Recently, the popularity of yogurt that emphasizes probiotics has increased again, and many new probiotic yogurt products have begun to be launched on the market. With the increased demand for healthy, functional dairy products, probiotic yogurt offers a great option. Coupled with the diversified functions of probiotics, it can bring a lot of innovative directions.
In order to increase the attractiveness of probiotic yogurt, the brand is also working on "live bacteria" and "quantity". However, as far as the current probiotic yogurt market is concerned, there may still be a lack of consumer popularization and functional development, and for brands, if they want to continue to increase product competitiveness, they also need to find the direction of innovation and upgrading.
The popularity of probiotic yogurt has increased again
Fermented foods often contain probiotics, and many people's cognition of probiotics may also start with yogurt or lactic acid bacteria drinks. Data show that the consumption scale of probiotic dairy products in mainland China accounts for about 78% of the probiotic product market, compared with the popularity and awareness of probiotic yogurt.
In the probiotic product market, probiotic supplements and probiotic yogurt are relatively common product categories, among which probiotic yogurt occupies a considerable market share. After years of development, the perception that yogurt contains probiotics has gradually been established.
Recently, the popularity of yogurt that emphasizes probiotics has increased again, and probiotic yogurt has also entered the consumer field of vision. The popularity of probiotic yogurt, on the one hand, comes from the attraction of probiotics, and it is especially well-known for its functions in regulating intestinal flora and supporting intestinal health. On the other hand, the appeal of yogurt can be used as a good source of high-quality protein, calcium and other nutrients.
In fact, there have been many probiotic yogurt products on the market, and with the further heat of the probiotic yogurt market, many brands have begun to emphasize probiotic yogurt, further enriching the number and choice of products.
For example, in September last year, Nutiani, Fonterra's health and nutrition solution brand, cooperated with fresh food platform Hema to launch Hema probiotic refrigerated yogurt for the first time. In the same month, Langege launched a new big blue barrel of Baqi bacteria curd cheese, which has the advantages of zero sucrose and probiotics. Subsequently, in October, Huishan zero added probiotic yogurt series was upgraded and upgraded on the basis of "zero addition" and "probiotics", upgrading the "high calcium" and "multi-protein" attributes.
Meet health, functional and other needs
As mentioned above, the re-popularity of probiotic yogurt may also be inseparable from the selling point of "probiotics", mainly because probiotics have certain functions that have been known by many consumers. Probiotic yogurt is relatively in line with the current demand for the functionalization and health of yogurt, and meets the expectations of healthy dairy products.
The "2021 China Dairy Industry Operation Big Data and Market Trend Research Report" pointed out that high-end, healthy and functional dairy products will gradually become the main direction of market development. These trends have gradually emerged in the yogurt market, and yogurt has become one of the important carriers of health and function.
On the one hand, consumers' health awareness is constantly increasing, and they are increasingly inclined to choose low-sugar, low-fat food and beverages. Yogurt has been developed rapidly under this demand, because yogurt itself has a certain health aura, and it is more inclined to choose drinking yogurt for health considerations.
On the other hand, adding certain functions on the basis of health can improve physiological functions in a targeted manner, and is also beneficial to health. In the yogurt market, there have been many functional yogurts, by adding some special nutrients or functional ingredients, the health problems of specific groups of people have a certain improvement function.
As for probiotic yogurt, it is equivalent to having "health" and "function" at the same time, which significantly improves the nutritional value and consumption experience of yogurt, and can be said to be more suitable for consumer demand in the current era of pursuing health and function.
In other words, the increasing health and functional needs have brought a lot of help and opportunities to the development of probiotic yogurt. Especially in the post-pandemic era, when health concerns are higher, probiotic yogurt provides an option when pursuing health.
Bring innovation and differentiation
In addition to being more attractive to consumers, probiotic yogurt may also be an opportunity for yogurt brands. Because whether for yogurt innovation or yogurt differentiation, probiotic yogurt may provide a lot of directions.
According to the "2021 Yogurt Consumption Trend Report" released by CBNData, the number of yogurt online products in 2021 has far exceeded that of fresh milk and milk-containing beverages, and the consumption scale has increased by 90% in two years. As far as the current yogurt market is concerned, this is a highly active and large-scale market, the competitive pressure between brands is increasing, the "yogurt involution war" is gradually beginning, and many yogurt brands are trying to update and iterate their products.
In the process of yogurt update and iteration, using probiotics as a selling point may have more room for change. On the one hand, there is still a lot of room for the functionality of probiotics, and some of the currently known functions may still be a small part. On the other hand, the functional differences of existing probiotic yogurt are not very obvious, and more brands are needed to develop more functionality.
From the perspective of Japan's probiotic yogurt market, many probiotic yogurt products with different functions have been developed, such as Meiji Baile Yiyou R-1 yogurt, which focuses on the improvement of people's physical fitness during the Japanese flu season at that time, and LG21 lactic acid bacteria yogurt that Meiji has the effect of relieving the burden on the stomach, etc., constantly enriching the Japanese functional yogurt market.
Compared with the domestic probiotic yogurt market, there is still a big gap, but it also reflects that the domestic market still has more room for development. From the perspective of probiotic functionality and product richness, gradually change the stereotype of "probiotics promote digestion", thereby increasing the consumption education of probiotic function and laying the foundation for accepting more probiotic yogurt with different functions.
By continuously exploring the functionality of probiotics, it can help brands occupy a dominant position in the functional yoghurt market, and also increase the competitiveness of products and brands.
Increase the appeal of probiotic yogurt
For probiotic yogurt, in order to truly achieve the beneficial effect of publicity, "live probiotics" and "sufficient quantity" are essential conditions. In order to increase the appeal of probiotic yogurt, brands are also highlighting "live bacteria" and "quantity".
New Hope Huorun has launched a crystal yogurt, which adopts the self-developed "3D embedding technology" to wrap probiotics in the crystal ball, so that the survival rate of probiotics is 1000 times higher than that of ordinary yogurt. And through this technology, the "invisible" probiotics can have a more intuitive consumption experience. It is also worth mentioning that the yogurt is added with crystal balls wrapped with probiotics, which also enhances the edible taste of yogurt on the basis of the original probiotic yogurt.
From the current market point of view, although most of the common probiotic yogurt is low-temperature yogurt, mainly to ensure the activity of probiotics, but room temperature probiotics and room temperature probiotic yogurt are also under development, if they can be successfully applied, it will further help the popularity of probiotic yogurt.
For example, Bright Health JCAN Probiotics adopts strain stability preservation technology - freeze-dried strain stability technology, which can be completely stored and maintained active even at room temperature. It is understood that this series of probiotic products adds 30 billion CFU of live bacteria to each bag≥, using the dual-benefit live formula of IgG immunoglobulin + probiotics.
Not long ago, some media reported that Yili released a new product preview announcing that Anmuxi will launch a new product - room temperature live probiotic yogurt in 2023, introducing that this product uses five-layer embedding technology and intestinal directed release technology, hoping to bring consumers a higher value health experience.
With the increase in probiotic yogurt products, on the basis of ensuring the activity and quantity of probiotics, in addition to increasing the attractiveness of the products, it will further promote the development of the market.
Probiotics still need to be popularized and developed
Although probiotics have become more and more popular in recent years, the related controversy has not decreased, and there are many opinions on whether probiotics belong to the "IQ tax". In fact, from this point of view, it may also reflect the lack of probiotic consumption education, too deified and too negative is obviously not taken.
After all, the judgment of the functionality of probiotics is based on scientific demonstration and clinical testing, but most of the products such as probiotic yogurt still belong to the category of ordinary food, and it may be difficult to achieve immediate results, and it is necessary to pay attention to the nutritional value of probiotic products, and the education of probiotic products also needs to be popularized in an objective direction.
In addition to the problems in consumer education, the functionality of domestic probiotics also needs to be further developed. Probiotic yogurt perception may still be focused on gut health, and as functional needs become more diverse, it's hard to innovate and differentiate just by targeting this selling point.
Moreover, domestic dairy companies still have insufficient research and development of probiotic strains, and most of the probiotic strains are still monopolized by foreign enterprises, which not only restricts the research and development of probiotic yogurt, but also is not conducive to the innovation and upgrading of related products.
For brands that enter or are ready to enter the probiotic yogurt market, it is necessary to further increase the popularity and innovation of probiotic yogurt, and in the future, on the basis of developing more probiotic functionality, bring more functional and diversified probiotic yogurt products to better meet personalized and diversified consumer needs.
Industry thinking: Recently, the popularity of probiotic yogurt has increased again, and many brands have begun to launch new probiotic yogurt. Speaking of the launch of probiotic yogurt, while catering to the current health and functional needs, it provides a lot of differentiation directions for the brand, and in order to further increase the competitiveness of products, it is also highlighting selling points such as "live bacteria" and "quantity". However, from the current domestic probiotic yogurt market, there is still much room for improvement in terms of consumer education and functionality.