Summary
Is this the end of the functional food hype as the Financial Times suggested? Very unlikely. With so many successful launches and ever advancing technology in both identifying effective nutraceuticals and better ways to incorporate them in foods and drinks there is no reason to believe that the disappointing sales of Danone’s Essensis is more than discussed below: a result of a wrong distribution strategy and insufficient communication of a novel concept of edible cosmetics
Analysis
Hardly two years after the heralded launching of “Essensis”, a new yoghurt, intended to be one of the first cosmeceutical food products or edible cosmetics on the market, Danone has decided to gradually withdraw it again from the market, starting in France, to be followed perhaps later on by Belgium, Spain and Italy. Danone blames it on the recession and the reduced buying power of the potential customers. However last year Danone had already made some adjustments to the yoghurt by reducing the sugar content and introducing more flavors and a smaller Actimel like package. Yet perhaps the most important factors that have contributed to this marketing failure is the insufficient communication of the special features of this novel cosmetic concept and the choice of the regular retail distribution channels putting it on the shelves next to its own and competitors much cheaper types of yoghurts. Essensis is a premium priced product and with so many functional yoghurts already available on the retail shelves, it is easy to understand that it is the first to be dropped by the consumer, not withstanding its well thought out concept which seemed to have appealed to many women as initially the sales took off very well. However in order to be really effective it has to be taken daily over a prolonged period of time and this needs careful explanation as the full six weeks treatment with two cups per day would cost app. € 50 and that may have been just too much on the wrong shelf and in the midst of a recession. Essensis is a totally new concept of providing cosmetic ingredients. Instead of the conventional dermal application, Essensis is taken as a food and its cosmeceutical ingredients are absorbed into the blood stream and transported from the inside to the skin where they exert their beneficial effects. Hence Danone’s claim: Essensis nourishes your skin from the inside”. Whether this was the right slogan is a subject of debate, given the present failure of Essensis. A few years ago L’Oréal had already concluded that this was a promising new way of applying cosmetic ingredients and had set up Inneov, a JV with Nestlé to develop cosmetics which are administered orally instead of to the skin. They decided to distribute their expensive cosmeceuticals through specialized retailers and not in the super markets where more attention could be given to communicating the benefits of their products. Danone has responded very quickly in its own way to this new approach of edible cosmetics and it is a pity that it had to be discontinued so soon, Essensis contains quite few very useful and well documented cosmetic ingredients, e.g. a proprietary blend of cosmeceuticals, called ProNutris, containing green tea derived polyphenolic antioxidants, vitamin E, probiotics and especially borage oil which is well known for high content of gamma linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid which is highly beneficial for the skin. Tests have been run showing an improved hydration of the skin after the indicated period of six weeks. So whilst the technical concept is basically sound, the marketing concept has been wrong.
