Steven Wallace
Case Study #3: The Dannon Company
Southern New Hamphire University
Due May 19, 2013

Introduction Danone, Dannon’s parent company, was one of the largest health-focused food companies in the world. Danone traced its heritage back to 1919 in Barcelona, Spain, when Isaac Carasso wanted to create yogurt with inherent health benefits. Through the years and different lines of succession, Danone continued to grow, but never lost its core vision of providing better health to people through their products.
When this case was written, Danone’s global business focus was on fresh dairy (Activia yogurt), bottled water (Evian), medical nutrition, and baby nutrition. Danone
(Lester, 2010)
One of the most telling findings in the 2010 CSR branding survey was the importance of tying social responsibility to a product. Its conclusion was consumers are more likely to select the product with an added social benefit hen given a choice between similar products. (Lester, 2010)
Research shows a consumer’s loyalty to specific products also has an impact on a company’s overall brand. In an online article of The Economist, the author writes about the importance of brand in the context of specific product purchase. Once customers trust a certain product, they tend to look for the brand associated with it when selecting dissimilar products or services. (Case for Brands, 2001)
This all being said, the flip side of the power and influence of a brand is its growing vulnerability – a single failed advertising campaign or hint of scandal can send customers fleeing. According to another article, “brands—and the multinationals that are increasingly identified with them—are not more powerful, but more vulnerable. Consumers will tolerate a lousy product for far longer than they will tolerate a lousy lifestyle.” (Who’s wearing the trousers, 2001)
Pulling all of these points together lead me to the following conclusion:
If Dannon intends to tie CSR into its product marketing, it should do so at the individual product level, and
If Dannon intends to include CSR as part of its marketing and communications strategy, it needs to be