According to Campina, the key to brand recognition lies in the packaging concept. Since the Spring, the company has been bottling its entire range of dairy in one line of packaging - a recyclable polyethylene (PE) bottle available in both 0.2 and 0.5 litre sizes.
Campina claims the packaging has already helped increase sales across core markets such as the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, although would not disclose any sales figures at the time of publication.
Quick to take advantage of the growing demand for healthy, convenient and tasty foodstuffs, Campina has introduced products which have successfully bridged the gap between the beverage and dairy sectors. For instance, both the Campina Yazoo (UK) and Campina Vifit (Netherlands) brands are among the best-selling brands of dairy-based beverages in their respective countries.
Campina's main aim in searching for a new bottle design was to find a bottling concept that would support the positioning of its dairy-based beverages as premium brands, appealing both to health-orientated consumers, as well as those seeking just a quick dairy-based snack.
Campina claims that in the 18 month research and development phase preceding the launch of the product, a series of market research investigations concluded that consumers of Campina products directly associate the feel of the bottle with that of a premium dairy product, even in the absence of a brand label.
But the real benefits have come from the fact that the bottle can be filled at any of Campina's European production facilities, as all bottling production lines are able to fill the same bottle shape, according to Campina.
Uniform filling is not widespread practice, particularly in the dairy beverage sector, and will give Campina a significant advantage in terms of economies of scale and enabling it to reduce both packaging and logistics costs.
According to Ria Feldman, PR manager at Campina, the bottling venture has been so successful in Europe that the company now plans to launch a similar line in Vietnam and Thailand, in order to establish a presence in the Asian market.
"It is hoped that the uniform line of bottle packaging will also be compatible for use in bottling lines similar to those already established in Europe", she commented.
Should sales in a particular region outstrip expectations - leaving it with a potential shortfall in bottle numbers - Campina also has the ability to produce its own bottles. In Belgium, for example, some 300 million bottles are produced annually by the company itself, reducing costs even further.
Feldman confirmed that productivity had increased following the introduction of the uniform bottle design, although she declined to give any specific figures, claiming it was "too early to tell"exactly how much of an improvement had been made.