FREE QUOTE - CALL 920-468-5927 | REVIEWS

Menu
HART logo
  • Products
    • Filling
      • Automatic Lidding
      • Auto-Pouch Assembly Equipment
      • PFC-10 Spouted Pouch Filler
      • HCC Filling Line
      • HPC Filling Line
      • SA-12 Filler
      • Bulk Filling
    • Slice on Slice (SOS)
      • Casting Line
      • 3 x 12 Wrapper
      • 2-, 3-, & 4- Stage Stackers
      • 20-ESW IWS Extruder
      • Servo Cutoff
      • Ribbon Loaf AutoHarp Infeed
      • In-Line & Overhead AutoHarps
    • Cutting
      • Natural Cheese Cutters
      • Mozzarella Log Slicer
      • Cutting & Elevating Conveyors
      • Lane Diverter
      • Block / Two-Stage Cutters
      • Vertical Cutters
      • Wheel Cutters
        • Semi-Automatic Wheel Cutters
        • Automatic Wheel Cutters
        • Pneumatic Wheel Cutters
      • 640 Block / 550 Barrel Cutters
        • 640 AL Cutters
        • 640 HC Cutters
        • 640 Pneumatic Cutters
      • Slab Cutters
      • Ultrasonic Bar Cutters
      • Exact Weight Cutters
      • Dicer
    • Conveyance / Robotics & Product Handling
      • Case Packing
      • Cutting & Elevating Conveyors
      • Lane Diverter
      • Debox & Defoiling
      • Flex Pickers
      • Robotic Palletizing
      • Automated Product Loading
      • Lidding
      • Cheese Wheel Salting, Spicing & Washing
    • Shred Line
      • Retail Cheese Shred Lines
      • Food Service Shred Lines
      • Cutting & Elevating Conveyors
      • Lane Diverter
      • Block / Two-Stage Cutters
      • Slab Cutter
      • 640 HC Cutter
  • Product Videos
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Upcoming Events
    • History
  • Industry News
  • Contact Us
    • Directions & Nearby Hotels
    • Employment
    • Request Information
  • Store
  • Get a FREE Quote
Close Menu
Home > Industry News & Events from HART > News > 3 Common Mistakes When Launching a Dairy Product
product growth chart
October 10, 2019

3 Common Mistakes When Launching a Dairy Product

News

If your new dairy food product is failing to connect with customers, think twice before heading back to the drawing board. Browsing a dairy food display can be confusing for consumers. With so many brands touting similar benefits, from “non-GMO” and “high in protein” to “gluten-free” or “low in sugar,” it’s easy for buyers to get lost in a sea of sameness.

How do you get your new product to stand out and translate into sales? Having helped myriad companies successfully launch new products — from major brands to start-ups, with a focus on dairy foods — I know first-hand that there are better ways than others to gain consumer interest and trust.

Dairy Food Mistakes

Here are the top three dairy food mistakes I’ve seen dairy food producers make when rolling out products, and how to avoid them.

1. Neglecting to Take a Position

What dairy food producer doesn’t believe they have the best-tasting, healthiest, and most special product out there? In fact, most brands are really good at touting their product’s benefits. What they tend to neglect, however, is creating a brand voice.

If you don’t pay equal attention to taking a stand for something that positions your product as the best choice for consumers over and above its benefits, you’re not giving them a concrete reason to choose your product over the competition. A strong position is what anchors consumer choice. For example, taking a healthy, great-tasting ice cream and positioning it as an guilt-free way to satisfy late-night munchies — backed by evidence from sleep experts — was an effective way for a particular to brand stand out and gain significant market share in a crowded category.

2. Align Packaging with the Brand

Your brand assets are the first thing consumers see and the No. 1 factor that will influence their perception of your company. Once you’ve established a clear, overarching brand position, it’s imperative to back it up with creative, structured packaging that reinforces your key message.

Companies tend to spend a great deal of effort on design elements that look great, but they ultimately end up confusing consumers because they have nothing to do with the underlying brand themes. Dairy companies, in particular, tend to fall into the trap of using generic or simple packaging as a way to keep costs down in a market defined by high-volume refrigerated products.

Low-quality printing might look good on a spreadsheet, but it won’t encourage people to pull your product off store shelves. To ensure a successful product launch, allocate a portion of your marketing budget to creating innovative on-message packaging.

A leading company in grass-fed organic dairy products, for example, has seen exponential growth thanks to bold, striking packaging that reinforces its positioning across its entire product line, conveying the authentic, grass-fed message by using the same iconic bed of grass blades and original (rather than stock) cattle photography, no matter what the product or flavor.

3. Market Research 

Often, companies come to us saying: “Our product not only tastes amazing, but it also has these great benefits. People are going to love it.” But when we push them to tell us what truly distinguishes them in the market, they can’t put their finger on it. That’s where market research — from focus groups and online surveys to man-on-the-street interviews — is invaluable. The more tangible information a company can gather about what people think about a product and the direction it’s taking, the more they can pinpoint a strategy that works.

When we worked with a multi-billion dollar dairy company to reinvent cottage cheese, it was a focus group that informed us that consumers were embarrassed to bring cottage cheese to the office. That’s when we knew we needed to make cottage cheese a cool product option on par with single-serve yogurt. Ultimately, we created a new brand name that evoked creaminess (a positioning that differentiated the brand), was unconventional and unique, and we carried that message throughout all of the company’s assets, packaging structure, design and collateral materials, resulting in a winning rollout program.

If your new product is failing to connect with customers, think twice before heading back to the drawing board. Revisit your launch strategy and consider if your position or packaging is off, or if you just haven’t done the legwork to understand where consumers are coming from. When you tell your story the right way, backed by innovative, creative and clearly aligned packaging, consumer excitement, interest and trust will ultimately follow.

Keep up to date on current industry news here.

Source: Dairy Foods

WTO Allows U.S. to Impose up to $7.5 Bn. in Tariffs on EU Hilmar Cheese Company Hosts Members of Congress

Related Posts

Equipment Sanitation with power washing.

News

Food Sanitation Zones

CheeseExpo Global Online Banner

News

Keynote Presentations at CheeseExpo Global Online

Diversity of people put their hands in together.

News

5 Ways to Improve Diversity Training

Back To Top

Who We Are

HART Design & Manufacturing is a global leader in the design and construction of standard and customized stainless steel, servo-controlled equipment for use in the food and dairy industry, with an emphasis on process and natural cheese production lines.

Our 40,000 square feet of integrated production facilities, located in Green Bay, Wisconsin, allow us to provide our customers with superior design and engineering, machining, welding, fabricating, mechanical and electrical assembly, testing and programming, all under one roof!

HART Design & Manufacturing uses proven technologies coupled with continual innovation to produce robust, reliable equipment to satisfy our clients’ specific processing or packaging requirements.

HARTHART
HART Design & Manufacturing, Inc.
1940 Radisson Street
Green Bay, WI 54302
920-468-5927
Info@HartDesign.com
Reviews

Disclaimer & Intellectual Property Statement

Industry & Company News

  • Food Sanitation Zones January 20, 2021
  • Keynote Presentations at CheeseExpo Global Online January 17, 2021
  • 5 Ways to Improve Diversity Training January 17, 2021

Let’s Keep in Touch

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to discover the latest & greatest videos, news and deals!

© HART Design & Manufacturing, Inc. 2021
Website Design, Development, SEO, & Hosting by The BLU Group - Advertising & Marketing