits of