FRI NOV 11 05

		Stonyfield's Story. Stonyfield Farms ceo Gary Hirschberg has seen the future of marketing and it has "less advertising, less market research, more guerilla marketing and more acting from the gut," reports Margaret Menge in the New Hampshire Union Leader (9/7/05). "When Coke and Pepsi spend all that money, they're trying to buy not only your trial and your interest but your loyalty," says Gary. "And you know what, it doesn't work for them. It only works as much as they're spending." The Stonyfield alternative instead features "a company blog, snappy packaging, handing out yogurt from Segways in Boston," as well as really tight relationships with retailers (see: Everybody Must Get Stonyfield, Reveries, June '02). And it all seems to be working for the $200 million company, the sixth largest privately held company in New Hampshire (in a highly unusual deal, Danone owns a majority of Stonyfield shares but Gary still controls the company). "Stonyfield's sales have also increased 25 percent over the last year, and the company has just begun a major expansion that will double the size of its existing plant ... All that with almost no traditional advertising." Gary comments: "The proof, first of all, is that on our website, we have 750,000 subscribers to our four 'Moos Letters.' Dannon doesn't have that, Yoplait doesn't have that, Kraft doesn't have that" by the way, if you haven't yet taken the Reveries/Cool News survey, "blog attack," here's the link). What that gives Stonyfield is an intense personal connection to its consumers ... not to mention a growth rate that is "four times faster than yogurt as a category. The others can't keep up." Yes, Stonyfield's "growth has dovetailed with a growing interest in organic and natural products: The U.S. organic market has grown 21 percent a year since 1977, with 'organic' coming more to mean 'gourmet." Oh, Gary says he'd like his yogurt to be 100 percent organic, but in fact Stonyfield "also buys regular milk, due, in part, to a shortage of organic milk." But Stonyfield's growth has also happened despite that its yogurt "is more expensive than others." Oh, although his plant is only one percent solar-powered, Gary buys "green tags" or energy credits to offset the rest of its energy use." But Stonyfield does donate "10 percent of its profits to environmental causes." Perhaps most of all, Stonyfield has been helped by "a desire on the part of American consumers to detach themselves from mass consumerism, which makes a small company with a good story a great sell." Says Gary: "This is kind of the mouse that roared." Tim Manners editor