With marketing activity heating up in the supermarket dairy section, Quebec-based Ultima Foods has unsheathed a mega-branding strategy to defend its Yoplait fresh cheese and yogurt franchise against increasingly aggressive competitors.

As part of this effort, the company, late last month, launched a new English and French tv and magazine ad campaign, featuring the tag line, ‘Yoplait, Live Yo Life!’

Ultima New Product Manager Lucie Remillard says the tag reflects Yoplait’s brand personality, which she describes as ‘fun, energetic… a brand of vivacity and life.’

Remillard says a Canada-wide study has confirmed that Yoplait is the only fresh cheese and yogurt brand to occupy this ‘joie de vivre’ positioning in consumer’s minds. Consequently, the company has determined to cement its ownership of the positioning, and to leverage it to forge a deeper connection with Yoplait consumers.

At the same time, Ultima is putting more focus on the Yoplait brand name when advertising the various products in the Yoplait line. This is intended to help build perception that Yoplait is a mega brand, she says.

These moves are necessary, explains Remillard, because Ultima’s principal competitors, Danone Brands International and Parmalat Canada, are owned by international dairy conglomerates that have recently begun adopting a more aggressive attitude towards Canada.

Remillard says the expected upshot will be increased competition in the dairy case, which will squeeze out smaller brands and those that don’t receive adequate marketing support.

Mega brands that own unique, relevant brand positions in their competitive sectors will have a better chance of surviving in this new environment, says Remillard.

Ultima, which is a Canadian firm jointly owned by b.c.-based Dairy World and Quebec-based Agropur, operates only in the Canadian market.

Yoplait currently controls, at 23%, the largest single portion of the yogurt and fresh-cheese market.