Why has the Got Milk? campaign been so successful?

CASE STUDY III

Promotion case

Why has the “Got Milk?” campaign been so successful?

Judging from the results of studies milk has a lack of portability, not enough flavour variety and not thirst-quenching or refreshing contrary to what sodas can bring. Moreover, one of the weak points was the lack of advertising. Admittedly milk is linked with other daily food products such as cereals or cookies, everybody knows that milk is good for health. But people aren’t aware enough that they could not live without that product. They are not conscious that they need milk to live daily. The consumption of milk has become more a reflex than something else: people don’t think about it until you make notice that it is an essential product, as the test shows it (by depriving them of milk). It was important to make people think about the “milk time”.

The solution was therefore to make people think about the consequences living without drinking milk. The only solution was to show people in the situation of “milk deprivation” in the ads.

The success of this campaign is due to the fact that it reminded people that milk is essential, necessary for their daily lives. This campaign shows the importance of this product in a household, because people consume milk at different time of the day and of the life but they are not conscious of their dependence to the milk.

As consumer have been able to see people in “milk deprivation” we can say that this campaign was based on a “pull” strategy and not to a “push” strategy. In fact people were really touched by this campaign because it made them think about their milk consumption and realize what could be their lives without it.

What are the current objectives of the “Got Milk?” campaign? What audiences does the campaign target?

The milk industry faced two main problems: on the one hand, the consumption has being decreasing for 15 years and that of the competitors (especially soft drinks) has being increasing of nearly 80% during the same period. on the other hand, people seem to have forgotten the necessity of drinking of milk.

The objectives of the “Got Milk” campaign were therefore to show that a normal life without this drink was impossible and to make them “think about it and answer the question for themselves”. So this campaign didn’t emphasised neither the advantages of milk among other beverages (because people already know them), nor the pleasure people can have by drinking milk, but, on the contrary, it highlighted the disadvantages, the lack of pleasure of a life without milk.

The aim of this campaign was not to say “soft drinks are detrimental to heath” but “milk is essential to health”. People who received the campaign were confronted of a “milk deprivation” situation or so to speak a sort of testimony, that is why they could find alone the answer, of the question the campaign only suggested, as it were the necessary changes in their consumption habits.

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Concerning the audiences, all of them were targeted, as the variety of ads shows it: An “integrated marketing communications campaign” has been launched with almost all the possible means: “billboards, print ads, sales promotions, joint promotions with major brands, and publics relations”. Even movie characters have been used for this campaign. That shows that there wasn’t a unique target but that everybody was concerned and had to be affected by the campaign.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of combining the “Got Milk?” and “Where’s your mustache?” campaigns?

What products besides bananas and cereal could be used to copromote milk? What are the pros and the cons of attempting to stimulate milk usage in situations away from the home?

Coffee, tea and chocolate powders can be used to copromote the milk because with these kinds of product the consumer use always milk, so it can be a good strategy to do co branding with these products.

We can imagine other products like cakes because to make cakes, the consumer needs milk.

That is why, in making ads in cooperation with these products, CPMB associates milk with the consumption of other products in the consumer mindset. It can become a reflex for the consumer to consume milk with coffee, tea…

5. Does it weaken the “Got Milk?” campaign to be so widely imitated? Why or why not?

THREATS:

1).It’s really important to stop the association “got something“ to milk.

Indeed, a lot of campaign ironies the “milk campaign“ and like that, the milk loses credibility…

The main risk is when products become similar : the consumer can be confused and lost. Moreover the fact of seeing lots of campaigns with the same slogan can cause a lack of attention from the consumer. He could logically get fed up with it. The ad and the message didn’t have the same impact anymore.

2).there are bad images of a product imitating the slogan „got milk?“.

For example, the slogan „got porn“ can destroy and dicredit the image of the milk.

This product touch different generation and that’s why it’s really important to dissociate the milk and the ironic campaign.

3).the fact that the slogan is employed by a lot of campaigns can be bad because the monotony will nerve the minds of the consumers.

Then, the potentials consumers can get bored by all the “parallels advertisings“ and that can discredit the milk product. The main risk is when products become similar : the consumer can be confused and lost. Moreover the fact of seeing lots of campaigns with the same slogan can cause a lack of attention from the consumer. He could logically get fed up with it. The ad and the message didn’t have the same impact anymore.

OPPORTUNITIES:

1).All the „parallels advertisings“ are working for you and promote indirectly your product. The first imitators of the slogan, had a good effect on the perception of the milk campaign, particularly when the milk industry accepted that Pocket Books use the slogan ; it gave this sector a new image : it preoccupied with educational issues.

2).Moreover ,if a product has a good image and reputation, and if this product is imitating the milk’s slogan, this is can profit to milk.

3).the short slogan who is taken again and again is good because the association milk with something create new possibility to think to milk!

the first imitators of the slogan, had a good effect on the perception of the milk campaign, particularly when the milk industry accepted that Pocket Books use the slogan ; it gave this sector a new image : it preoccupied with educational issues.

The aim of this type of slogan is to trigger a consumer reaction, that is to say an answer to a conative objective. The figures show indeed that such ads didn’t have such an important impact on sales ; the ads only gave a whip strike, but they were not aimed to be copied and to last a long time.

6. Should the “Got Milk?” campaign be replaced ? What information would the CMPB and its agency need to make that decision ? How could they get this information ?

The „got milk“ campaign is difficult to replace because this campaign had a big impact. Moreover, the catchy sentence is very attractive and simple to remind!

We know that during its creation in 1993, the results were spectaculars, and the people who reported consuming milk at least several times a week “jumped 72 percent at the start of the campaign to 78 percent a year later“.

It’s really important to know too that people adapt the fact to drink milk with an essential need.

Even if the slogan “Got Milk?“ can be read like a daily sentence as “How do you do?“ In fact, this could be the first question that we have to ask ourselves each day, like an automatism, it could be useful to renew the campaign.

The CMPB and its agency could replace the campaign at the lone condition that „Got Milk?“ slogan is old-fashioned and the consumers are bored with this position with the milk. Indeed, it could be dangerous to stay with the same strategy without taking in account the risks linked to the promotion of this product. For this sort of really basic product it’s difficult to make react the target radically and so the ad has to be surprising and captive. The “Got Milk?” campaign seems to have reached its saturation phase. After more than 5 years the consumers may not pay attention of it anymore. Using the same campaign during a long time seems to be not adapted for this sort of product. But it’s always a financial and marketing risk to launch a new campaign.

In order to gauge the current impact of its advertising, the CMPB should make a survey on the message perception of this campaign . They should also know the figures of milk consumption in order to know if it has decreased since the last years. Asking a consumption organism of the beverage market seems to be the solution.

7. Suppose the CMPB decides to replace the campaign and you are in charge of developing a new theme and slogan. Develop at least two new ideas. Be certain to specify the target the audiences, campaign objectives, message themes, and appropriate media to use.

Theme : the good effects of the milk

A teasing ad can be appropriate, opposing a man ( or a family) who is used to drinking milk and who is in perfect health and an hill man (or a family) who manifestly does not drink. Obviously colours and sounds will represent their opposite health state. We can also represent the happiness for the first person and the sadness for the other person. We can illustrate the milk consumption all the day long ( at home, at work, at school, after sport…)

We can insert a slogan saying:” make your choice”, or “chose your way of life”.

The emphasis is laid on the nutritious quality of this product: milk is essential for the physical balance and for mental state. Drinking milk rhymes with a good hygiene of life.

Furthermore it shows that people can drink milk away from home.

Target Audience: Adults between 18/55 years old, families.

Media : a teasing on TV and billboards because these 2 media reach a large audience;

Slogan : “Make your choice”, “ chose your way of life” and to symbolise the nomadic part: “ For a milky day, take your milk away”, “think daily, think milky”.

Theme : a fashion and plugged drink

The idea is to present a new image of the milk. We can give it a fashion and funky image . We can for example illustrate like the pepsi ads with a sort of clip presenting very dynamic and so to speak crazy people with an aggressive music (techno or heavy metal). The images can be those of people doing extreme sports which represent an alternative way of life. Or retire people. The goal is to invert the old-fashioned perception of milk and its habitual message ( health, purity….). We can create a sort of rebel attitude.

Therefore, this ad targets young people between 15 and 30 years old.

The message is to show milk not only as an good for health product.

Media : TV , young and sport magazines .

Slogan: “differently milky”, “extremely milky”