How Tnuva became a top yoghurt producer in less than a year

The company has reached over 70% awareness among consumers and, although it does not disclose any figures regarding sales volume or value, data from market research agencies show Tnuva has already entered the top three biggest yoghurt producers in Romania, a market worth over 300 million euros.
How was this possible? The answer is an aggressive marketing policy, nationwide distribution, a promotional budget worth several million euros, which rivals those of multinationals Danone and Friesland, and a portfolio of products that is updated at least once every quarter. However, it will be difficult to put an end to Danone’s lead (on yoghurts) and Friesland’s (for the overall market), with the French continuing to have the two best-selling brands on the market, according to market research agency MEMRB, while Friesland has a portfolio that generates annual sales worth over 120 million euros.
According to MEMRB studies, in January-March of this year, Tnuva ranked third among producers of plain yoghurts and fruit yoghurt, after Danone and Friesland, and second among producers of sana (a traditional dairy variety, based on fermented milk), after Friesland.
In terms of the best-selling plain and fruit yoghurt brands, Tnuva ranks fourth, with Yoplait, after Nutriday and Casa Buna (Danone) and Napolact (Friesland), and first in terms of sana brands, with Tnuva.
Following its entry onto the dairy market, Tnuva has removed plain and fruit yoghurt producer Brailact from the top five, and, in terms of brands, it threw Frutisima (Danone) out of the top five, and outranked Milli.
While the plain and fruit yoghurt market increased 25% in terms of value in the first three months of this year against the same time last year, sana sales almost doubled in the first quarter of 2007 against the January-March period of 2006, with Tnuva’s entry onto this market contributing to this growth.
The Israelis plan every step very carefully, and, as Sagit Tzur Lahav, marketing vice-president of Tnuva, says, the launch strategy for each product is devised at least six months ahead. “We knew that during the summer months, consumption of traditional dairy products declines, so we thought everything through in advance,” she says. This is how varieties such as watermelon-flavoured yoghurt, fruit-flavoured sana and the frappe appeared on the market, with sales of the last two varieties going up by 30% a week.