Thousands of newly launched consumer products quietly fail every

year. How could an entirely new food category skyrocket to success?

The answer: Look at Chobani$$ Greek Yogurt!

In $2005,$ Turkish immigrant Hamdi Ulukaya opened his mail in New

Berlin, New York, and saw an ad that said, $$Fully equipped yogurt factory

for sale.$$ He bought the plant $($built in $1885),$ painted the walls,

hired a yogurt master from Turkey, and turned his attention to the task

of developing high$-$quality Greek yogurt. He named it Chobani, which

means $$shepherd$$ in Turkish$\mathrm{.}1$

Developing Chobani$$s Unique Greek Yogurt

Hamdi Ulukaya is not fond of American$-$style yogurt. He says, $$In

Turkey we eat strained yogurt, which is rich and creamy, at every meal.$$

The straining process removes much of the liquid whey while leaving

behind more protein than the unstrained American yogurts. $$I was very

picky. It took us $18$ months to get the recipe right. But in $2007,$ we had

it$.$ I knew I had only one shot, and it had to be perfect,$$ says Ulukaya$\mathrm{.}2$

Reaching Customers

From the very beginning, Ulukaya and team pushed for distribution in

major grocery chains and in their main dairy cases, not confined to the

specialty or health food sections of these chains or in smaller, niche

stores. The reason was that he was convinced that typical Americans

would really like Greek yogurt if they tried it$.$ Ulukaya$$s conviction paid

off, and today Chobani has over a billion dollars a year in sales.

Chobani had little money for traditional advertising in $2007,$ so it relied

on one happy customer telling another about this new Chobani Greek

Yogurt. But Chobani increased its public awareness significantly through

sponsoring the $2012$ and $2014$ U$.$S$.$ Olympic and Paralympic Teams.

A plan to send $5,000$ cups of its Chobani Greek Yogurt to the $2014$

Sochi Winter Olympics hit a roadblock, however, when Russian authorities

said it failed to meet their customs rules. So Chobani sent the

$5,000$ cups to food banks in New York and New Jersey. This donation

reflects Chobani$$s commitment to charitable activities$$giving $10$ percent

of its profits to support people and organizations working for

positive, long$-$lasting change.

Chobani introduced its $$Simply $100$ Greek Yogurt$$ in December

$2013$a $100-$calorie, $5\mathrm{.}3-$ounce cup that is smaller than its original$6-$ounce cups.

Then its $2014$ Super Bowl $$yogurt bear$$ commercial proved a

hit. It featured a sales clerk ducking behind the counter while the disruptive

bear tries to buy a cup of Chobani Greek Yogurt.

Just over six years from launch, Chobani boasts over $800,000$ Facebook

fans and has single$-$handedly created the new food category of $$Greek

yogurt.$$ The company$$s YouTube channel features $$Just Add Good$$ recipes

to show customers how to use its tasty products in meals and desserts.

It also interacts with consumers through a half$-$dozen other social

media sites such as Twitter and Instagram, acknowledging everyone who

mentions the brand.

Chobani, Marketing, and You

By $2014,$ Chobani had about $38$ percent of the U$.$S$.$ Greek yogurt market and

about $19$ percent of the entire U$.$S$.$ yogurt market. Will Hamdi Ulukaya and his

Chobani Greek Yogurt continue this fantastic success$$especially with

the appearance of competing Greek yogurts from Yoplait, Dannon,

and PepsiCo?$4$ For Ulukaya, one key factor will be how well Chobani uses

marketing

Questions:

$1.$ From the information about Chobani in the case and at the start of the chapter, $($a$)$ who did Hamdi Ulukaya identify as the target for his first cups of Greek yogurt and $($b$)$ what was his initial $4$Ps$$ marketing strategy?

$2.($a$)$ What marketing actions would you expect the companies selling Yoplait, Dannon, and PepsiCo yogurts to take in response to Chobani$$s appearance and $($b$)$ how might Chobani respond?

$3.$ What are $($a$)$ the advantages and $($b$)$ the disadvantages of Chobani$$s Customer Loyalty Team that handles communications with customers$$from phone calls and e$-$mails to Facebook and Twitter messages?

$4.$ As Chobani seeks to build its brand, it opened a unique retail store in New York City: Chobani SoHo. Why did Chobani do this?