Yoplait’s Petits Filous Frubes products continue to be the leading portable fromage frais brand with an impressive 13.6% market share of the children’s chilled yogurts and desserts sector. It’s worth £35.6m, making it the overall number four brand in the sector.
In September 2008, Yoplait capitalised on the success of its Frubes Limited Edition character licensing strategy by launching a partnership with Disney’s High School Musical 3. From mid-September, the Limited Edition pack replaced the hugely popular Doctor Who licence and was timed to coincide with the UK cinema release of High School Musical 3 in October 2008.
The Frubes Limited Edition range has grown 140% in value year on year (according to IRI data), significantly driving sales within the portable fromage frais market.
Frubes brand manager, Caroline Segalen, comments on the success: “Our Limited Edition character licensing strategy has become increasingly important to the Frubes brand, attracting new consumers with a remarkably low cannibalisation rate on the standard Frubes packs.”
The new High School Musical 3 packs include vibrantly coloured character cutouts, games and bookmarks. And for the first time, individual Frubes tubes will feature popular characters from the film, with 24 to collect.
Segalen continues: “The High School Musical films have been watched by more than 250 million people in over 100 countries, and have really captured the imaginations of the teen-tween market. With the huge popularity of previous High School Musical films, we’re expecting this exciting new Limited Edition to be incredibly popular with consumers and continue to add incremental growth to the category.”
The Limited Edition High School Musical 3 promotion has been supported by a 10-second ad that forms part of Yoplait’s £1.13m TV advertising budget for the Frubes brand in 2008.
What’s the benefit of character merchandising to your products, your brand and your consumers?
Yoplait: The Frubes Limited Edition strategy adds something new and exciting to the product on a regular basis, and it’s a differentiator from lots of other licensed products that are always on-shelf. Limited Edition also connects with consumers by tapping into the most current consumer trends (High School Musical 3 is a good example of this). Both of these drive sales, adding value to the brand and therefore to retailers.
Does this licensing strategy attract new customers or cannibalise standard Frubes sales?
Yoplait: The average cannibalisation of standard tubes by Limited Edition over a year is 5%, which is tiny considering that Limited Edition is growing by 110% year on year. Indeed, Limited Edition has attracted new consumers (+8pts of penetration this year). Limited Edition brings a novelty factor and helps Frubes engage with kids and reinforce its ‘cool’ image.
How do you decide which characters – real, fictional or cartoon – to go for?
Yoplait: Since we’re able to communicate to kids due to our nutritional profiling, we’re kept updated by licensers of the films and new properties coming up, and we select those that will be the most successful and will appeal to our core target (5-12 years old), as well as being a good fit with the Frubes brand image.
How easy or difficult is it to obtain the necessary licences? Is it value for money?
Yoplait: Frubes is an attractive brand for licences because it’s a brand leader in the portable market and is therefore very well known among mums and children. Plus, we have the right nutritional profiling to be able to communicate with kids directly.
Many of the characters are aimed at young children. Is this the most profitable target market or does character merchandising work for other age groups?
Yoplait: Frubes’ target is 5-12 years old and characters attract younger children. Frubes Limited Edition will sell more to households with kids aged 4-9 years old, while standard tubes will sell to kids aged 10-15 years.
What impact does character merchandising have on the level of your product sales?
Yoplait: The Frubes brand overall is growing by 36% year on year, while Limited Edition is growing by over 110% year on year. All stock keeping units (SKU) are in growth, but Limited Edition is the SKU driving the growth of the brand and has attracted new consumers. Each licence is increasingly successful.
**Geoff Platt is editor of Dairy Innovation magazine. Please subscribe here.**
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