Nestle: A marketing plan for a healthy low fat yogurt

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

For a company who aims to be the “world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company”, Nestlé reveals a surprising weak presence in the health segment in the Portuguese yogurt market. Today consumers are looking for products aligned with a healthy lifestyle while maintaining taste and pleasure. Nutraceutical food industry is growing as health awareness rises, especially on the dairy sector. Therefore, it is crucial for Nestlé to position itself in the fastest growing segment in the market, to be more aligned with its corporate mission and increase its market share in the yogurt category. To enter on the health segment, Nestlé should take advantage of its internal strengths and technology achievements, and in line with the new market trends and customer needs, extend its low fat yogurt brand, Sveltesse, to embrace the launch of a new product, Sveltesse Balance, a fat free nutraceutical yogurt that provides two different health benefits: maximise the fat burn metabolism and provide a stronger bone condition. Launching this concept will benefit Nestlé’s overall position in the market since these benefits can attract a considerable potential market considering that a quarter of the Portuguese population suffers from rheumatic and bone related diseases and more than half is overweight. Moreover, this health concept was not explored before by any of its competitors. Sveltesse Balance will be targeted to active urban women, who value a yogurt that can help them to control weight and maintain strong and healthy bones through their lives. This Marketing Plan fits with Nestlé’s corporate mission in delivering a healthy and balanced product, while promoting a wellness lifestyle to its customers. The Plan begins by exposing a deep category analysis, focused on the market trends and customer behaviour, and also on the key players on the industry. Then the marketing strategy for this new product is depicted and the different marketing elements detailed, followed by a financial analysis to demonstrate the viability of the plan. At last, the implementation plan and controls are presented, as well as a brief contingency plan. As support material to this Plan it was used Nielsen’s quantitative and qualitative reports about the category, specialized market articles, as also theoretical marketing literature. An online survey was also conducted to evaluate the potential of this product, as well as consumption patterns.