Digestive wellness

Let us help you enter the lactose-free market—from idea to launch

Tuula Hietanen

B2B Marketing Specialist

Tuula is a marketing professional with a focus on creating value for customers.

28.3.2024

Conceptualizing and introducing new products to the market can be challenging, time-consuming, and expensive if not done right. A competent partner such as Valio can smooth and speed up the process significantly. With decades of experience in creating and marketing lactose free products, we’re here to help you!

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Valio has been conceptualizing, creating, and marketing lactose free milk and dairy products for decades. We have insight to active consumer research in several different markets, we monitor milk and food related trends closely, and we have an in-house marketing team that has experience in branding and conceptualizing FMCG products. We have done it all – and done it successfully. And now we can help you do that, too.

We’ve got the milk. But what else?

Of course, you can get high-quality, sustainably produced lactose free dairy ingredients from Valio. And with the Valio FAST TRACK™ technology solution we can help you produce your own lactose free milk without heavy upfront investments. But why stop there?

You can also benefit from our vast expertise in launching new products in different market areas. We can help you innovate new products and product lines and concept them to your target audience. We are constantly tracking new trends, so we can help you figure out what could be the next step in your lactose free line, and then help you take that next step.

Valio can help you develop your assortment according to market maturity and category needs

With the globally growing digestive wellness trend, there is much need for new, gut-friendly innovations. Lactose free products are a great way to answer that need. And they are not just for people diagnosed with lactose intolerance, as products related to health and wellbeing are of interest to many.

Valio’s advanced skills in introducing new products include not just R&D, but also expert branding, conceptualizing, and communication. Most often, each of these efforts are done in close co-operation with our partners in the new market.

Here are our top three tips for marketing lactose free products:

Choose the target group:
- Narrow audience, with more specific needs (lactose intolerant consumers)?
- Or a wider audience of health and wellbeing enthusiasts?
Choose the positioning of your products and brand based on the target group:
- What motivates the consumers?
- How does your product answer the consumers’ needs?
Communicate your value proposition and benefits:
- Do you want to emphasize the concrete product benefits?
- Or do you want to build more on emotional benefits that can help differentiate the brand and build brand preference in the long run?

Example of a successful product launch: From education to engagement to empowerment

Our lactose free product launch to Sweden was a carefully choreographed series of evolving messages, from market entry to growth and maturation. And over this same period the expansion and advancement of our product range was introduced in three stages:

Education: The Valio lactose free product line was launched with a lactose free milk drink, followed by lactose free yogurts. With these products we targeted the lactose intolerant consumers and people with sensitive stomachs. Our focus was heavily on educating people about the benefits of lactose free products.
Engagement: The next step was to widen our lactose free assortment and shift the marketing focus to families with one or more members with sensitive stomachs and also to consumers interested in wellbeing. It is convenient and easy to use lactose free products for the whole family, especially when the lactose free products taste just as good as regular dairy products.
Empowerment: In the third phase lactose free is normalized and products can be found in all dairy categories. Premium products are expected to be suitable for anyone. Being lactose free is no longer a focal point in our marketing, and instead the focus is more on lifestyle and overall health and wellbeing.

Choosing the angle for your marketing efforts depends on your target group and the maturity of your market.