Storyboard: Ice cream - with a healthy difference

The problem: Ice cream is never hard to find in a dairy-producing nation, and a 2-litre tub will often sell for less than 2 litres of milk, says John Murphy, managing director of The New Zealand Ice Cream Company, the country's fourth largest producer.

Murphy decided that a point of difference was required for the company to continue to compete effectively.

Last year's takeover of the Woolworths supermarket group by Progressive Enterprises also encouraged the company to move into a new part of the market more than 30 per cent of its business had been producing Woolworths corporate brands, First Choice and No Frills.

The point of difference: In the company's bid to develop a creative and innovative offering which would stand out in the market, it turned its attention to products that offered a healthier alternative and could, for example, attract the Heart Foundation tick, which provides an assurance that the product is low in fat, salt and sugar.

"Right across the Western World we were suddenly seeing things being added to standard food products for health benefits and the one we saw really standing out was calcium," said Murphy.

So the company developed the Calci-Lite range of ice creams, with double the calcium content of standard ice cream a standard two-scoop serving providing 30 per cent of the recommended daily calcium intake.

The execution: Murphy said because of recognition that calcium deficiency was a major health issue for adults, the company had no problem attracting endorsements for the product from, for example, health and sports dietician Jeni Pearce.

It also received a "phenomenal response" from supermarket shoppers during in-store tastings.

The result: Although Calci-Lite has not been on the market long, Murphy said 75 per cent of supermarkets now had the product in their freezers.

"People who have already made the change to trim milks or calcium-enriched milks have really taken to the product extremely well."

The lessons: Murphy said the company had learned major lessons about product development through its Calci-Lite experience. It had planned to launch the product before Christmas last year, but complications meant a delay of several months.

Although the delay meant the product was launched in the low-sales winter season, interest in calcium-enriched products was at an all-time high, Murphy said.

The development also generated an idea for a new product, which would be released in about a month.