Probiotic juice: five key strategy lessons

from Europe and the US

Case studies in digestive and immune health

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PPT – 100 slides, product illustrations, charts and tables of data	PDF & PPT each priced at: €200/$295/£190/C$295/A$345/NZ$395/¥23000
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ISBN: 978-1-906297-30-5	Publication date: October 2009
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About this report

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Probiotic juice is one of the biggest untapped innovation opportunities in the healthy beverage business, worldwide.  The author of this unique report, Julian Mellentin, drawing on case studies from Europe and the US, sets out the five key lessons that are essential reading for anyone who wants succeed in probiotic juice.

The prevailing focus of interest in probiotics for digestive and immune health is dairy and solid foods, yet the biggest untapped opportunity lies in juice drinks.

In Europe it’s already a success story. The ProViva probiotic digestive health drink has become a mass-market success in Sweden, where its per capita sales make it equivalent to a $2.1 billion annual sales brand - as big as Gatorade. The brand has even maintained 8% annual growth during a year of economic recession, despite selling at a 50% premium to regular juices.

Boosted by this success, the company behind ProViva has launched new variants that extend probiotic juice into sports and women’s nutrition as well as a new probiotic juice that’s clinically shown to combat the symptoms of cold and flu.

ProViva’s success has inspired a clutch of embryonic brands in other markets, such as the Good Belly brand in the US. Good Belly’s founder, food entrepreneur Steve Demos, is interviewed about his experience with launching a probiotic juice brand – one that has seen him totally change his strategy, just a year after launch.

Underpinning Mellentin’s concise analysis of the success factors are four case studies – all based on interviews with senior executives at the companies concerned - which include:

• supermarket sales data
• repeat purchase rates and market penetration
• strategies to penetrate the early adopter market and grow from there to the mass-market
• which marketing techniques are most effective and why
• communications strategies
• health claims and label messages
• how probiotic products are priced and how some can achieve super-premium prices
• taste trends
• brand extensions and new segments

This report – the only one of its kind on probiotic juice strategy - is written for anyone trying to develop an effective strategy in the challenging and fast-changing area of probiotics. It provides executives in marketing, technical, innovation and NPD roles with real-world insights that can be applied in any setting.

Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Probiotic juice: five key lessons
Summary
2.1 Beverages offer advantages for probiotics
2.2 The “alternative to dairy” opportunity
2.3 Taste – the key competitive advantage
2.4 Five key lessons for successful strategy in probiotic juice

3. ProViva probiotic juice for digestive health
Summary
3.1 A rare mass-market success story
3.2 Sales success through commercialising university research
3.3 Pricing, penetration and positioning
3.4 Health claims
3.5 Taste key to success
3.6 Brand extensions
3.6.1 ProViva Female
3.6.2 ProViva Active
3.6.3 ProViva Shot!
3.7 The future for ProViva: growth defies recession

4. GoodBelly: ProViva’s American market extension with an early-adopter focus
Summary
4.1 A launch into a recession
4.2 Dairy competition
4.3 Pricing and promotion
4.4 New focus on early adopters
4.5 New products to create new consumption
4.5.1 BigShot 50
4.5.2 Targeted single-serve beverages
4.5.3 Powder-mix stick
4.6 Taste preferences

5. Bravo Friscus: probiotic juice tackles the common cold
Summary
5.1 A new brand for “Natural Defence”
5.2 Probiotic science
5.3 ProViva and Friscus are complementary
5.4 Health claims
5.5 Innovation to create a new category

6. Probi: more than your average science company
Summary
6.1 Commercialising university science
6.2 Post-op patients inspire ‘oat soup’ remedy
6.3 From hospital to supermarket

About the author

Julian Mellentin is one of the world's few international specialists in the business of food, nutrition and health. Julian is the owner and editor of New Nutrition Business, the leading source of industry and market analysis, which has focused solely on researching and forecasting the nutrition business since 1995.

He is also co-author of The Functional Foods Revolution: Healthy people, healthy profits?, the first-ever book on the business of functional foods, now translated into Japanese, and with Peter Wennström of Commercialising Innovation: The Food & Health Marketing Handbook.

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Expertise in the business of food, nutrition and health since 1995