What do Cocoberry, Amul and McDonald’s have in common? They are all offering smaller packs with lower price tags to penetrate new markets and jack up the volumes of products in the Indian cities.

Mr G.S. Bhalla, CEO and Founder of frozen flavoured yogurt maker Cocoberry, says the yogurt market is moving up with “innovative pricing” to capture wider target customers.

“We have not reduced prices in absolute terms but offered lower price portions. Recently, we have reduced the yogurt pack’s weight from 90 gm to 60 gm with price tags correspondingly going down from Rs 54 to Rs 30.”

He told Business Line that while Amul offered factory-packed yoghurt, Cocoberry offers fresh product in retail. “Amul, too, now offers 100 gm of yogurt for Rs 30.”

This innovative pricing, he said, is expected to make companies penetrate fresh markets through affordable prices as more consumers can taste the new products.

While the Gurgaon-based Cocoberry had launched yogurt in 2009, Amul did so in 2011. Mr Bhalla said the market for these products is nascent in India but is expected to go up to Rs 300 crore in the next five years.

At present, Amul and Cocoberry are the only major players in the country, he said, adding that his company currently has an 85 per cent market share in India. While Amul appeals to masses, Cocoberry is attempting to penetrate a ‘class market’.

With a turnover of Rs 11,668 crore in 2011-12, Amul has around 6,500 outlets and plans to add another 1,000 this fiscal.

Cocoberry, with a turnover of nearly Rs 16 crore in 2011-12, currently has 50 outlets in nine cities and plans to introduce two retail formats, Café Cocoberry and Cocoberry2Go.

According to market sources, the global food chain giant McDonald’s also lowered the prices of some products to reach wider audience across the world.

The same-store sales in the US market increased 3.7 per cent in the April-June 2011 quarter year-on-year as more customers flocked to its outlets.

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