TCBY, the acronym by which The Country's Best Yogurt chain is better known, once ruled the yogurt-retail world, but in recent years, a lot of competition has grown up around it. Part of that competition targets “back to the earth” consumers who are more interested in going back to a more “natural” yogurt and part of that competition is simply those hoping to horn in on TCBY’s frozen-yogurt mix-in turf.

The explosion in yogurt shops just in New York City of late has been astounding, including Chobani's first standalone boutique. “There’s been a veritable war in the Village,” real-estate broker Faith Hope Consolo, a retail real-estate broker for Douglas Elliman, told the NY Observer. “It’s the fastest-growing franchise in the country.” Don’t think TCBY is taking the war lightly.Continue reading...

Kraft Foods executives have promised to breathe new life into the stable of venerable — some would say hoary — brands that they inherited in the breakup of Kraft this year. And it looks like JELL-O is getting a lot of the early attention.

JELL-O gelatin and puddings have been fading lately, the brand's performance a far cry from when Bill Cosby flogged JELL-O in now-iconic TV commercials. Only 10 percent of Americans say they have eaten gelatin in the past two weeks, down from 15 percent in 1998, according to market researchers NPD Group as cited in Crain's Chicago Business. New snacks and indulgences such as Greek-style yogurt, and versatile foods that can serve as desserts such as granola and nutrition bars, have cut into JELL-O's turf, largely because it was under-marketed in recent years.

Not even the tough economy of the last few years has revived JELL-O, despite the fact that its products are inexpensive.Continue reading...

The ice-cream company that gave the world Schweddy Balls and Karamel Sutra isn’t apparently amused by somebody using the name Ben & Cherry’s. Perhaps Ben & Jerry’s discomfort comes from the fact that the somebody in question is a hardcore porn film producer.

The Vermont-based, Unilever-owned B&J’s has filed a trademark suit against B&C’s, the Associated Press reports, in order to stop them “tarnish(ing)” the ice-cream maker’s name.

Ben & Cherry’s doesn’t just use a variation of the B&J’s name and logo on its films; it also gives its videos names based on Ben & Jerry’s flavors. Witness "Boston Cream Thigh," at right, ''New York Fat & Chunky," and "Peanut Butter D-Cup," the AP reports. Not only that, the packaging of the films contains elements that appear on Ben & Jerry’s packaging, such as “a grazing cow, green grass and large white puffy clouds.”

It's not that Ben & Jerry’s is averse to hanky panky; after all, the brand using a more G-rated bit of romance – spooning (get it?) – to help sell its new Greek Frozen Yogurt.Continue reading...

First Chobani came along and revolutionized the yogurt Americans eat in their homes or on the go, by mainstreaming Greek-style yogurt and creating one of the biggest phenomena in the CPG industry in years. Now enjoying its first Olympics tie-in with its Team USA sponsorship, the New York-based company wants to change the way that Americans consume yogurt with "yogurt bars."

Starting in New York, of course. Chobani just opened its first retail store, on Prince Street in SoHo, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who hailed a new PepsiCo yogurt plant this week in upstate New York — dispatched his lieutenant governor, Robert J. Duffy, to drop by for the store opening. The former site of a Swatch store offers plain Chobani starting at $2.75 as well as "yogurt creations" for $3.75, created by on-site "master yogurt makers."

"Governor Cuomo is proud of that fact that New York State has become the yogurt capital," Duffy commented, according to the New York Times.Continue reading...

It may be too early to say the cola wars are over, although it's clear that PepsiCo is ready and willing to take on another archrival. Following years of competing with Coca-Cola with its array of beverage and snack food brands in the U.S., PepsiCo is now getting into the red-hot yogurt market and adding Dannon to its competitive set.

Faced with a U.S. yogurt market that is more crowded than ever with brands, and demonstrating almost no growth except in the Greek yogurt category, PepsiCo announced Monday that it's introducing a fresh brand to yogurt-loving Americans — and one that isn't focusing on Greek — via a new partnership with the Theo Muller Group, Germany's largest privately held dairy

That's the prospect for Muller Quaker Dairy when it finally enters stores in northeastern and mid-Atlantic states with three lines of yogurt products birthed by the joint venture. Muller Quaker promises "innovative premium" products that aim to create differentiation and taste excitement in a U.S. yogurt category that PepsiCo executives believe is lacking both.

"It's been an 'I gotta have it because it's good for me' kind of a product," Dr. Mehmood Khan, who oversees PepsiCo's global research and development, commented to the New York Times. "The 'wanna have it' was missing."Continue reading...

Just because Chobani has opened up a huge lead in the Greek-style category it invented — and that is reshaping the U.S. yogurt business — doesn't mean that others can't try to chip away. Dannon has grabbed a significant share after sensing the opportunity with Chobani's rapid rise.

Other players, big and small, also are attempting to make more noise and get their stakes of a Greek-style market that has been calculated at about $1.5 billion a year now and still growing by strong double-digits — even coming up in discussions of Greece's Eurozone crisis. Yoplait, Hain Celestial and the Pinkberry chain are among the brands that are making their own plays. Ben & Jerry's just revamped its frozen yogurt line to make Greek Yogurt the basis of the line. Fage and Chobani have a friend in U.S. senator Chuck Schumer.

The most closely watched Greek yogurt brand is Yoplait. The General Mills line, which has shared the top of the U.S. yogurt market with Dannon for many years, got a particularly late start in the Greek segment. But now it's launching 40 new yogurt products, and Greek yogurt will be the centerpiece of that rollout this summer.Continue reading...

It's the summer of mobile marketing in America, with brands including P&G and Walmart hitting the road to engage consumers with roadside pit-stops.

Back again this summer, Ben & Jerry's scoop truck has been wending its way across the U.S. And for ice-cream fans in New York City through August 3rd, the truck can be found by following its Twitter feed as it makes stops at local businesses, non-profits and community events to give away samples of its new Greek Frozen Yogurt.

Nothing so new for the Unilever-owned ice cream brand, but what is new this summer is it's social media fans will determine the stops. “Traditionally, when companies sample their product they stay at one spot, serve tiny little samples, and hope that consumers can find them,” said Jay Curley, Integrated Marketing Manager at Ben & Jerry’s.Continue reading...

Chobani made Greek-style yogurt part of the American food mainstream, and now the brand is trying to stay on top against catch-up efforts by every other major yogurt brand in the land.

Dannon, with its Oikos brand, has managed to join the startup Chobani brand on the top tier of the only category of yogurt consumption that is growing in the U.S. market these days. But the original Greek-yogurt brand in America, Fage, and Yoplait, which also is trying to play catch-up, are fading in their efforts to ride the boom that Chobani created.

Chobani already has become about a $1-billion concern over the past few years and owns nearly 50 percent of the category, according to a recent report by the Sanford Bernstein securities firm. Even after a furious catch-up effort, Dannon USA still has a less-than-20 percent share, and Fage 14 percent, while General Mills' Yoplait brand limps in with just 6 percent.

"We're dealing with some large organizations that aren't as nimble as Chobani," Niel Sandfort, director of marketing for Chobani, told brandchannel. "We're a billion-dollar company but still entrepreneurial. And we're continually investing in our core."Continue reading...