How French Yogurt Brand Mamie Yova is Planning to Win Consumers

Heritage Novandie Foods Private Limited, a joint venture between, Heritage Foods Ltd and Novandie Foods has announced their entry in Indian market with French yogurt recipes through their yogurt brand Mamie Yova.

Speaking to IndianRetailer, Vivek Mani, CEO at Heritage Novandie Foods Private Limited said, “Mamie Yova is a 50-years old brand under which Novandie has been selling gourmet yogurt with fruits. We are glad to bring such a lovely brand with a great legacy to India.”

“Currently, we have launched a product called ‘Drinkable Yogurt’ by the name of Yo Pop. This is a set yogurt, which means you will not see anything liquid if you pick the cup. You have to shake the cup till you hear the curd break or pop. That’s when you know that the soft curd had broken into a liquid that could be drunk when you open the lid to drink this product. It is a drinkable flavoured yogurt, while the other range is about to come into the market is traditional stirred fruit yogurt, thick yogurt with fruit pieces in it,” he added.

Product Categories

The range that Mamie Yova has to offer is diverse - multi-layered yogurt, bi-layered yogurt where you see an entire layer of fruits to different layers of yogurts and fruits. 

“We aspire to reach a space where we can introduce products like these which will soon find a strong place in the dessert category. We are currently picking cues from the consumer survey that we have done. Two important perceptions we have identified are, one, people consider it an excellent addition to breakfast and second, they look at it as a good healthy indulgent snack and also something they can have post-dinner as a dessert because of its sweetness and fruits. Within these spaces, the two products that we have identified fit well,” Mani stated.

“Going ahead, we are trying to develop combinations that would attract kids and adults alike. Because in our mind, we think yogurt as a segment doesn’t have a particular age group. It is equally popular among a 3-years old kid to 50-years old adult,” he added.

Distribution Strategy

The first production unit of the yogurt band is in Palghar, 80 km from Mumbai, and the first market it is targeting is Western India, i.e. Pune, Mumbai, while they will soon scale up to other cities of South. 

“Delhi/ NCR is an attractive market in terms of adapting such a product because similar products have already found their due place in the palette of North India, so it’ll be easy for a product like ours to get in. We need to be sure that since it is a short shelf-life product, currently, we are there in the market with two weeks of shelf life, while we are working hard internally to test products with even higher shelf life. When we know that this could sustain for three or four weeks, I think we'll be confident to come to India's other parts, especially North India,” he said explaining it further. 

“Currently, we are targeting Tier-1 cities primarily because the first round of sale that we are looking at of last 2-3 weeks from 3 modes - we are there on e-commerce with BigBasket in Mumbai and Pune, we are on Nature’s Basket, and we are also in 150-200 stand-alone supermarkets.The kind of treatment that this product needs till it reaches the consumers is still available on these three channels. Secondly, the immediate adopters of this category are also visiting these three places. So that way, we are restricted to these options that take us to our consumers in the right condition,” he added.

Retail and Marketing Strategies

For retail, the brand is currently focusing on where the category moves faster. 

“The moment things start getting back to previous COVID-19 times, which is when schools, colleges, offices will start opening up, I think this product would have a clear demand in the places like these. Hotels and aviation as a business will also open up the opportunities,” he said.

Coming to marketing strategies, Mamie Nova gives out the imagery of a pleasant-looking face of a middle-aged woman who gives out the message that 'I’m an expert, and whatever I do, it creates pleasure in people’s minds’. In France, two decades back, they came out with a message that said in French ‘That only you can do this to me', which in short says that when you eat this product, you feel the happiness that only Mamie Nova can do it to you. We want to take this beautiful message to India to become a core messaging in all our marketing campaigns,” he added.

Future Plans

Mamie Nova will continue to focus on yogurt as a primary offering, and will continue launching new variants for next 3-4 years.

“Value-added dairy is under-penetrated, and with a market like India, every time you scratch some surface, suddenly the consumer base goes up by a few thousand households. So, this keeps us excited. We have a product that is universally likeable, healthy, and tasty and the aspiration is to reach more households and make it a frequently consumable product,” he concluded.