Quark’s entrance into the yogurt market isn’t limited to the US. With its combination of recognizable shapes and images, Elli washes quark of its novelty and makes it familiar. Customers aren’t reaching for Elli because they want to try quark, but because they want to sample a healthy chocolate alternative to their go-to yogurt. Rather than sell the taste of quark, Elli sells its special flavors as a protein-packed and healthy alternative to the companies the consumer already knows and buys. While emphasizing quark could highlight the product’s novelty, the container familiar shape and drawings resembles Chobani. Like Misha, Elli quark is sold in single-serving packaging, but the word ‘quark’ dominates a large portion of the container with a simple, sans serif font.
Fed up with excessively tart dairy, founder Preya Patel Bhakta embraced quark’s smooth flavor. Meanwhile, Elli quark uses their bright, feminine package to offer an improvement on available yogurt varieties. With their combination of familiar shapes and novel graphics, Misha targets a customer base that wants yogurt, but with a twist. The bright colors and bold graphics, however, stand out against with respect to similar sized containers such as Siggis’ illustrations or Stonyfield’s bucolic pastures and may appeal to a younger customer. Customers reaching for a yogurt might grab quark instead and realize the mistake only when eating. While the word ‘quark’ is present, its small size suggests that the package aims to appeal to consumers based on its similarity to yogurt. The company name looms at the top of the container, above a smaller graphic depicting the flavor (they sell a variety of fruit flavors in addition to plain). Originally pitched as “New American Quark,” their cheese is sold in single serving plastic packages, with a paper exterior that can be ripped off and recycled. Misha launched in 2015 when co-founders Kamilya Abilova and Daniyar Chukin bonded in New York City over memories of eating quark while growing up in central Asia. Now, Misha and Elli Quark are giving Americans a taste too.Įach of the companies uses bold graphics and single serving containers to riff on the Greek yogurt packaging formula, but it’s how they differentiate quark that sets them apart. It’s a longtime favorite in Northern Europe, and is eaten everywhere from Germany and Denmark to Russia and Kazakhstan. Quark is a soft cheese with a texture akin to cottage cheese or ricotta. Meet quark, the newest entrant in the market. With the Greek yogurt industry projected to reach a $4 billion by 2019 in the United States, dairy companies of all sorts are capitalizing on customers eager to spend money on low-calorie, protein-packed foods.