“I like the taste of cold

milk.”
“Milk is a healthful drink.”

“Milk is needed for growth.”

“I should drink more milk than I

do.”
“Milk is a good source of
calcium.”
“Adults should drink milk.”
 Case Presentation
got milk?:
BRANDING A COMMODITY

Group Members:
Bijayshwori Shrestha
Rashmi Baral
Richa Mishra
Sandeep Bajracharya

Saturday, April 04, 2009

 Quiz! Whiz!! time
*Best of Luck*

1. Jeff Manning was the executive director of

CMPB which stands
for..
 Consumer Milk Processor Board

 California Milk Processor Board

 California Milk Packaging Board

 Consumer Meat Packaging Board

 Quiz! Whiz!! time
*Best of Luck*

2. Which of these groups do not make up dairy

industry:
 Drinkers

 Farmers

 Processors

 Retailers
 Quiz! Whiz!! time
*Best of Luck*

3. “got milk?” ad in 2000 emphasized in

preventing which disease?
 Common Cold
 Blood Cancer
 Osteoporosis
 AIDS
 Quiz! Whiz!! time
*Best of Luck*

4. In 2004, California was ......Largest overall

cheese producer in the nation.
 first

 second

 third

 fourth
 Quiz! Whiz!! time
*Best of Luck*
5. California milk began targeting which
ethnic group in its
marketing campaign?
 Hispanic
 White
 American Indian
 Black
“I like the taste of cold
milk.”
“Milk is a healthful drink.”

“Milk is needed for growth.”

“I should drink more milk than I

do.”
“Milk is a good source of
calcium.”
“Adults should drink milk.”
 Case Introduction
 One of the most popular ad campaigns of the 1990s—was
borne of necessity.

 Jeff Manning: Executive Director of the California Milk

Processor Board (CMPB), reviewed reports on per capita U.S.
consumption of milk over the last fifteen years.
two decades decline & was accelerating.

 Manning only had a $23 million budget to be heard among

noise
got milk? revitalization
 A “milk deprivation” strategy

 reminded consumers of consequences of not having milk with certain foods.

 Positive response: more milk consumption

 Licensed nationally & became a catchphrase all over America.

 Successful in California & reversed the sales & consumption slide, while
consumption levels continued to decline nationally.

 In 12th year some questioned: effective sustainability

The Dairy
Industry
Three major groups :
 Farmers: the milk producer
 Processors: convert raw milk into whole lower-fat milk
 Retailers: sell the final product

By 2003: Milk remained the most frequently purchased grocery

item with U.S. milk industry value of $23.1 billion.
Other Distribution Channels
 Major sales: Grocery stores
 Remaining sales: stores, schools & food service
establishments.
 Latest threat: School districts policy
 1982: Five choices in children’s lunch including milk.
 1986 to 1991: 3.8% decline in non-commercial food
service milk volume
 1991: Expense in food increased from 25 to 33%

while commercial food service milk volume actually

dropped 23% instead of enjoying
 BRANDS VS
marketing
COMMODITIES
Complexities: Name, product categorization

Supply Side Differences Demand Side Differences

 Too many decision makers.  Changing a category versus

 Small budgets market share.

 Slow budget process  Influenced by other

 Push versus Pull industries.

BACKGROUND
The Beverage Category
In 1993 fierce competition among new beverages
 Media spending: Approached $2 billion, with over half of the
total accounted for by beer & soft drinks. Milk spent less than
10% what beer spent on media
 While soft drink per capita consumption increased by 80% from
1975 to 1991, milk consumption dropped by 10 percent. In
addition, milk’s market share dropped from 17% to 13%.
 What about
milk promotion campaigns ????
 Promotion Campaigns prior
1993
Traditionally communicated a three messages:


Adults: Milk
is good for you and should be a
regular part of the diet.

Teens: Milk makes you beautiful and strong.

Kids: Milk is cool and fun.
Focused target members drinking a glass of milk with brief mention of the
nutrients in each.
Early 1990s: Two dominant campaigns
 Milk does a body
good
 Good
1992 UDIA national fast
consumer food
survey revealed the acceptance:
•80%, “I like the taste of cold milk.”

•89%, “Milk is a healthful drink.”

•91%, “Milk is a good source of calcium.”

•83%, “Milk is needed for growth.”

•74%, “Adults should drink milk.”

•52%, “I should drink more milk than I do.”

CALIFORNIA’S MILK
ENVIRONMENT
Exhibit 1: Fluid Milk Consumption per Capita (gallons)

35 -
 Trends in 1993
30 -
Decline of milk sales accelerated
from 1990 to 1993 25 -
U.S.
California
 31.3 million people with only 21 20 -

million potential drinkers. 15 -

 One glass per week increment in 10 -

milk consumption profits increase
over $100 million per year 5 -

1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004

Source: USDA Economic Research Service

Previous advertising
campaigns:
 Effective in communicating health benefits

 Gains in sales of low fat and skim milk had come at the
expense of sales in whole milk

 By 1980s: Milk sales increased by 10.9% while population

increased by 26%.

 Average family included 2.5 kids decreased to 2.1 kids per

family.

 Increase of working mothers

 What comes
the next?????
idea like
a
California Milk Processor
Board (CMPB)
Very dangerous/dynamic/supernatural hero…
…
 Observed accelerated decline of milk sales from 1990 to
1993.
 Therefore, specified its goal i.e. increase the sales &
consumption of milk in California

Growth opportunity
Latinos: fastest growing ethnic groups in the state, heavy
users
 C
MPB
Group of processors to fund advertising &
public relations programs for increase in milk
sales & consumption.
Initiation
 Hired Jeff Manning as executive director
 Raised about $23 million for promotion
 Agreed to sponsor legislation requiring them to contribute $0.03 per
gallon of milk sold in the state in the 1st year, with slightly smaller
contributions in the remaining years of its initial three-year charter.
The UDIA Consumer Study
Probable factors for milk consumption decline :

 Proliferation of other beverages

 Lack of portability
 Lack of flavor variety
 Not thirst quenching
 Lack of consumer mind share
 Shared nature of consumption
Relationship of Milk with Other Foods
 With things like Oreos or any other kind of cookies or cake,
none of these would be good without a big glass of milk.”
- female, mid-30s
 At night with cereal, or for dunking Oreos.
- female, mid-20s
 It’s a pain in the a— because you usually find out (that
you’re out of milk) just after you pour the cereal.
- male, late-30s
 “What are Cheerios? They’re nothing. But you add milk and
it’s everything.” - male, late teens
CMPB’S BRANDING
STRATEGY
Developing a Strategy
 Invest in R&D to expand the number of flavors available.
 Expand the potential usage occasions.
 Cooperate with consumer packaged goods companies for
joint promotions.
 Develop an advertising campaign to clarify the health benefits
of milk.
 Generate a new image for milk through advertising.
 Target Hispanics and aging Californians.
 Milk consists of………
Need for new, innovative advertising
campaign
 Change in consumer behavior
 Break the mold for milk advertising, grab attention,
and shake consumers out of their “milk malaise”.

 Strong brand images by taking a more light-hearted

approach, which talked directly to consumers
Manning reflected back on the decision:

 The dairy industry has taken itself too seriously.

 Eating is a form of entertainment...the most
popular form of entertainment in California, the
USA, & the world.
 Get people smiling at your advertising and they
will look, listen, and, we believe, consume more
milk
Campaign objectives
 Change consumer behavior

 Increase mind share

 Halt sales decline

Target market

 “regular” users of milk—70

percent of the California
market

 behavior segmentation
strategy focused when and
where consumers drink milk
“got milk?” Creative
Development
 Used Deprivation Strategy “without milk”

 Television Ads
 “Aaron Burr”

 “Heaven”

 The “got milk?” tagline urged consumers to run to the

refrigerator and make sure the answer was “yes.
 humorous ads and well received by focus groups
“got milk?” Creative
Development
 The campaign broke away from previous milk
advertisements in two important ways:

 there was never any mention of how milk could

benefit a healthy diet

 milk was never actually shown in the ads (food

shown without milk)
Additional
Communications Programs
 CMPB ran joint promotions with major
brands such as Wheaties and Oreos

 These promotions included coupons, ‘got

milk?’ logos on cereal boxes, point-of-
purchase displays, shelf talkers at the
complementary food locations, and “got
milk?” check-out dividers.

 Billboards were used extensively to

reinforce the television campaign.
Media
Strategy
 Reached consumers during three
ideal times to communicate the
milk message:
 at home where milk could be
immediately consumed,
 on the way to the store,
 and in the store
Media
Strategy
primary focus on television and
concentrated on targeting consumers
when they drank the most milk:

 mornings during breakfast, afternoon snack

time, and late evening snacks
 heavy outdoor campaign to target
consumers on the way to and inside grocery
stores. “got milk?”
Media
Strategy
 Annual budget of $23 million doubled the previous
year’s spending

 This placed milk among the top ten advertising

spenders in all of California

 the campaign helped to compete with other

beverages for the first time in milk advertising history
Would the deprivation strategy
work??????
“GOT MILK?”
SUCCESS
 The campaign zoomed to a 60 percent aided recall
level in only three months,
 enjoyed 70 percent awareness within six months
 campaign in top-of-mind awareness in less than a
year
 The “got milk?” campaign quickly became a consumer
favorite
“GOT MILK?”
SUCCESS
 Exceeded initial sales expectations

 A year after the launch, sales volume increased 1.07 percent or

$13 million, for a total turnaround of $31 million

 Milk consumers jumped from 72 percent at the start of the

campaign to 78 percent a year later

 For rest of the country consumption declined over the same

period by 0.1 percent
“got milk?” Goes National
and International

 In 1995, the ads won an Effie Award and top honors

from several other major advertising award committees

 “got milk?” licensed to the national dairy farmers’ group

Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) who ran the campaign
nationally.

 In 2004, “got milk?” went international and the ads

began running throughout England, Wales, and
Scotland.
 National Milk Processors’
Education program (MilkPEP)
 In 1995 MilkPEP’s ‘milk
mustache’ with slogan ‘Milk.
What a surprise’
 Focused on ‘good for you’
 In 1996 changed tagline to
‘Where’s your mustache?’
 In 1998 obtained licensing rights
to ‘got milk?’
Products and
Partnerships
 products included t-shirts, baby
bottles, mugs bearing the “got milk?”
logo, and even a “got milk?” themed
Barbie doll.

 General Mills, Nestle, Quaker,

Keebler, and the Girl Scouts of
America worked with CMPB
Products and
Partnerships
In October 1998, the CMPB
established the www.gotmilk.com

 In 2005, the CMPB licensed apparel

maker MJC Corp. to produce men’s
clothing to be sold through Wal-
Mart.

 “got milk?” baby products were

expanded into Babies “R” Us, Buy
Buy Baby, Baby Depot and
Macys.com.
 Revising the Deprivation Strategy
• Drysville’s ad
“ Deprivation was only happening to “them”,
the people of Drysville, not to consumer.”

Milk Branches Out

 Portable and flavored milk products
manufactured, chugs “Milk where you
want it”
 “got chocolate milk?”
 Healthier types of milk grew; soy milk,
“got milk” organic milk
Reconsidered
Growth Slows
Exhibit 1: Fluid Milk Consumption per Capita (gallons)
California Class 1 Milk Sales in Millions of Gallons
35 -

30 -

25 -
U.S.
California
20 -

15 -

10 -

5 -

1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004

Source: USDA Economic Research Service

New directions in “got milk”
Marketing
 Back to health
 “milk is healthy”

 Milk, a necessary ingredient to stay healthy and get rid of

Osteoporosis
 Prevents PMS

 Launch of Gravity Tour (1998)

 Official sponsor of Major League Soccer.
 Theme developed “ Strength comes from within.”
Hurdles on the
way
 Independent Farmers Speak Out
 Won the Cochran case after three years and therefore
continued to campaign.
New directions in “got milk”
Marketing
Hispanic Consumers
 32.5% of California’s total population (2001)

 Developed tagline targeting Spanish speaking households as “Familia,

Amor Y Leche”.
 Launched ad targeting Hispanics “La Llorona” which won “TV Silver”

award
 Created a campaign around the Mexican drink Licuados.
New directions in “got milk”
Marketing
Got Cheese?
 Cheese consumption grew every year

reaching an all time high of 34 pounds

in 2004.
 46% of all milk was used for cheese

production.
 California was the second largest

manufacturer of cheese in the nation.

New directions in “got milk” Marketing
Expanding Distribution
 Capitalizing obesity crisis

 Improved portable packaging and variety

of milk flavors
 Expand distribution into vending

machines, schools, and fast food

restaurants.
 Child Nutrition Act 2004

 Restaurants chains like McDonald’s

began to serve milk with their meals.

New directions in “got milk”
Marketing
 What’s next?
 Focus on new demographics
 Russian Family
 Come up with fresh creative new innovative products
and packaging
 Expanded distribution ,or

 ……………………………………….what next?
initiatives. Does the CMPB risk
alienating its current consumer
base?
•Hispanic, being 32.5% of the total
population, was a large market segment
to be addressed.

CMPB risk was not alienating its current

•

consumer base as it was addressing

different market segments differently.
There are several areas of growth that lay ahead of
the CMPB-health, cheese, Hispanic and new
channels of distribution. Given the trends, what
should they do and how should they do it.

• Work on Flavours
• Packaging

• Expansion of Milk Products

• Target emerging markets like India and China.

Exhibit 4: Annual Expenditures on Milk per Household, 2002

180 -
Hispanic

160 -

140 -
Dollars

White & Other

Non-Hispanic
120 -

100 - Black

80 -

60 -

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

campaign? What can they do to keep the message
and strategy fresh in the consumer’s minds? Are
there other examples of other successful campaigns
that ran this long?

•As long as people stop responding to the campaign.

•Call to action  “got ......?”

•Continue with celebrity endorsements.

•Associate with sports and athletes.

•Sponsor different events.

•Increase the number of collaborations.

•Use of web ads in online magazines.

Thank you.
“got milk?”
Have a Nice Day.