07 Dec When Imitation Isn’t Flattering

Chobani is known as a trailblazer in their industry, in fact, they’re the number one yogurt company in the United States. But when you walk down the grocery store aisle, you’re bound to see the same trade dress over and over again: a white plastic cup with a foil top, a photo of a piece of fruit and they’ll feature the same buzzwords – ‘natural’ and ‘creamy’.

“Virtually everybody’s copied us…it’s not been good for the category,” expressed one of Chobani’s leadership members. Chobani is going public with a reimagining of its brand identity that will position the yogurt giant in a good place for the next decade…hopefully

The first major shift for Chobani is its journey to identify itself as a ‘food-focused wellness company’ versus just a yogurt company.  This identity campaign will translate in their promotional advertising centered around nutritional benefits of yogurt, tout its many uses including recipe ingredient substitute and encourage consumers to eat yogurt all times of the day.

The second major shift will be consumer facing. The company completely redid their package paying homage to a retro and natural aesthetic. Customers will notice a color palette borrowed from leaves and flowers and bark, with illustrations of old seed catalogs.

One thing is evidently clear in this inward and outward change, Chobani had to do something. “Ten years ago, when Chobani launched, it disrupted the yogurt category. These guys disrupted the market and grew their category dramatically and smartly – but a lot of their competition has copied them. The category is overly complicated and there is a sameness to the way these brands appear on the self.” So, in order to stay above the curve and stay relevant, Chobani didn’t have a choice but to rebrand.

Chobani’s necessary rebrand brings up a pivotal conversation in advertising. While it’s great to be at the top, it comes at a price. We’ve seen companies making changes to be more innovative and efficient in their acquisitions, strategic hiring, restructurings, process changes, research-and-development, technology partnerships and alliances. But to keep the future bright and stay successful, companies must be continuously evolving and separating themselves from the pack.