Guest Editorial
Why a Real California Milk seal?

by Stan G. Andre

Stan G. Andre is CEO of the California Milk Advisory Board. He is a columnist for this week’s issue of Cheese Market News®.

Nearly two decades ago when Intel launched its “Intel Inside” marketing campaign, many wondered if consumers would, or perhaps even could, care about the microprocessors that powered their computers. The phenomenal success of the campaign showed that consumers can indeed prize the components that add value to the products they purchase.

Fast-forward to 2007 and ask a similar question: Will consumers across the country really care where the milk in their dairy products comes from? We believe the answer is a strong “yes.”

The Real California Milk seal, which the California dairy industry debuts in October with a $40 million national advertising and promotion campaign, may look like a bold move, but we believe it is far from a risky one. In creating a seal certifying that dairy products like butter, ice cream and yogurt are made exclusively with California milk, we are setting out to do something no other dairy group has done on a national scale — create an affinity for a full range of dairy products from a specific region. But we first did our homework.

The Real California Milk seal grew out of several years of industry research as well as extensive discussions with distributors, retailers and consumers across the country. All of which caused us to realize it was time for a major shift in industry thinking. While consumers think local when it comes to fluid milk, they are open-minded when it comes to other dairy products such as butter, ice cream and yogurt.

We also realized that if anyone could do this, California could, especially given the broad appeal of California food products nationally. Our research reported that dairy products like butter and ice cream are more appealing to consumers across the country when made with California milk.

We also bring to this new initiative the many lessons learned from our work on the Real California Cheese campaign over the past decade and the success of our Happy Cows advertising campaign. The Real California Cheese campaign demonstrates just how much consumers like California dairy products. In the few years since we expanded outside of California, we have achieved distribution in virtually every state. Most of the country’s leading grocery retailers now support Real California Cheese, and they appreciate the coupon promotion programs we offer around the Real California Cheese seal. Several national retailers encouraged us to introduce this new seal.

Retailers also appreciate the effectiveness of the Happy Cows advertising with consumers as this campaign continues to grow in popularity. Last year, Advertising Age magazine ranked one of our TV spots as one of the top 10 spots “most liked” by consumers, and an MSNBC poll of 28,000 consumers voted the Happy Cows commercials as the best new commercial in the country.

The Real California Milk seal expands this consumer franchise to include all California dairy products. The television spots have been updated to close with a shot of a broad array of California dairy products, with a new tagline noting that “Great milk comes from Happy Cows. Happy Cows come California. Make sure it’s made with Real California Milk.”

The new initiative also is finding a receptive audience in foodservice, and several national and regional restaurant chains are already planning to use the seal in menu promotions.

We believe the Real California Milk seal is a direct response to a very clear consumer demand, and we are confident that it will find overwhelming acceptance both among California shoppers and with dairy products consumers across the country.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.