Geoff Platt talked to Vivien at the Global Dairy Congress in Oslo earlier this year.
What is MilkPEP?
Vivien Godfrey: MilkPEP is a commodity ‘check-off’ programme authorised by an act of Congress in 1990. MilkPEP is one of around 18 similar programmes in the US that comprise various agri-commodities such as dairy, pork, beef, and other agricultural products such as watermelon and blueberries.
Why was MilkPEP created?
Godfrey: US per person consumption of milk began to decline slowly and steadily from around 1960, due primarily to the increased marketing efforts by manufacturers of soft drinks and the changing lifestyles of Americans.
In the early 1990s, milk processors saw the need to develop a programme to accomplish two goals. First, to better inform consumers about the benefits of milk and to improve the image of milk in the minds of consumers. Second, to identify opportunities and methods to help overcome milk’s product and distribution challenges.
Now, almost 25 years later, we have seen the benefits of the industry’s successful image programme (the National Milk Moustache ‘Got Milk?’ Campaign), as well as significant progress in retooling our industry to be a competitive player in the world of beverages, with new packaging, flavours and products.
How is MilkPEP funded and run?
Godfrey: MilkPEP is funded through a 20-cents/hundredweight assessment on all US fluid milk processors that package at least three million pounds of Class 1 milk a month. The resulting annual budget is about $104m.
MilkPEP is overseen by a 20-member board of directors that, in conjunction with oversight from the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service, monitor the programme.
Day-to-day operations are carried out by a staff of 11 people who are tasked with creating the strategies behind our marketing campaigns.
We also use several promotional and advertising agencies to assist us in our efforts.
What are your aims?
Godfrey: Milk processors created MilkPEP to help them increase the sales of fluid milk products in the US. The strategy for achieving this goal is refined each year by the board and staff, and has evolved significantly since the programme’s inception in 1994.
A key to MilkPEP’s mission is to use its limited funds strategically to reach the audiences that are most likely to drink more milk.
?What are your current projects?
Godfrey: In 2012, MilkPEP began a multi- year, occasion-based marketing strategy to drive volume and value, and maximise continuity, all to change consumer behaviour.
MilkPEP will focus the majority of the marketing efforts on just two prime usage occasions: breakfast at home, and post workout: refuel with chocolate milk.
Breakfast at home is the primary occasion opportunity to grow milk sales, as it represents the time of day when over half of daily milk consumption occurs. And because of its size, it is an occasion that sees consumption dramatically impacted by changes in consumer habits such as eating breakfast on the run, or having yogurt or breakfast bars with water instead of a glass of milk or cereal in the morning.
?What is ‘The Breakfast Project’?
Godfrey: The Breakfast Project is a multi-year campaign that will encourage consumers to establish a breakfast-at-home routine that includes milk. The goal of The Breakfast Project is to keep the milk and breakfast conversation flowing all year long by creating real-time content and conversation about breakfast at home.
Our website will serve as a content hub or home base for all MilkPEP Breakfast at Home consumer content, including tips, articles, recipes, videos, statistics, celebrities, experts and more.
Throughout 2012, Salma Hayek will represent The Breakfast Project to both general market and Hispanic mums for themselves and their families. Salma will promote the idea that ‘every good day starts with milk’ across all media, from TV to print and from PR to digital channels.
We know that we can’t only talk to consumers if we want the project to come to life, so we are also working to actively involve the retailers. Specifically, we are doing some studies to demonstrate to retailers the importance of building their own breakfast sales strategies.
52% of all milk is consumed during breakfast. Add in the fact that milk is a catalyst for shopping trips and a staple that increases basket rings and you’ll see why building a breakfast-at-home occasion is the best option for increasing sales at stores.
?Where do the ideas come from and who decides what to run with?
Godfrey: The genesis for our occasion- based focus came from the findings from our long-range planning initiative that revealed that ‘time and place’ play a primary role in the decisions that people make with respect to beverages, including milk.
Research, such as the LRP work done with The Monitor Group, is always the foundation from which creative concepts and promotional ideas are generated. MilkPEP, in tandem with our agency partners, comes up with these ideas and the board makes the final determination on whether they should be implemented.
What about the subject of flavoured milk in schools?
Godfrey: About 8% of all fluid milk in the US is consumed in schools. Approximately 70% of that is flavoured milk: chocolate, strawberry, banana and vanilla. Unfortunately, the 2011-2012 Annual School Milk Survey reports that school milk usage has actually dropped nearly 4% over the past three years.
Why the drop? Some schools have removed flavoured milk in an attempt to address concerns with childhood obesity, but this move comes with alarming nutritional fallout. Milk consumption plummets by a dramatic 35% when flavoured milk is eliminated. Subsequently, many children miss out on the nutrients milk provides, and the nutrients kids aren’t getting by drinking milk can prove hard and costly to replace.
The bottom line is that kids drink more milk when they can choose flavoured milk. The nine essential nutrients in white and flavoured milks are a healthy alternative to nutrient-void beverages.
Plus, research shows that children who drink flavoured milk satisfy more nutritional needs, do not consume more added sugar or fat, and are not heavier than non-milk drinkers.
MilkPEP will continue to support schools in their efforts to provide choices that boost consumption of nutrient-rich foods.
What is your biggest challenge?
Godfrey: All food and beverage manufacturers face the same challenge. There is more competition in the marketplace for the average consumer’s taste buds than ever before. So this huge wealth of competition is really our biggest challenge, and convincing consumers that dairy should be an essential part of their diet is obviously what we are trying to do.
Milk processors must offer exciting, new, delicious and affordable products and make sure they get shelf space in all sorts of retail and foodservice outlets. We also need compelling and convincing marketing activities to make sure we can compete for our share of taste buds.
How do you see the future for milk and dairy?
Godfrey: We face the same tough challenges being faced by every food and beverage company: the growing choice that consumers have. The only way we can win is by making sure our products are delicious, affordable, interesting to consumers and that we offer them up in the right places at the right time.
It’s also essential that we continue to offer innovative marketing campaigns so that consumers keep milk top-of-mind and continue to choose our products over other products. For instance, with our latest promotion, ‘Like Her, Like Me’ in partnership with Seventeen magazine, MilkPEP is celebrating how mothers and daughters influence each other on everything from style to nutrition, and how breakfast with milk makes them stronger together.
Mother-daughter duos from across the country submitted two-minute videos telling their story for a chance to co-star in a Milk Moustache ad in the December 2012 issue of Seventeen magazine.
We also have Proyecto Desayuno, which targets Hispanic consumers and focuses on nutrition news about milk, along with tips, tools and recipes.
For nutritionists, educators and retailers, we have two dedicated sites: MilkDelivers.org and GotMilkSales.org. Gotchocolatemilk.com is geared toward athletes and is a repository for information on refuelling with chocolate.
Finally, we run seasonal promotions to encourage increased milk sales at retail. For instance, Halloween is one of the most successful programmes for increasing chocolate milk sales each year.
Who came up with the idea for the iconic milk moustache?
Godfrey: Our Act of Congress was passed in 1990 and the first four milk moustache advertisements didn’t appear until 1996. The advertising agency that produced them then was Bozell in New York (this agency was later absorbed by Lowe & partners and more recently Deutsch), and we continue to work with them. However, there wasn’t a single person who came up with the idea.
As I mentioned earlier, MilkPEP works in tandem with our board and agency partners and we collectively discuss ideas and determine who would be a good fit for the campaign.
Sometimes, the celebrities find us. Last year, for instance, Harrison Ford was having some photographs taken by one of the photographers we often work with – Tim White – and he asked if he could be a part of the campaign. Of course, we were delighted to have him be a part of the milk moustache family.
Testimonials are one of the most successful types of advertising. Celebrity testimonials are the most successful, as many consumers look up to them as role models and want to emulate what they’re doing. So, we find it’s good to use celebrities to say why they drink milk and why they want to be part of the campaign.
Using new celebrities keeps the campaign fresh and so we have constant newsworthiness and that keeps consumers interested.
Geoff Platt is a freelance editor & journalist, specialising in dairy.
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