For Lifeway Foods CEO Julie Smolyansky, heightening brand awareness and retaining brand loyalty is a huge push in 2015.
During Monday’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call, Smolyansky outline three key areas of strategic focus for the brand that sells Kefir, a fermented milk drink.
Increased distribution fueled by new product innovation and expansion into new retail channels is the first priority.
Second is heightened consumer awareness of the Lifeway brand and the helpful benefits of probiotics and Kefir.
Third is the opportunity for additional expansion into new markets.
“I have heard countless testimonies from customers who believe that Lifeway Kefir and its myriad of nutritional benefits have helped cure their mild to severe health maladies,” Smolyansky said during the call, according to Seeking Alpha. “Increasingly doctors, scientific journals, and news organizations are reporting on the helpful benefits of probiotics found in our Kefir that are proven to help promote the beneficial bacteria that helps support our digestive system.”
One serving of Lifeway Kefir, Smolyansky said, is both low-fat and high in protein, calcium, and other essential nutrients.
“It is truly a superfood,” she said. “Consumers are increasingly seeking healthier, better for you products, and we have built a solid and growing business upon these trends and will continue to benefit from this positive momentum. We are committed to executing on our strategic plan and I believe that we are well-positioned to capitalize on our tremendous growth opportunities in 2015 and beyond.”
In the fourth quarter, Lifeway Foods recorded sales of $30.2 million, and $119 million for the year (which represented a 22% increase).
“These results were driven by increased distribution of our Kefir across retail channels and improved brand awareness of Lifeway, which helped straighten our already dominant 95% share of the U.S. Kefir category,” Smolyansky explained.
Brand recognition and awareness are important components in the company’s long-term growth strategy, Smolyansky said.
“While we increased our investment in marketing in 2014, our marketing spend, as a percent of sales, remained comparable to the prior year period,” she explained. “When deciding what marketing opportunities to engage in, we carefully and prudently evaluate how we may optimize the return on our marketing investment. This past April, we launched our largest ever print advertising campaign in which our full page ad was featured in nationally distributed publications such as People, American Baby, Health, InStyle, Time, and Shape Magazine and resulted in over 30 million impressions.”
What’s more, Lifeway Foods debuted its first-ever national TV commercial, which aired during the 2015 Golden Globes and also ran during the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special.
“For each spot, we generated approximately 20 million impressions,” she said. “And on YouTube, there have been approximately 1 million views up to date. This number of impressions generated by this campaign surpassed our expectations, and we are thrilled with these results, which have allowed us to increase our engagement with new and existing customers.”
Smolyansky strongly believed that Protein Kefir is an “opportune product” and the company is exploring potential new retail channels outside of traditional grocery and mass-market retailers such as gyms and specialty fitness studios.
“This product is already generating industry buzz as a Top 10 product on the shelf floor by just-food.com and other industry experts,” she said. “So we are on trend.”