Yosi Heber spent over 15 years in top-level positions with titles like executive vice president chief marketing officer and senior executive at Kraft and Dannon where he invented the $900 million kids’ yogurt category. The founder and president of Oxford Hill Partners in Oak Park Michigan where his clients include Procter & Gamble Hyundai Capital and Nestle we sit down to learn his advice on successful marketing.
Embrace Your Inner Child
Lest you think that embracing your inner child would detract from your professionalism you should note that it is this inner child whom Yosi credits with one of his main career accomplishments — inventing the near-billion-dollar industry that is kids’ yogurt. Yosi left Kraft (where “the best part of working… was choosing which prize got to go in the cereal box”) and moved literally down the block to Dannon where he served as marketing director. It was this “kid at heart” who invented what is now a $900 million market — the kids’ yogurt segment.
“Back in the 1990s yogurt was just yogurt ” says Yosi. “We thought we could segment it.”
The process from there was complex: working with companies in France and Sweden to create a sweeter culture coming up with pricing strategies and introducing this brand-new segment to the market. They came up with Sprinkles and Danimals — both of which catapulted Dannon to even greater levels of success and made Dannon’s light yogurt the number one best-selling yogurt on the market.
