I hate to say I told you so

Dairy Foods, Feb, 1999 by Jerry Dryer

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

For years, I've been saying that cottage cheese could sell, if only someone made it, packaged it and marketed it correctly. Take a lesson from your yogurt brethren, Dr. Dryer prescribed.

At last, some companies are doing just that.

In the 52 weeks ending Dec. 6, 1998, retail cottage cheese sales were up 5.0% from a year ago, says Information Resources Inc. This is no fluke; USDA's production data reports that in the first 11 months of the year, total cottage cheese production was up 1.9%, following a gain of 2.5% in 1997. The last time cottage cheese production increased in back-to-back years was 1976-77. Kraft has garnered much of the credit for revitalizing the category, and rightfully so, though kudos also are due H.P. Hood and other smaller marketers. All these companies have taken a previously moribund product and turned it into something that is practically jumping out of the dairy case into consumers' shopping carts.

It's easy to attribute the growth to the new and exciting products that have come on the market in the last two years, but branded leader Kraft itself acknowledges that sales didn't take off until it boosted its marketing efforts. For instance, Kraft has been selling a single-serve multi-pack line of Knudsen cottage cheese in the West for nearly a decade. But it wasn't until advertising shifted from cottage cheese in general to its On the Go line in particular two years ago that sales soared.

Kraft's big winner in 1997 was Breakstone's Snack Size, a single-serve multi. Last year's successful launch was Cottage Doubles, a single-serve, dual compartment product with low-fat cottage cheese in one pot and fruit in the other. Distribution was limited in 1998, but will be expanded this year.

Hood has taken a page directly from the yogurt business with FruitStirs, single-serve, low-fat cottage cheese with probiotic cultures and four fruit-on-the-bottom flavors.

Another new entrant is Westby Cooperative Creamery, Westby, Wis., which launched Cottage Cheese Fruit Mixes last fall. This single-serve flavored cottage cheese boasts a 45-day shelf-life.

Yes, cottage cheese is still as healthful as it ever was. But these marketers seem to be downplaying that aspect right now, eschewing the good-for-you image for one of interesting flavors and on-the-run portability.

For today's convenience-driven consumer, that tact seems to be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Dryer is president of the Jerry Dryer Group, a food consulting and forecasting company.