Some months ago, I was at my favorite Market Basket store here in NH, to respond to the refrigerator note: "when you're shopping, just pick up a quart of milk", when I realized that that simple task was actually wicked hard. I don't normally buy milk and was not prepared for the 40 feet of space displaying various milk products that I took these pictures of.
- it was hard to find "just milk"
- it was impossible to find "just milk" in the size I wanted
- I learned that milk is not considered to be all that healthy
Everyone remembers the 20-year marketing campaign of "Got Milk", right? Highly entrepreneurial, very innovative, certainly memorable and fun, the ads were grounded in well-known celebrities with milk mustaches. A great success!?!
Well, not really!
Designed by the highly respected agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, and funded by the California Milk Processor Board for 20 years, at the very best, the ads stopped the sharp decline, but never improved the overall volume of milk sales. There's also interpretive evidence that shows that the push to consume more milk was a factor leading to higher rates of obesity and heart disease in kids. If marketing's only job is to create more qualified leads which lead to more sales, then the campaign never worked...but it did stop the slide from becoming worse. Success or not?
One of the successes that did result was an increased awareness relating to both the value and the problems of whole milk. That realization then led to a sharp increase in lower cholesterol, lower fat versions of cow's milk plus a dramatic increase in very innovative alternative "milk-like" products. Success or not?
If Milk is hard to market, is juice harder?!?
I'm thinking about this marketing challenge a lot recently, and as a result, I found myself in that same Market Basket this past Monday taking picture after picture of row after row in three different aisle locations of "juices". Makes the milk marketing challenge look simple by comparison!
The reason for my new fascination with the broad category of "juices" is that I and a small team of highly respected food scientists are launching a new stealth juice startup. The studies proving disease prevention and longer life along with have been completed, patents have been filed and licensing and support from Tufts is underway. Work from my interns will begin this summer and will ramp up in my classroom during the fall when we will begin the design and tactics for our initial marketing initiatives.
I love co-founding companies especially with wicked bright people focused on the deep science of achieving better health through better nutrition, plus it always feels great to "be back in the game" especially given Tufts 'leadership in research in all our schools.
Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us
With our juice, there's no app! No electronics! No AI! No new software! No new social platform!
This is pure research adapting into an exciting product which will make a healthier difference. As with other successes of other innovative ideas, the work will prove out many of the principles of what "Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us" looks like.
Just a few things to think about this morning as we look forward to what will be a superb weekend of great weatha' and graduations!
Have a great day selling & marketing today!!!
At any time, if you want to discuss your own sales and marketing planning for June and the rest of this year, just connect for some quick ideas and feedback. There's no cost to a call or two, plus I love listening and talking about this new rapidly changing world of sales and marketing.
In the meantime, take a look at our 2022 edition of "Writing the Winning Sales Plan"
www.derbymanagement.com
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.
