---
title: "How Can Increasingly Expensive Yogurt Support Young People's 'Yogurt Freedom'?"
description: "Yogurt seems to be getting more expensive. More consumers are finding that the era of yogurt under two yuan is gone, replaced by higher-priced options in the fridge's prime spots. Young people's 'yogurt freedom' is becoming harder to achieve, yet consumers are not shying away from premium yogurts."
author: "FBIF"
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published: "2021-04-25"
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# How Can Increasingly Expensive Yogurt Support Young People's 'Yogurt Freedom'?

> Yogurt seems to be getting more expensive. More consumers are finding that the era of yogurt under two yuan is gone, replaced by higher-priced options in the fridge's prime spots. Young people's 'yogurt freedom' is becoming harder to achieve, yet consumers are not shying away from premium yogurts.

Yogurt seems to be getting more and more expensive.
More and more consumers are discovering that the era of yogurt under two yuan in their memory seems to be gone forever. They have been quietly placed at the edge of the shelves, and the C-position in the freezer is gradually being replaced by some high-priced yogurts.
Yogurt under 5 yuan is becoming rarer, while 6 yuan and 8 yuan options are everywhere, some exceeding 10 yuan, even 20 yuan, or higher.
Young people's 'yogurt freedom' also seems increasingly difficult to achieve.
Yogurt freedom is becoming harder to achieve
However, we have found that consumers are not avoiding expensive yogurt. For example, Jane's yogurt, which we perceive as relatively high-priced, set a sales record in January 2021 of selling about 25 cups per second on average; Beihai Pasture's 'Strawberry Lava Cheese Yogurt' sold out 640,000 cups in 20 seconds, with monthly sales reaching 1.2 million cups; The co-branded product of Zhenxi x MOSCHINO sold 37,000 units on the day of release, with total sales exceeding 2.43 million yuan...
**When young people consume expensive yogurt, what are they paying for? How can brands win their 'hearts' with sincerity while satisfying their cravings?**
This article analyzes the product and pricing strategies, as well as marketing strategies of yogurt brands, to discuss the reasons behind yogurt price increases and how yogurt brands can make consumers willing to pay.
**-01-**
**Is yogurt really getting more expensive?**
Do consumers feel that yogurt prices are rising? FBIF chatted with several young consumers.
Teacher Li, born in 1994, said she usually only buys yogurt under 5 yuan, but recently the options seem to be decreasing; Office worker Xiao Liu said that her favorite internet-famous yogurt brand costs 18.8 yuan per cup, close to the price of breakfast or dinner, and she occasionally treats herself.
Whether online or offline, endless new yogurt products or flavors are tempting consumers' taste buds and meeting the 'special' needs of new-era consumers.
Browsing the yogurt shelves in supermarkets, we found that some yogurt brands, in order to maintain a high-end image, would rather buy one get one free than reduce prices or offer discounts. For example, a yogurt brand attracts consumers with 2 boxes for 9 yuan (unit price 8.5 yuan). The 'buy one get one free' method is more common than discount promotions (like 6·18 and Double 11).
As for other yogurt brands that young consumers prefer to order online for delivery, prices are higher, generally exceeding 10 yuan per box. For example, Jane's best-selling 'Original High Protein Series' averages 10 yuan per box, and Le Pur's flagship '333 Greek Yogurt' averages 18.8 yuan per box.
The internet-famous yogurt brand Blueglass has even given yogurt a 'luxury' feel, with its new 'Avocado Coconut Oatmeal Boba Collagen Yogurt' launched in April priced at 42 yuan per cup.
Blueglass 'Avocado Coconut Oatmeal Boba Collagen Yogurt', 42 yuan per cup
From the brand's perspective, there are also different explanations for yogurt prices.
FBIF interviewed Mr. Liu Danni, founder of Le Pur, who said, 'The overall price of domestic yogurt has an upward trend, especially because since 2020, the price of domestic raw milk is at an all-time high.'
A relevant person in charge of Mengniu Dairy's ambient yogurt (Zhenxi) said that in recent years, the price of ambient yogurt has not changed much. Although raw material costs have risen, due to the consumption capacity of China's basic market, the unit price remains around 8 yuan per single box / 66 yuan per case.
**-02-**
**Yogurt 'price increases' have reasons and 'illusions'**
Is the 'expensiveness' of yogurt normal?
Many brands give a reason in their price increase announcements: rising costs. In the overall economic environment, this is an objective factor that cannot be ignored. Raw materials, packaging, labor, transportation, and other prices are rising, coupled with increased environmental protection efforts, making the production costs of food and beverage industries higher.
But brands have also explored their own coping strategies, such as retaining relatively low-priced product lines to maintain existing consumer groups, continuously developing new product lines, and shifting from 'price wars' to 'value wars'.
FBIF previously analyzed the reasons for global food price increases in 'In-depth | Why are global food prices rising?', such as rising costs, reduced consumer price sensitivity, and the need for industrial structure upgrades.
**By giving products higher added value, prices have 'risen' considerably.**
In fact, yogurt 'price increases' have reasons and 'illusions'.
## **1\. Rising raw materials**
According to the R&D director of low-temperature products at a dairy company, in terms of the product itself, the differences in yogurt are reflected in several parts: raw milk, lactic acid bacteria, additives, and packaging in the ingredient list. Especially the differences in the first three determine the nutritional differences in yogurt products, which is also where many companies differentiate.
For example, Le Pur emphasizes: three cups of raw milk to extract one cup of yogurt; three times the protein content required by national standards; and a three-fold whey concentration process to create a thick texture. The rise in raw material prices such as raw milk has a relatively large impact on its price, becoming one of the important reasons for the higher price of yogurt.
Le Pur Jasmine Tea · Sugar Control Series · 333 Greek Yogurt
## **2\. Increasingly heavy marketing and channel distribution costs**
**In addition to the varying degrees of price increases for raw materials in dairy production costs, there are also increases in auxiliary costs such as online and offline marketing, transportation, and packaging. The price increase of yogurt can be said to be an inevitable trend of the interconnected production chain.**
When raw material costs are similar, channel investments differ. For example, the same product has different pricing in convenience stores and hypermarkets, and pricing also differs between Shanghai and second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities.
Especially as many emerging brands shift their main battlefield online, although offline channel costs are reduced, cold chain costs are also a significant expense.
The digital marketing dividend period has passed, customer acquisition costs have increased, and the costs of offline channel distribution and cold storage and transportation of low-temperature yogurt have increased, making the yogurt in consumers' hands increasingly 'both loved and hated'.
## **3\. Consumers accept 'emotional resonance' product premiums**
'What pleases the heart is hard to buy,' 'Lactic acid bacteria promote digestion and help the intestines exercise,' 'Help the body supplement high-quality protein and calcium.' There are various opinions about the nutritional value of yogurt, varying by individual constitution. Low-sugar, low-fat, low-calorie yogurt brands are also emerging one after another to cater to current consumer needs and 'buying points'.
Guangming Rushi is a pioneer in simplifying ingredient lists
As the beverage market competition becomes fierce, the 'battle' for the yogurt category is also intensifying. Brands that can resonate with consumers, especially the younger generation, on the basis of meeting their taste and nutritional needs, can have their 'brand premium' accepted. For example, brands like Starbucks and Haagen-Dazs, which are priced above average, can bring consumers the emotional need for self-fulfillment.
## **4\. The 'price increase' illusion formed by high-end positioning**
Different companies have different strategies. For comprehensive dairy companies, high-end means a richer product line.
Similar to the Xiaomi brand, after spinning off Redmi to target the mid-to-low-end market, the Xiaomi series focuses on high-end pricing.
Basic products are for scale, high-end products are for profit, each with different responsibilities. High-end products are the 'pioneers' that help companies open up first- and second-tier markets.
For example, brands like Jane, Le Pur, Classy Kiss, and Blueglass are positioned relatively high-end, while mass dairy companies like Guangming, Sanyuan, Mengniu, and Yili are also launching products priced at 10 yuan or above. This makes consumers subconsciously feel that the overall price of the yogurt category is rising.
However, brands we perceive as expensive also have relatively affordable product lines. For example, Classy Kiss's fresh cheese yogurt is priced around 3.3 yuan per cup on fresh e-commerce platforms, which is reasonable considering factors such as rising raw material costs and quality upgrades.
Classy Kiss 3.3g Protein Fresh Cheese Yogurt
**Are consumers more willing to buy the physical attributes or emotional attributes of a product? In the current intense product competition, this has become more of a basis for corporate pricing, and it also applies to yogurt products.**
**-03-**
**With increasingly expensive yogurt, what are young people chasing?**
Yongpu founder Tie Pi once said: 'Whoever masters the taste needs of young people will master the future.'
Su Dongpo, the great literary figure of the Song Dynasty, who 'laughed at himself for being busy for his mouth,' enjoyed fish, meat, fruits, and melons, eating wherever he went, expressing his emotions through food and living a happy life. As the main consumer group today, young 'foodies' may not be as carefree and 'unrestrained' as the ancients, carrying an extra contradiction and struggle between 'advocating dietary self-discipline' and 'craving indulgent enjoyment'.
Delicious and nutritious yogurt, with its unique taste experience, has a group of loyal fans like coffee and cola, becoming a daily necessity for many young groups.
However, yogurt prices are not like cola and coffee, where upstream and downstream product prices are not much different. The prices of several best-selling yogurts on the market differ by several times or even ten times. What are young people chasing when they chase yogurt?
## **1\. Cravings: unique taste, innovative texture**
Mintel pointed out in '4 Global Yogurt Trends Outlook' released in January 2021: 'To confirm the dual nature of yogurt, in addition to health claims and sugar reduction, brands also have the opportunity to gain new life through exploring indulgence.'
**As the younger generation increasingly becomes the main consumer force, they advocate individuality and pursue fashion trends. In the new consumption environment, 'innovative' and 'fresh' shopping experiences are expected to attract more young consumers.**
Blueglass meal replacement yogurt
Consumers choose yogurt not only for taste satisfaction but also for more innovative and unique textures. According to Ipsos's dairy research, 78% of consumers pay attention to the taste and texture of dairy products. At the same time, consumers have put forward more specific and diversified demands for 'taste and texture'.
## **2\. Health and self-discipline: yogurt's inherent health attributes**
Lu Xiuqiong, former CMO of Coca-Cola and consumer expert, believes that truly great brands are not swayed by 'trends' but use consumer needs as their greatest recognition, creating value for consumers and achieving long-term success.
Yogurt's inherent 'health attributes' have been cultivated over many years, and the education cost has been reduced to a very low level.
In fact, before yogurt became popular globally, it was once sold as a medicine. In 1919, Isaac Carasso, inspired by Nobel laureate Metchnikoff's theory that 'yogurt prolongs life,' used yogurt to help his son recover intestinal health. Later, he industrialized this product, which became the Danone brand. After improvements and promotion, it was welcomed and loved by people worldwide.
Industrial production of yogurt
Yogurt is made from fresh milk fermentation, rich in protein, calcium, and vitamins. Due to its low calorie and satiety, fitness enthusiasts can also drink it. For those who cannot enjoy milk due to lactose intolerance, yogurt is also a good choice.
Researchers at the University of California School of Medicine have shown that gut health and brain health influence each other. Yogurt, while changing the gut microbiota, helps improve mood. Regular consumption of yogurt can help reduce stress.
Therefore, big products like Guanyiru and Changqing use the concept of strains to differentiate their products, associating yogurt with health advocacy, ensuring that yogurt brings intestinal health while satisfying consumers' taste enjoyment.
Added Yili's self-developed Bifidobacterium lactis BL-99 after 8 years of research
Zuckerberg once said, 'Self-discipline is the creed of elite success.' On social platforms like Instagram and Xiaohongshu, yogurt is also often used as a 'prop' to showcase self-discipline and ritual in life.
Yogurt Bowl, known as 'supermodel same style'
Therefore, Classy Kiss seized this point, targeting the 'body management' needs of urban elites in China, and launched the concept of 'body management yogurt'.
Classy Kiss YO KEEP Yogurt
**-04-**
**Brand 'premium': how to make consumers willingly pay?**
**'Price increases are not scary, as long as there is culture.' Young people who pursue a better quality of life can accept the 'premium' of brands they identify with, and will not 'unfollow' or 'turn from fans to passers-by' because of price increases.**
But the premise is that brands must show enough sincerity and truly move consumers with better products and brand concepts and spirit.
Yogurt brands can use innovative marketing and new concept creation, product quality and taste improvement, cross-border play with new tricks, and other forms to create more emotional connections and psychological 'resonance' with consumers, as well as a sense of participation in brand creation, growing together with consumers.
## **1\. Taste innovation, developing segmented categories**
Jack Trout, the father of positioning theory, said: **Creating a new category and becoming the first brand in that category is the first shortcut to success in the market.** Based on the huge population base, any generation in China has a sufficiently large market volume, and consumers of different generations have different concepts, which gives brands the opportunity to develop new categories.
Consumers' understanding of 'delicious' dairy products
Observing the dairy market in recent years, the diversification of taste and texture has become a very obvious trend, and many brands are looking for innovative breakthroughs.
For example, Beihai Pasture added 'cheese lava beads' to yogurt, using the idea of baking cakes to create yogurt, to meet consumers' multi-layered sensory and personalized needs for flavor, texture, and nutrition.
Beihai Pasture 'Strawberry Lava Cheese Yogurt'
Öarmilk emphasizes 'cheese-level texture,' using a special process called 'European fresh cheese craft' to turn 'drinking yogurt' into 'eating yogurt.'
Öarmilk's two yogurts
In terms of taste, in addition to basic flavors like strawberry and yellow peach, novel flavors such as matcha, mustard, spicy, and flowers have also appeared on the market one after another.
New Hope Xuelan Flower Yogurt
## **2\. Opening new tracks, mastering pricing power**
In 2014, Xia Haitong, then general manager of Mengniu's low-temperature business unit, realized that in the traditional dairy market, ambient milk was already a fiercely competitive red ocean, with dairy giants holding 70% of the market share.
On the other hand, although the low-temperature milk market has a low share, it is growing rapidly, especially low-temperature yogurt, which has not yet been widely recognized by consumers. At the end of 2014, Xia Haitong founded Pucheng Dairy, focusing on the low-temperature milk track, and later launched the brand: Jane.
Image source: Jane Tmall store
**Pioneers who enter a new track often have strong pricing power. With pricing power, companies have better profit margins and can continuously invest in R&D.**
Due to early layout in the low-temperature milk market and seizing the opportunity, as of December 2020, Jane Yogurt had a compound annual growth rate of 109% in nearly five years since its establishment. In 2020, Jane Yogurt's sales increased by over 70%, ranking first in low-temperature yogurt category sales in multiple new retail channels.
## **3\. Creating uniqueness, creating a 'premium feel'**
Le Pur 333 Jasmine Tea Greek-style Flavored Fermented Milk Spring Blossom Series
According to Le Pur's official website, Le Pur is a yogurt brand that truly uses the whey filtration process. Every kilogram of Le Pur requires three kilograms of raw milk fermentation, insisting on a three-fold fresh milk cost investment, bringing an ice cream taste. Because its lactic acid bacteria, protein, and raw milk are three times that of other yogurts, it is called 333 yogurt. With a unit price of 18.8-19.8 yuan per box, it is called 'Hermès in yogurt' by consumers.
Image source: Le Pur official website
Le Pur's slogan is 'Every bite is like licking the lid.' Many people like to lick the lid when drinking yogurt because the yogurt concentration is highest there. Le Pur makes consumers feel that 'every bite is so delicious.'
High appearance value catches the eye, fresh and elegant text plays the emotional card, plus a delivered nut snack pack, Le Pur yogurt attracts many loyal fans' love and 'planting grass.'
## **4\. Seizing vertical user mindshare, pursuing 'private customization'**
**Consumers' demand for quality is iterating. With a huge population base, as long as a brand accurately covers a portion of people and seizes the mindshare of vertical users, it can occupy a stable market share. Let consumers feel the satisfaction and participation of 'private customization.'**
For example, Jane Yogurt targets highly educated women as its target consumer group. Jane's insight is: highly educated women have awakened self-awareness, pursue and yearn for a high-quality life, and advocate a healthy and nutritious lifestyle.
Le Pur advocates a lifestyle that encourages consumers to participate in customization
Another case is Le Pur yogurt. The 'three highs' of high quality, high appearance, and high price are only sold online. These characteristics make Le Pur yogurt self-contained with topic traffic upon launch. Including the early stage where Le Pur's flavors were co-customized by consumers, through word of mouth and social media topic momentum, Le Pur yogurt quickly became an internet celebrity.
For user operations, Le Pur follows the classic '1-9-90 model' in the consumer industry, capturing 1% of deeply interactive users and 9% of sharing users, then influencing the other 90% of consumers. Le Pur also established a membership benefit mechanism, including new product tastings and some node activities. For the 1% core users, they directly provide annual subscriptions to Le Pur products.
Le Pur founder Liu Danni said that the most important thing for Le Pur is to make the product a presence that can transcend time and accompany growth (like Coca-Cola), ensuring that every time consumers eat Le Pur products, they can have the same happy experience as the first time. This requires continuous investment and refinement in R&D and supply chain.
## **5\. Cross-border trend chasing, yogurt can be very 'changeable'**
In the Internet era, major yogurt brands with a keen sense of smell for new things are creative and brave in trying, frequently making clever moves on the road of cross-border marketing, playing more and more enthusiastically.
For example, 5G is the hottest topic people care about now. If combined with yogurt, what new tricks can be played?
Ambrosial launched a spoon-eating new product '5G Yogurt' in September 2020, with '5G protein' as the core selling point, cross-border with China Mobile M-zone. Ambrosial's cross-border with 5G communication technology, launching spoon-eating new products, while also laying out on Bilibili and creating viral videos, not only brought many new consumers to the brand but also improved communication power through multi-platform linkage, making yogurt play with 'technology sense' and attracting cross-border fans' attention and love.
Mengniu's ambient yogurt brand Zhenxi co-branded with Italian fashion brand MOSCHINO
Another representative cross-border case is that at the end of 2020, Mengniu's ambient yogurt brand Zhenxi co-branded with Italian fashion brand MOSCHINO. This deep cooperation between the domestic FMCG industry and an international affordable luxury brand provided new ways to play for brand cross-border.
On November 23, 2020, the co-branded product of Zhenxi and MOSCHINO was first launched on Tmall小黑盒, selling a total of 37,000 units that day, with total sales exceeding 2.43 million yuan.
**-05-**
**Conclusion**
Why do yogurt prices show a significant upward trend, but everyone is still willing and happy to pay? To a large extent, it is because when people consume yogurt, they are not only drinking/eating yogurt, but also enjoying life. The nutritional supplement, taste enjoyment, visual aesthetics, etc., brought by new-style yogurt enhance consumers' happiness with 'comprehensive strength.'
Compared to the fiercely competitive beverage market, yogurt brand competition is not as intense, but with the addition of new brands and the innovation and new category development of traditional brands, the 'yogurt track' will become increasingly crowded. **Only by accurately insight into the dynamic needs of current consumers and using innovative products and communication methods can we better satisfy increasingly picky and changeable consumers.**
Play truly 'with' consumers, and they will give you unexpected 'favor'!
Source: FBIF Food and Beverage Innovation (id: FoodInnovation) Author: PuPu
Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.


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