Astrid James

Abdulwali Alaji

Ryan Rego

Sayyed Latif

Pralahad Naik

Group 5 : Brand Management

Case: got milk? BRANDING A COMMODITY

Group 5

introduction

• “got milk?” One of the most powerful ad campaigns of the 1990s was borne out of necessity.

• There had been a steady decline in milk consumption, and the decline rate started to accelerate.

• To revitalize the product sales, MANNING and the ad agency GOODBY, SILVERSTEIN & PARTNERS together developed the “got milk?” campaign.

• The campaign revolved around the “milk deprivation” STRATEGY that reminded consumers of the need and importance of milk in their routine lives.

The dairy industry• FARMERS – who produce milk

• PROCESSORS – who convert raw milk into whole & lower fat milk

• RETAILERS – who sell milk

• OTHER DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS – who sell milk

• CMPB – California Milk Processor Board

Marketing brands v/s commodities

The strategies behind marketing a commodity and a branded product are very different !

•SUPPLY SIDE DIFFERENCES

• Too many decision makers• Small Budgets• Slow Budget Process• Push v/s Pull

•DEMAND SIDE DIFERNECES

• Changing a Category v/s market share• Influenced by other Industries

The beverage categoryThe Beverage Industry

Previousmilk promotion campaigns

Ad campaigns• Adults: Milk is good for you & it should be a regular part

of your Diet

• Teens: Milk makes you Beautiful & Strong

• Kids: Milk is Cool & Fun

• “Milk Does A Body Good”

• “Good Fast Food”

• GOT MILK? Milk Mustache

The udia consumer study• The United Dairy Industry Association commissioned a

marketing research study, that attempted to gauge consumer preferences by conducting personal interviews with consumers of all age groups

• The UDIA study revealed certain factors that could be the cause for decline in milk consumption:

• Proliferation of other beverages• Lack of portability• Lack of flavor variety• Not thirst quenching• Lack of consumer mind share• Shared nature of consumption

Cmpb’s branding strategybranding a commodity

• Developing a Strategy:

• Invest in R&D to expand available flavors• Expand potential usage occasions• Initiate Joint Promotions with consumer packaged goods• Develop an Advertising Campaign to clarify health benefits

of milk• Use advertising to Generate a new image for milk• Target Hispanics and Aging Californians

• 3 Campaign Objectives needed satisfaction:

• CHANGE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR• INCREASE MIND SHARE• HALT SALES DECLINE

Cmpb’s branding strategy• Target Market:

• “Regular Users” of milk were targeted – formed 70% of Californian market – and they already had favorable attitude towards drinking milk

• “got milk?” Creative Development:

• “Deprivation Strategy” to increase mind share for milk

• Television Ads:

• TV ads built up the tension that was critical to the deprivation strategy• It used food compliments to promote the NEED felt for milk!• The campaign managed to make changes to the new milk

advertisements in 2 important areas:• Informing how milk benefits diet

• Showing complimentary food but NOT milk in the ads

• Print ads using the tagline “got milk?” have featured countless celebrities with the trademark milk mustache

Cmpb’s branding strategy• Additional Communications Programs:

• The Creative Strategy – Increasing milk purchase by using complimentary foods as a promoting tool

• The CMPB ran joint promotions with major brands like Oreos and Wheaties.

• Billboards were used extensively to reinforce the TV campaign

• All campaigns leveraged the food-milk relationship & capitalized on the advertising budgets of several major brands of cereals and cookies.

Cmpb’s branding strategy

• Media Strategy:

• Decision to communicate message at 3 ideal times:1. At Home

2. On the way to the store

3. In the store

• The CMPB launched a heavy outdoor campaign to target consumers on the way to the store and inside the store

• “got milk?” signs and billboards were put up in the locality as a reminder to purchase milk

• Milk was soon placed among the top 10 advertising spenders in all of California

• For the first time in advertising history, milk commodity was in a position to compete with other beverages

• BUT… Would the “deprivation strategy” work?

Cmpb’s branding strategyFirst Phase strategy: To Remind milk drinkers of the anxiety and disappointment that came when milk wasn't available at crucial moments.

Next Phase: Converting the milk-deprived emotional state into a phrase that everyone might instantly understand. . . Got Milk???

Goodby’s campaign's well-known grammatically-challenged tagline “got milk?” & milk deprivation strategy were widely used for television advertisements all over California.

Advertising Strategy

The Got Milk Campaign: What could you say about milk? It was white and came in gallons. People felt they knew all there was to know about it, so it was hard to find a strategic platform. - Jeff Manning

Changing the perception of milk: Thus changing buying and consumption habits

Push vs. Pull Promotion Strategy: Appealing to the masses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnIjgw5A-iI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKQf2AP-V3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu2Q714TuZ8&feature=related

Advertising Strategy

The budget for the turn around in perception $23 million/year marketing budget. On a per capita basis (California's population was Roughly 20% of the US),

Consumers between 18 and 24 drank 44 gallons of soft drinks, but they drank only 17.2 gallons of milk.

Shift in Perception:

Milk is boring Milk is cool

TOFROM

Promotion CampaignTiming & Resources, the dairy ran the Milk Mustache Mobile Tour promotion beginning in late summer 2006 and repeated it in spring 2007.

Coordination with MilkPEP, the dairy and the amusement park needed to take place several months in advance of the tour to establish tour dates, plan marketing materials, etc.

This may have taken a day or two’s worth of time in the months leading up to the promotion.

Promotion CampaignGrassroots/ Local Marketing Using the Milk Mustache Mobile Tour to Increase Milk Consumption at a Theme Park The Milk Mustache Mobile Tour and coordinating MilkPEP marketing materials (static clings, signage, giveaways) were provided at no cost to the dairy.

The dairy incurred costs to create artwork and place advertising on billboards and market umbrellas.

Free publicity from the “Milk Mustache” TV contest was invaluable. This dairy received an above average payoff from an average level of resources to increase milk sales in an unconventional milk outlet.

“got milk?” success• Immediate Results seen in California:

• The campaign zoomed to a 60% aided recall level in a span of 3 months.

• Enjoyed 70% awareness within 6 months.• Surpassed the campaign “It does the Body Good” in top-

of-mind awareness in less than 1 year.• The “got milk?” campaign quickly became a consumer

favourite.• The Ad Campaign exceeded initial sales expectations.• As seen in Exhibit 2, milk consumption increased for the

first time in years.• Califirnia’s household consumption increased every month

in the 1st year of “got milk?” campaign, except for the first two months.

“got milk?” success• “got milk?” Goes National & International:

• In 1995, the “got milk?” advertisements won an Effie Award and top honors from several other major advertising award committees.

• In September 1995, “got milk?” was licensed to the National dairy farmer’s group, the Dairy Management Inc. (DMI)

• Thus “got milk?” was receiving national advertising exposure along with the existing MilkPEP’s “milk mustache” campaign.

• After seeing the sales in California, the UK’s Milk Development Council (MDC) approached the CMPB to license “got milk?”.

• In 2004, “got milk?” went international and Ads began running throughout England, Wales and Scotland.

“got milk?” success• Products and Partnerships:

• The “got milk?” campaign started to fuel a cult of buying ”got milk?” licensed products like:

• Mugs, baby bottles, t-shirts, campaign themed barbie dolls.

• Partnerships with companies like Nestle, General Mills, Quaker, Keebler and even the Girls Scouts of America, led to numerous creative advertisements and promotions.

• Billboards with Girl Scouts, Partnership with Dole and a venture with Mattel promoted the campaign.

“got milk?” reconsidered• Revising the deprivation Strategy:

• To make the “got milk?” advertisements less familiar or predictable, they sought alternatives to the current deprivation strategy.

• Showing depressed people in a Town Deprived of Milk.

• Did not affect consumer’s immediate consumption.

• Worked on peoples heads, rather than on their mouths and stomachs.

“got milk?” reconsidered• Milk Branches Out:

• New Product Launch- Portable Flavoured Milk.• Midwest-based Deam Foods, invested $40 million to

produce Chugs- portable flavoured milk packaged in plastic containers like old-fashioned glass bottles.

• The company spent an additional $12 million on an integrated national marketing campaign to support advertising for the new product.

• By 1999, Chugs generated more than $100 million in sales to the company and contributed to 40% of the total growth in milk sales that year, even though it comprised only 6% of the total milk sales.

• General Mills and Dean Foods invested in products like soy and organic milk.

“got milk?” reconsidered• Growth Slows:

• The “got milk?” & “milk mustache” helped fuel a 1% growth in national milk sales during 1997, but were not successful in the following year.

• As seen in Exhibit 1, Milk sales dropped by 0.4% in 1998 and continued for the decade, then remained flat or down in the following years.

• Milk prices were increased to account for the dragging sales.

?

New directionsBack To Health:

•Target elders: Awareness of Preventing Osteoporosis, and other such health problems as the benefits of the beverage milk.

•Target teens: Featuring Gravity Tours, to promote “coolness” of action sports and the role of milk in enhancing athletes bone density.

•CMPB took milk’s health message to the next level by developing the theme “Strength comes from within” – importance of healthy bones.

•gotmilk.com’s website highlighted various researches on the benefits of milk like:

• Increases bone mass in teens and adults, prevents PMS and osteoporosis and improves sleep.

• Positioning of milk as a “super food” for strength & stamina

New directionsHispanic Consumers:

• Exhibit 3, shows us that the Hispanic population represented 32.5% of California’s total population, therefore targeting this demographic was highly important to CMPB.

• The advertisements of “got milk?” did not appeal to the Hispanic families, and was in no way amusing.

• CMPB finally makes the breakthrough and gains the Hispanics favor with the new ad La Llorona

• In the same year CMPB also creates a campaign around the Mexican drink Licuados, thus targeting Hispanic-Californians.

Got Cheese?:

• The growing Hispanic demographic also directly correlated to the steady increase in cheese sales and consumption

(Exhibit 5)

New directions

Expanding Distribution:

• The Obesity Crisis leaded to another area of growth for milk and a scope to send out health messages, and expand distribution into vending machines, schools and fast-food restaurants.

• Improved Portable packaging and introduction of a variety of milk flavors, led to expansion of vending machines. This increased sale of milk by 45% in 2003.

• The Child Nutrition Act, Mc Donald’s and Wendy’s also played a huge part in promoting milk sales.

Discussion questions1) Association that consumers have for milk: The USP for milk was promoting its health benefits. Consumers were drawn to the healthy drink and the promotion of the idea of having milk along with complementary foods.

Implications of these associations in building brand equity: These associations enabled the commodity brand awareness, brand image and increased the mind share of its consumers. The brand milk also increased its salience with the introduction of complimentary foods used as promoting tools. Milk was easily targeted to all generations, old, middle-age and the young, thus focusing on the Brand Feeling. All this helped to build the brand equity.

Implications of these associations in consumption of milk:

Consumption of milk overall increased by 1% in national milk sales during 1997

Discussion questions

2) CMPB Marketing Program in early 90’s:

A lot of struggle was required to change the behaviour of consumers towards milk and to ensure a rise in the sale of milk.

Their Focus was to enforce a complete shift in the way people thought about milk.

CMPB Marketing Program now:

Today, the effort that CMPB is required to put in much less as compared to earlier times.

Now its focus will be directed more on REMINDING its consumers of the experiences they feel when they think of milk.

Discussion questions

3) Hispanic Marketing Initiatives:

•The Ad Campaigns like La Liorona and Licuados, which were solely directed to the Hispanic demographic in California gained favor to milk sales from the Hispanic-Californians.

•No CMPB does not risk alienating its current consumer base as they had already succeeded in creating a strong brand image and mind share with its current consumer base.

Discussion questions

4) CMPB has several areas of growth:

•They need to focus on their future by concentrating on these new directions, like the Hispanic demographic and their cheese consumption for instance.

Discussion questions

5) CMPB can continue to run the “got milk?” campaign,

so long as they keep up their milk sales and consumption.

The marketing investments of the “got milk?” campaign will prove beneficial in the long run.

After a while Resonating the “got milk?” advertisement will prove sufficient to remind people of the commodity brand milk.

Bibliography

Discuss Queries