Cosmopolitan Yogurt?

Every now and then a company tries to break free from the chains it formed for itself. Unfortunately for most, it never truly works out.

In 1999, Cosmopolitan, the beloved women’s magazine, decided it would be a wonderful time to branch out. How they decided on the transition from the magazine aisle to the dairy aisle is a total mystery.

I’m sure the assumption was based on the readers of their magazine. Another assumption would be their belief in their customer's brand loyalty. Women love our magazine, and women also love yogurt. This is a win-win. What could possibly go wrong? How could such an ingenious idea possibly fail?

How incredibly tone-deaf…

I’m sure there is a good portion of Cosmopolitan readers at the time that didn’t even eat yogurt in the first place. However, despite the popular belief of some CEOs, most consumers are not stupid. Why would anyone trust a women’s magazine to deliver a delicious dairy product, seemingly out of nowhere?

This is a typical case of a brand reaching far outside its own area of expertise. I’m not sure what research, if any, was done to come to the conclusion that this is something that their readers were actually interested in. Despite their efforts to brand the yogurt as “sophisticated” (how is that even a possible status for a dairy product to achieve?) and pricing it well above others, they still managed to fail.

Brands looking to maximize profits often fall into this trap. Deciding on fully developing another product in a different market takes a lot of work. It involves market research, testing, and heavy investment. If executed properly, it’s entirely possible to create a successful story.

You can’t just stick your brand name on unrelated products and expect them to be viable long term. Trying to piggyback off of the success of one product without investing in another is probably the quickest way to fail spectacularly. That’s why the Cosmopolitan Yogurt venture only lasted a short 18 months.