Pots of gold - great video resource

The final episode in BBC2’s ;‘Foods that make Billions’ was shown last night, and told the story of how yoghurt has been transformed from an unknown hippy food into a super food in 40 years. It was a really worthwhile hour for any business student, covering every aspect of the marketing mix in depth, and with plenty of different marketing strategies, the advantage of being first mover or of being a ‘me-too’ brand, plus some interesting footage of early adverts for Ski and Prize yogurt, which will be familiar to some teachers (but not all, by any means!).

To quote from the programme’s website

” With access to the world’s largest food companies, this film from the Money Programme team travels to Japan, Finland, France to explain how yoghurt’s most important role has been to lead the food industry into the lucrative new market of functional food. The film explains how and why, today, all major food companies consider themselves less as processed food companies and more as health and wellness providers.

It’s a story of how our changing attitudes to food and health have both shaped and been influenced by this extraordinary industry. The story of yoghurt tracks a changing and diversifying Britain, along the way delivering consumers enormous choice, and business enormous profits.”

It is available here on the BBC i-player but only for another 8 days - but if you wanted a more permanent copy, the good news is its being shown again at ten past midnight tonight - BBC2 at 00.10 on 9th December - and is really very well worth setting the recorder for as I can imagine using it many times in the future.