Business Analysis: Yakult

Strengths for Yakult: Yakult is well established in Asian countries, such as Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, etc. and is known to be popular among Asian communities in Australia. Also Australia is a country in close proximity to those Asian countries, so that it is a potential market for Yakult.

Moreover, Yakult is a probiotic product, its company emphasises health, so it is targeted at everybody. Yakult Australia uses the slogan “Every body. Every day” that is easy to target everybody in Australia.

According to the survey, Australians have embraced healthy lifestyles, especially women who are the main target market concerned about health diet, and also, Australian mothers care about their children’ health, and Yakult’s goal is bring healthy smiles to faces everywhere. The healthy lifestyles match the goals of Yakult, giving Yakult the strength to develop in Australia.

Weakness for Yakult: Yakult is a fermented milk drink, it also is a milk-based, and so it needs to be refrigerated, so, some outlets and groceries stores would be unsuitable.

Although Yakult is five bottles per pack, each bottle is too small, meaning it is not visible amongst other refrigerated products such as yogurt, and milk in the store. When people go to buy the refrigerated products, they may not notice Yakult.

Yakult is not really popular around Australia, some people even do not know what is Yakult, which result that when people see Yakult in the supermarket, or stores, they will not go to try them, as they are afraid to try unknown products.

Yakult and yogurt are the same products that bring health for people’s body, however Australians prefer buy yogurt, because yogurt can be eaten with other food and is cheaper than Yakult. Yakult can only be drunk alone, which is not enough variety for people.

Opportunities for Yakult: The advertising campaign using the Yakult cartoon character, which is already well established, and this cartoon character used to appeal to children will target children easily. Children can become part of the target market for Yakult.

Because Yakult is a healthy drink, it can be included as part of the breakfast, afternoon tea in pre-schools, primary schools and high school boarding houses. It also can be on the breakfast menu in hotels or fast food outlets.

Yakult Australia produces Yakult light, which can attract women who are concerning about health.

Yakult’s small shape of bottle is very easy to carry in the bag, it helps people who have busy lifestyle to carry one and drink it easily.

Threats to Yakult: There too many of the same kind of health foods and probiotics foods on the market in a form more recognisable to the public, such as yogurt, yogurt ice-cream, which is more popular for people, and also those probiotic foods, which are cheaper than Yakult, so Yakult may face tough competition in the market.

Advertising Analysis Yakult Australia advertises through various sources, which including: Television, radio, magazines, the internet, Supermarket – Demonstrations, and Point of Sale advertising e.g. posters, pens, bookmarks. Also every Yakult’s advertisings have its slogans: • Everybody. Everyday’ • ‘Get the Goodness in You’ • ‘Have you had yours today?’ • ‘Made Fresh in Australia’ Yakult Australia began in Australia in 1994; it has a lot of advertising. Yakult’s advertising contains its objective for public. (The print ads and TV ad’s description are attached in appendix B, C, and D) Advertising Objectives Yakult uses advertising to raise brand awareness amongst Australian consumers. Being the first fermented milk product on the Australian market, Yakult has not fully been accepted as a differentiated product. Yakult must use Advertising to inform consumers about Yakult, raising brand awareness about the product and its health benefits for people.

Yakult’s advertising objective is to differentiate the product from its competitors. Yakult emphasises ingredients such as Lactobacillus casei Shirota strain as being unique to Yakult. The company differentiates the product through claims that the specially cultivated Lactobacillus casei Shirota strain is only found in Yakult (see print ad in appendix). This claim is a strong point of differentiation for Yakult in consumer’s eyes.

Moreover, Yakult’s advertising main objective is to inform consumers that “every Yakult contains friendly bacteria”, which balances good health for everybody. Yakult’s objective in their advertising is to promote this healthy life for everyone. It is emphasising that Yakult is a healthy product.

Advertising Problem Yakult faces some problems in their advertising.

Since Yakult is relatively new to Australian consumers, they don’t know the product very well. Yakult must advertise to promote the product to consumers. Yakult seldom advertises through media channel, such as TV commercial breaks or magazines. This lack of advertising makes the target market unaware of the product.

Yakult’s print ads carry too many messages for consumers (see appendix), and doesn’t attract the target market to read those messages. The ad is limited in its scope, giving information to the audience that Yakult is healthy for everyone. It places too much emphasis on target women as the consumer. For example, one print ad uses a female basketball player as the central figure, seemingly targeting women only.

Moreover, Yakult’s TV ads face problems too. Many of the campaign’s ads show doctor’s testing the effect of Yakult’s good bacteria through experiments. These ads don’t attract the target market to watch the ads, and don’t give the audience a good impression of the product.

Yakult’s only emphasis through its advertising is on the “good bacteria”. The ads however, don’t talk about how it tastes, what benefits it can offer to people, which are important to the target market.