Retailers should explore the marketing potential of premium milks with other categories.
Originally published in the free, weekly e-newsletter, Facts, Figures & the Future.
Retail sales of regular milk are less tasty these days.
But there’s plenty of potential growth news in the milk case:
Still, there’s a chance white milk unit volume could rebound - if a new Dean Foods campaign catches on for DairyPure, its new single national brand. “All of the milk produced at its 30+ regional dairies,” some $2.5 billion worth, will come under this umbrella, paired with Dean’s local brands, according to a CNBC exclusive. “The company will highlight its milk is antibiotic-free...and its farmers’ pledge not to use artificial growth hormones.”
The campaign likely won’t help prices much, due to the nationwide white milk glut, but at least the sector could protect share.
Here are specific results, detailed by Nielsen all-outlets data, including convenience stores, for the 52 weeks ended March 28, 2015:
As dramatic as these sales shifts seem, protein presence remains a common ground.
While big-brand battles may reshape shares within the milk business, Facts, Figures & The Future (F3) anticipates new sales opportunities for supermarkets. These could come from innovative taste, texture and flavor combinations between the new milks and foods popular to eat with milk. Think breakfast foods, cookies, pies, puddings, coffee blends, syrups, and milk-based recipes to start.
With more marketing dollars in the milk case, joint promotions with other food manufacturers become likelier too - and that could lead to multiple displays of different milks throughout the store, adds F3.
Some retailers have already established separate coolers for almond, coconut and other substitute milk products near produce to (a) associate with health, (b) get the higher-priced cartons in the shopping cart early in the trip, and (c) avoid shopper confusion and direct price comparisons at the regular milk case with this separate destination.