As revealed by FoodManufacture.co.uk, the Shape Feel Fuller for Longer yogurt (a thick yogurt made with hydrolysed guar gum and milk proteins to stave of the hunger pangs) has been dropped and replaced with Shape Zer0%, a fat-free yogurt with no added sugar.
Danone UK marketing manager Julia Redman told FoodManufacture.co.uk that while the Shape brand had had strong growth over the last year driven by "penetration gains", repeat purchasing rates were still low.
She added: “Our decision to remove the claim ‘Feel Fuller For Longer’ in the UK is driven by a taste issue. Our research shows that the main barrier to repeat purchase is taste. The Shape re-launch concentrates on tackling this issue.
“We have changed the sub-range name from ‘Feel Fuller for Longer’ to ‘Zer0%’, positioning the brand as a fat-free yogurt with no added sugar. This will ensure we still provide our consumers with a point of difference within the category.”
Danone: satiety still has legs
But the satiety concept still had legs, she said. “We strongly believe the satiety benefit is highly relevant for consumers. And we stand by our science around ‘appetite reduction’, for which a dossier has been submitted to EFSA [European Food Safety Authority].”
Feel fuller for longer was originally launched in 2006 as Shape 'Lasting Satisfaction' to cash in on a growing interest in appetite control as a weight management tool.
However, the fact that brand managers opted to change its name just two years after launch in a bid to simplify the message prompted rumours that Danone was struggling to get its message across.
Shape Zer0% has a different formulation to Feel Fuller for Longer (no guar gum).