Danone’s Horizon Growing Years, an organic milk specially formulated for children aged one to five years, bridges the gap between infant formula and standard milk. This product responds to the current demand for healthy nutrition for children, both in terms of its organic credentials and its formulation. However, the company has missed a golden opportunity by not co-branding the product with its Happy Baby brand, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Valerie Lincoln-Stubbs, Research Director of Baby Food at GlobalData, comments:
Toddler milk in the US has recently been growing rapidly in popularity, and Growing-up milks is estimated to now account for a quarter of value sales.
Danone already has a foothold in organic baby food in the shape of its Happy Family Organics subsidiary, acquired in 2013. In addition to its broad range of meals and snacks, Happy Family also sells powdered organic infant formula. It markets its products for different aged children under the Happy Baby, Happy Tot and Happy Kid brands.
However, Danone has chosen to use the Horizon brand rather than building on the existing loyalty of its Happy Baby customers. Horizon markets a broad range of organic dairy products, and Danone has clearly decided to position Horizon Growing Years primarily as an organic milk product and secondarily as a product for growing children.
Danone may have missed a golden opportunity here. Co-branding the product as Horizon Happy Kid would have enabled it to exploit brand loyalty from two different user groups, and to bring its Happy Family range out of the baby food aisle and into the mainstream."
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