Comprehensive Marketing Strategy of Danone- with STP Analysis

About Danone SA

Source – logos-world.net

Isaac Carasso established Danone SA. in Spain in 1919. The company’s first business was the production of yoghurt, which was later moved to Paris in 1929 and New York in 1942. Danone, a company that grew mostly through acquisitions and vertical integration, quickly established itself in over 130 markets as of 2016.

It is still one of the major producers of dairy products with a health-conscious focus on the planet. After acquiring WhiteWave in 2017, it didn’t let its focus on dairy products stop there. Instead, it also branched out into plant-based nutrition. Along with bottled water and specialised nutrition, it also produces a variety of other goods, with an emphasis on sourcing all of them from regional markets. 

According to the most recent data, Danone is ranked first in fresh dairy products for plant-based foods and second globally in packed waters for early-life nutrition. Despite the pandemic, it was among the top 3 dairy brands in the globe by sales volume in 2020. Danone is the most well-known company in the USA, France, and China and operates in more than 120 nations.

It has achieved the milestone of eliminating over 1 million carbon emissions and manufacturing packaging that is 81 per cent recyclable thanks to its health-focused strategy and concern for the environment, making it one of the most environmentally friendly firms in the world.

Quick Stats

Marketing Strategy Of Danone SA

Let’s find out more about Danone’s marketing plan! And how Danone carries out the marketing campaign, etc.

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

People who value the nutritional and health benefits of processed and packaged dairy food items make up the prospective customers of Danone. 

Segmentation – The key drivers which push the customer to look out for this product are the reliability and brand image of the vendor. Middle and upper-middle-class families, mostly urban are the target audience of Danone.

Targeting – At first, the company exclusively made dairy items that were marketed in pharmacies, particularly yoghurts. Today, Danone is based on four businesses: Waters, Early Life Nutrition, Plant-Based and Essential Dairy Products, and Medical Nutrition. Their shared goal is to provide customers with cutting-edge, high-quality products that exceed their expectations at every stage of life.

Positioning – The company has positioned itself as superior quality and healthy global brand.

The key focus of the company is on delivering products that have nutritional benefits and would be focused mainly on the health-conscious people of society.

Marketing Campaigns

Danone wanted to increase the reputation of its Oikos yoghurt brand. They developed the Oikos SnackMobile, a canteen van that gives away free Oikos goods in exchange for a smile. Giving Canadians the option to sample Greek Oikos yoghurts at events across the nation was intended to improve brand appreciation and strengthen existing consumer loyalty. Through a selfie station resembling a spoon and a massive Oikos container, the promotion urged consumers to express their gratitude.

Overall, over 550,000 memorable consumer interactions took place, and over 480,000 Oikos yoghurt samples were given out.

Danone wanted to find something special for their customers, not just develop a generic in-store activation. Portugal hosted the in-store promotion in March 2021. Danone opted to use Cláudia Vieira as their brand ambassador in Portugal for an influencer marketing campaign. Tokonoma, the shelf advertising robot, assisted Danone in putting their in-store brand activation campaign into action and establishing a connection with their customers. Activia persuades customers to try out the products using a straightforward but persuasive message. The message of the campaign read:

“Psst! Hello! It’s really me, Claudia! Activia, my favourite and the number one yogurt with probiotics. Try it out! Activia, the number one in probiotics.”

Without even entering the store, the brand ambassador was able to interact with customers.

With an artistic campaign targeted at those between the ages of 18 and 34, Danone collaborated with Spotify to sell its Light & Free yoghurts.

Street artist Nerone, designer Morag Myerscough, illustrator, and lettering artist Justin Poulter, and graphic artist Neil Stevens were among the four British artists who Danone collaborated with for the “Light and Free Ink” campaign, which was active throughout the UK until March 31. Each of these artists created custom packaging for Danone’s Light & Free, and they also curated a Spotify playlist that can be accessed by scanning the Spotify code included on each package of the company’s product.

Social Media Marketing

Danone is active on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. LinkedIn is the platform with the most followers, followed by Facebook and Twitter. There are approximately 2.6 million followers on the LinkedIn handle. A few entries are relevant to the introduction of their new product, but the posts are largely promotional and educational.

The followers of Danone on Various Social Media are:

• Linkedin: 2.6 million
• Twitter: 37.5k
• Facebook: 1.3 Million

SEO Strategies

Source – Ubersuggest

According to SEO rankings, having fewer than 500 keywords is bad, having more than 1000 is good, and having more than 10,000 is outstanding. As you can see, donane.com has 70,719 organic keywords, which is outstanding. This indicates that Danone’’s digital marketing is getting a great number of insights.

Also, the traffic per month is around 170K+ which is known as outstanding. Hence, This proves that Danone is fueled by a foolproof SEO strategy along with working hard enough to keep the brand soaring in the Google organic SERP results.

Influencer Marketing

Danone engaged thought leaders and discussion starters to talk about the important gut health messages via Instagram stories, feed posts and integrated YouTube videos.

Influencers organically broadcast their vivid and authentic material on both Instagram and YouTube to raise awareness. The Activia yoghurt pots and the creative recipes that were shared across platforms became the topic of positive conversation thanks to this content, which raised audience engagement and improved brand perception.

E-commerce Strategies

Danone doesn’t have an eCommerce site but they are selling their products on some of the top eCommerce sites such as Amazon, Bigbasket, Amazon, etc  They have a leading organic baby food brand Happy Family Organics available in the US and has truly been a pioneer in e-commerce. Its success story can undoubtedly be linked to four components in which the brand has invested:

•  Prioritizing e-commerce within the company, both with resources and investment.
• Forming a dedicated and fully-integrated eCommerce cross-functional team.

Mobile Apps

Danone has their mobile app “Danone Mobile Learn”. It is a mobile teaching solution that unites gamification and content in the form of knowledge pills to enhance and accelerate your knowledge. These mobile apps are a great source of marketing and promoting the products with the help of learning and providing the customer’s information in an interactive manner.

Content Marketing Strategy

Danone is very active on social media. They have published various blogs on pregnancy, infants, babies, healthy diets, food guides, protein, nutritional values, etc. They also post informational content on their social media. 

They have published blogs on the food requirements of babies, infant sleep, and crying and thus they help new mothers during their pregnancy as well as after having their babies. These blogs help the brand to engage with the target audience and help them promote their product.

Conclusion – What’s Unique in Danone’s Marketing?

In the marketing strategy of Danone, we observed that they have connected with their target audience and are functioning quite well in some countries. They are quite active on their social media and they provide informational content and try to educate their audience with their blogs.

The strategy used by them by having food vans or through influencer marketing is working quite well for them. Their digital presence is really appreciable and they are working hard to keep the brand soaring.

As it is well known, pandemics that impacted every industry caused a significant shift in digital marketing. According to data on digital marketing, over 60% of people worldwide utilize the internet. Due to the pandemic and the widespread use of internet shopping, it increased by 20% over the last two years.

The reputation of a well-known business is crucial. A company’s brand image can be made or broken by its campaign techniques. Effective campaigns may be created with digital marketing, and any errors can be quickly fixed.

Learning about the expanding sector of digital marketing is crucial given its growing relevance. Check out IIDE’s 4 Month Digital Marketing Course if you want to learn more and expand your skills.

We hope this blog on the marketing strategy of Danone has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.

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