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Chobani stays on top by staying in front

Greek yogurt leader Chobani plumbs the depths of its brand along with consumer desires to create exciting new package designs that reflect its goal of universal wellness.

The redesign project encompassed more than 120 SKUs.
The redesign project encompassed more than 120 SKUs.

While the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” may hold true for some things, it’s not something you’ll hear Chobani say. Despite the Greek yogurt maker’s solid market-leading position, it has vowed to continue innovating both to maintain its place at the front of the pack as well as contribute to universal wellness. Among its recent innovations have been several new trend-setting Greek yogurt formats, among them drinkable versions and indulgent yet healthy snacks.

Affirms Leland Maschmeyer, chief creative officer, Chobani, “It’s very much a part of our entrepreneurial culture where we’re always looking to grow and evolve, not only to have a bigger impact but also to have more significant growth in the future.”

In 2008 Chobani became the first to introduce Greek yogurt to the U.S. market. In 2017, in preparation for its 10-year anniversary, the company refreshed the package designs for all of its 120-plus SKUs with graphics that tell the story of its brand with authenticity and with a sense of fun—both things it learned through extensive research that consumers were looking for.

As with any change, there were risks: “If [a redesign is] done poorly, you can alienate the people who love your packaging,” says Maschmeyer. “You can almost not look like the company they fell in love with, and you don’t resonate with them anymore. If you do it poorly and inauthentically, it can look like you’re trying to be something you’re not. But that all comes from working from a place of weakness, maybe being a brand that’s fallen behind and is eager and desperate to catch back up.

“This can also happen with brands that don’t listen to consumers, that don’t design from a place of authenticity. So there are quite a few things that you can get tripped up on. But if done well, a redesign can oftentimes be a significant boon to a company’s growth.”

With these dangers in mind, Chobani did its due diligence during the redesign process, thoroughly examining competitive sets of products—both inside and outside of the Greek yogurt category—distilling the values and heritage of its brand, and understanding consumers’ aspirations.

‘Fighting for Happily Ever After’

Much has been said about growing consumer preferences for simple, natural, healthy foods. But Maschmeyer says it’s not a recent trend; it’s just taken big companies a while to catch up with the shift, and for consumers to force that shift by voting with their wallets. “One of the great things about Chobani is that we were there from day one with our simple packaging and our very natural ingredients, really trying to make it feel like it wasn’t an artificial product, but something that signaled visually that it was made with homemade, natural ingredients,” he says.

What has changed in consumers’ evolving relationship with food, he says, is where consumers are looking for food to go. In the past, he says, it used to be more of a supply chain conversation and origin-story conversation about the food and the ingredients. Today it has evolved into a wellness story—“what role food plays in their life, and what it contributes to their life.”

In surveying consumers’ perception of the Chobani brand, Maschmeyer says the company found that, while their product is yogurt, their business is wellness. “People were seeing Chobani in a bigger light than sometimes we saw ourselves, and that informed quite a bit of the design. What people really loved about us is that we stood for higher values—values you could taste and you could see in our products. We stood for things beyond the product in the cup.”

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INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Food Products at PACK EXPO Southeast