Recently, the author found that a yoghurt had been "roast" by many netizens when he was brushing a small red book.
"The first taste of sour was straight to Tianlinggai", "I came to Xiaohongshu to look for the victims after eating a mouthful", and "I thought it was spoiled after eating a mouthful" netizens sent "spicy comments" in succession. The last time they were treated like this, they might be fermented sour milk made from ground mung bean wow gold and Baoergen.

This yogurt brand, which some netizens roast is "disgusting", is Meiji Bulgarian yogurt, which is popular in Japan.
Bulgarian yogurt was launched by Meiji in 1973. According to a research report by Japan's largest advertising agency, Dentsu Group, in 2023, the sales of LB81 Bulgarian yogurt in the 400g specification still ranked first in the Japanese yogurt category, with a single product market share of 5.9%.

Bulgarian yogurt has also firmly occupied the minds of Japanese consumers. In 2022, Japan's largest ranking information website, Goo, launched a vote on the theme of "The Best Yogurt to Eat", with Meiji Bulgarian Yogurt ranking first in terms of vote count.

Has this yoghurt, which was roast by some domestic netizens, been accepted by Japanese consumers at the beginning of its listing?
 
In fact, this sugar free and sweet original yogurt was not less questioned when it was first launched in Japan than in China. However, relying on successful consumer education and continuous upgrades and iterations of its products, Meiji successfully achieved a reversal from an unpleasant yogurt to Japan's most popular yogurt.
 
The best reflection of the iteration of Bulgarian yogurt products may be the packaging design changes made at least 30 times during the Meiji 53 year period (including the first two years of unnamed "Bulgarian yogurt"), in order to keep consumers fresh with Bulgarian yogurt on the fiercely competitive dairy shelves.

And this is just a reflection of the updates and iterations of Bulgarian yogurt products. Thanks to meticulous product adjustments one after another, 51 year old Bulgarian yogurt still maintains its vitality. So how did Meiji adjust its products to make Japanese consumers accept such an "unpleasant" yogurt? How did Meiji update and iterate to keep Bulgarian yogurt selling well in Japan?
 
 
After two years of persistence, "Bulgarian Yogurt" finally gained its name
 
The resounding name "Bulgarian yogurt" was actually obtained after Meiji persisted for two years.
At the 1970 Osaka World Expo, Meiji employees tasted Bulgarian yogurt at the Bulgarian Pavilion. At that time, the mainstream yogurt in Japan was sweet yogurt made from sweeteners, spices, agar, and other ingredients. The taste was easily accepted but not natural enough. Therefore, when tasting Bulgarian yogurt, Meiji employees were attracted by the natural and rich sour taste of this yogurt and sincerely exclaimed, "This is the real yogurt!"

The R&D personnel of Meiji immediately thought of independently developing this yogurt and promoting it to the Japanese market. Even with a name in mind, it's named after its hometown of Bulgaria!
 
After the World Expo, Meiji researchers extracted strains of Bulgarian lactic acid bacteria from Bulgarian yogurt brought back from the exhibition site and began independently developing Bulgarian yogurt products. One year later, the development of the new product is completed. Everything was ready, but the east wind did not come.
 
Originally, the Bulgarian embassy refused to authorize the name "Bulgaria" to Meiji for the protection of its own culinary culture. Therefore, in 1971, Meiji could only name the first generation of Bulgarian yogurt products with "plain yogurt".

But Meiji was still unwilling. After the first product was launched, Meiji continued negotiations with the Bulgarian embassy to fight for the naming rights of "Bulgaria". The turning point of the situation occurred in May 1972 when staff from the Bulgarian Embassy visited Meiji's factory in Japan and found that Meiji's production equipment and quality control system had reached a high level. This level will not dilute the value of the Bulgarian yogurt category, but rather enable Bulgarian yogurt to better enter the world. After such consideration, the Bulgarian Embassy authorized the name "Bulgaria" to Meiji.
 
Looking back now, Meiji's insistence on naming is very wise. Bulgaria is not only one of the earliest countries to consume yogurt, but also known for its healthy yogurt production. At the beginning of the 20th century, Russian immunologist Ilya Mechinikov pointed out that the longevity of Bulgarians is likely related to their long-term consumption of yogurt containing strains of Bulgarian lactic acid bacteria. At that time, Bulgarian yogurt had not yet been commercialized, and naming it "Bulgaria" was enough to allow Meiji to reap the dividends of the "era of great health" in the future. [5]
 
Thus, yogurt named after "Bulgaria" was finally launched in 1973. [4]
 
However, Meiji did not bring good luck. Not long after the product was launched, consumers raised questions such as "too sour" and "Is it spoiled?".
 
New things that are ahead of the times are inevitably going through a painful period when they first enter the market. What Meiji needs to do is find ways to shorten the labor pain period.
 
 
Grasping both product and marketing, bringing "unpleasant" yogurt into thousands of households
 
Through two steps of product improvement and marketing education, Bulgarian yogurt has successfully overcome the pain period and seized a piece of cake in the Japanese yogurt market, which is mainly dominated by sweet yogurt.
 
1. Product innovation makes unpleasant yogurt taste better
 
After receiving negative market feedback on the initial version of Bulgarian yogurt, Meiji decided to improve the product.
 
Firstly, in response to feedback from Japanese consumers that Bulgarian yogurt was too sour at the time, Meiji lowered the acidity of Bulgarian yogurt. "Because authentic Bulgarian yogurt has a sour taste, we initially positioned it as' slightly sour yogurt '. Later, in order to meet consumer preferences, we adjusted the acidity while maintaining this positioning," said Yasuhiro Higuchi, General Manager of Meiji Global Dairy Business Headquarters in an interview. [6]
 
However, for Japanese consumers who are accustomed to sweet taste, reducing acidity alone is not enough, and more importantly, it does not deprive consumers of the right to eat sweet food.
 
What should I do to promote a sour product while offering a sweet option? Meiji came up with a win-win solution, which is to stick a sugar packet on the outer packaging of each box of yogurt, so that consumers can adjust the taste according to their preferences.
 
After sticking sugar packs on the packaging box, Meiji began showcasing and selling Bulgarian yogurt in supermarkets and fruit shops. This strategy was indeed effective, and soon the sales of Bulgarian yogurt began to rise. [4]
 
But soon, another problem emerged. Initially, Bulgarian yogurt was packaged in a commonly used "rooftop bag" for milk, and many consumers reported that the narrow mouth and high barrel design of this packaging was very unfavorable for scooping yogurt with a spoon, and using such packaging required that once opened, it must be eaten all at once.

In response to this, Meiji redesigned the packaging and launched a "fully open" packaging box in 1981, which has been used to this day. The opening of this packaging is wider, making it convenient to eat with a spoon. At the same time, the fully open lid design also facilitates the storage of unfinished yogurt. Not only that, the sugar bag can also be placed between the inner and outer covers, saving some of the cost of tape.

Jingfu also summarized in an interview that the packaging renovation in 1981 was one of the two main reasons for the increase in early product sales. Another reason is that Meiji educated consumers through newspaper and television advertisements. [6]
 
2. Advertising placement to integrate original yogurt into consumer life
 
In terms of marketing, the first step of Meiji is to provide consumers with advice on the consumption of plain yogurt in their daily dietary scenarios, cultivate the habit of eating Bulgarian yogurt, and the second step is to promote the selling points of "health" through advertising, so that consumers' attention is no longer limited to "delicious".
 
To complete the first step, Meiji relied on the traditional content carrier of newspapers. In the first two years of product launch, Meiji would publish advertisements in national Japanese newspapers every week, often introducing various ways of combining Bulgarian yogurt with daily dietary scenarios. For example, at that time, Japanese people usually consumed yogurt in the breakfast setting, so Meiji Association suggested that consumers mix yogurt with breakfast foods such as jam.

Even today, Meiji still does not stop such user education, and the recommended cooking methods have become more diverse.
On the Meiji Bulgarian Yogurt Club website, Meiji recommends 636 recipes to users that require yogurt cooking, along with the cooking time and calories required.

Yasuhiro's explanation for this is that many first generation consumers of Bulgarian yogurt have already had their own children and have a strong demand for cooking. Teaching them how to cook with yogurt can help expand the consumption scene of Bulgarian yogurt.
 
Another content carrier for Bulgarian yogurt marketing is television.
 
After the 1960s, television began to become popular in Japan, and in 1976, the popularity rate of color televisions in Japanese households reached 93.7%. [7]
Taking advantage of the television craze, Meiji began to launch some Bulgarian style television advertisements in order to help consumers associate products with the health and longevity of Bulgarians. For example, in the following advertisement, a family is sitting at a round table on an outdoor lawn, sunbathing and eating yogurt, as if conveying the implicit message to consumers: "Eating Bulgarian yogurt makes the whole family, young and old, healthy.".
The marketing that emphasizes the selling point of "health" has gradually made Japanese consumers accept plain yogurt. According to a survey conducted in February this year, the proportion of people in Japan who prefer plain and unsweetened yogurt has reached 59.2%. [8]

In addition to product and marketing strategies, seizing the dividend period of convenience stores and vending machine channels in Japan from the 1970s to the 1990s was also one of the reasons for the rapid growth of Bulgarian yogurt.
 
 
Meiji, who controls details,
Iterated to produce a popular item in Japan
 
Jingfu once said that Bulgarian yogurt embodies two goals of Meiji, one is to "feed as many people as possible", and the other is to "provide people with more choices". [6]
 
If Bulgarian yogurt successfully enters the Japanese yogurt market, allowing Meiji to feed more people, then continuing to maintain high frequency product iteration after entering the market provides people with more choices, which is also the key to Bulgarian yogurt crossing the cycle.
 
1. Functional bacterial strains are popular among Japanese people who fear aging
 
After 70 years of independent research in the field of lactic acid bacteria, Meiji already has over 5000 strains of lactic acid bacteria. [10] Meiji, which has a large number of lactic acid strains, has turned the development of yogurt into a "permutation and combination" game. By combining different strains together, Meiji can develop products with different functional values, which also gives Meiji a stronger "endogenous driving force" for innovation in yogurt.
 
Therefore, the use of more functional lactic acid bacteria in Bulgarian yogurt allows this single product to be continuously upgraded.
In 1984, Meiji added LB51 lactic acid bacteria, which have special effects on intestinal physiology, to Bulgarian yogurt and marked the packaging with the word "LB51" to reflect differentiation from previous versions.

Subsequently, Meiji introduced "2038 strains of Lactobacillus bulgaricus" and "1131 strains of thermophilic bacteria" in its 1993 products, known as "LB81", and this strain combination has been used by Meiji to this day.

In 1996, the health benefits of Bulgarian yogurt using LB81 lactic acid bacteria were also recognized by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and it became the first original yogurt in Japan to receive a specific health food label. [4] In 2000, Meiji also printed health food labels certified by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on the new product packaging.
 
Since the 1980s, Japan has entered an aging society. In 1986, Japan extended the retirement age from 55 to 60. In this social context, people are beginning to pay attention to anti-aging in order to extend their professional lifespan. As the first original yogurt to receive the label of "specific health food", Bulgarian yogurt has taken over consumers' minds in the field of "healthy yogurt".
 
2. Not only should it be delicious, but it should also melt right into the mouth
 
In addition to health considerations, Meiji is also constantly trying to find ways to make its products taste better.
 
In 1998, Bulgarian yogurt was certified as a "specific health food" by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, but in terms of taste, it still did not reach the tight and strong taste that Meiji employees tasted at the 1970 Osaka World Expo. [10]
 
The reason lies in the manufacturing process. The reason why authentic Bulgarian yogurt can form a tight and mellow taste is mainly due to "low-temperature fermentation", which involves adding warm milk and fermenting agents to a pottery jar and fermenting at a temperature of 37 degrees. In contrast, the fermentation temperature of most yogurt is above 40 degrees. However, the fermentation rate of milk at low temperatures is very slow, which is also the reason why authentic Bulgarian yogurt is difficult to put into industrial production.
 
Meiji was caught in a dilemma between wanting industrial production and maximizing the authentic taste of Bulgarian yogurt. This time, Meiji once again found a breakthrough through technological innovation.
Hiroshi Hori from the Meiji Research Headquarters found in his research that it is the oxygen in milk that slows down the fermentation rate of milk in low temperature environments. That is to say, if the oxygen in milk can be removed, the fermentation time required can be shortened. Following this approach, Meiji developed a technology called "mellow and fine fermentation" (ろやかか発 fermentation), which can achieve deoxygenated low-temperature fermentation and shorten the fermentation time by 40 minutes compared to traditional methods.

In 2023, Meiji once again introduced the technology of "instant and mellow fermentation" (くちどけけ発 aromatic fermentation) to Bulgarian yogurt that is over 50 years old. This technology is used in the pre fermentation process, as the name suggests, to achieve an instant and mellow taste of yogurt. [10]
 
In addition to innovating the taste of the classic Bulgarian yogurt, Meiji has also launched a variety of flavors and forms of products.
For example, since 1995, Meiji has been launching small 4-part fruit flavored yogurt and has made convenience stores the main channel for this type of product. Since the 1990s, Japan's fertility rate has declined, and the single economy has emerged. Compared to large supermarkets, convenience stores are the most frequently visited consumption places for single people. Therefore, launching small portions of better tasting yogurt in convenience stores has met the needs of this group of people, and sales have also increased accordingly.

In order to make it more delicious, Meiji also tried to expand Bulgarian yogurt into other categories. For example, candies, ice cream, etc. The Bulgarian yogurt flavored ice cream was launched in March 2022, and as of February this year, its sales have reached 46 million units.
Candy and ice cream are both areas that Meiji excels in outside of dairy products, and these two types of products are more in line with human taste. Combining the taste of Bulgarian yogurt with more "delicious" categories can help Meiji reach a wider fan base and even potentially convert them into fans of Bulgarian yogurt products.
 
3. I have changed the packaging at least 30 times in 53 years, and each time there is a particular attention to detail
 
If you haven't tasted Bulgarian yogurt, Meiji's improvements in "health" and "taste" of this product may be somewhat abstract. However, the frequent adjustments to packaging in Bulgarian yogurt can also intuitively reflect Meiji's efforts in product iteration.
 
According to the Meiji official website, Bulgarian yogurt has changed packaging at least 30 times in 53 years!

Upon careful observation, it can be observed that the packaging of Bulgarian yogurt has not changed much over the years. Sometimes, a new label is added to the packaging, and sometimes even the position of each element on the packaging is adjusted.
 
This is actually Meiji's consideration from the perspective of "brand freshness". In supermarkets, dairy shelves are an area with significant product changes, so Bulgarian yogurt is very likely to be overshadowed by newly launched products. To maintain the freshness of the product among consumers, it is necessary to constantly make adjustments to the product packaging, even minor adjustments can be effective.
In addition to maintaining freshness, the key packaging modifications of Bulgarian yogurt have also injected Meiji's other thinking. For example, in 1996, Meiji changed the previous generation's horizontal white stripes to a diagonal design. This is because the demand for Bulgarian yogurt increased at that time, and the products began to be displayed on a large scale in the sales area of supermarkets. When packaging arranged together using diagonal design, it is easier to create a sense of vitality.

In 2003, in order to reflect the "authentic" and "natural" image of the product, Meiji changed the straight lines on the packaging of Bulgarian yogurt to curved lines and adopted a more stable dark blue color to echo the product's "classic" positioning.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the product launch in 2023, Meiji has once again upgraded the production process of Bulgarian yogurt, which means that this "over 50 year old" single product is still one of Meiji's "fists" in attacking the Japanese yogurt market.
 
Why is this "fist" still so hard after more than fifty years? On the one hand, it is about creating the ultimate consumer experience, such as continuously iterating products based on consumer feedback and polishing product details; On the other hand, embracing technology and possessing over 5000 strains of lactic acid bacteria is the cornerstone of product updates and iterations in the future. It is worth looking forward to the evolution of such a large product with complete software and hardware in the next fifty years.