I read some research that the selling of more chocolate milk in schools has been a a long-standing business goal of the dairy industry.
Now we will see in June the selling of more fat and whole milk, with and without flavors.
I have mixed feelings on this.
I feel we all see how school kids and adults are heavier, weigh more.
From Center of Disease Control, Americans weigh more and have higher body mass indices (BMI) than in previous decades, and also weigh more than citizens and residents in other countries.
The facts and data shows the average American adult has gained over 15 pounds in the last 20 years, with obesity rates now affecting over 40% of adults.
Farmers and others want to sell more milk and there had been nearly a drop of 50% in milk sales in more than 50 years.
The figures are per-capita consumption has dropped 47% since 1975. !975 was the year I started teaching. Milk was a bigger deal for families back then.
But what’s new?
Effective next month on June 8th the federal governments and agencies are expanding fluid milk options in child nutrition programs, in other words, Congress is allowing in our schools whole milk and full-fat chocolate milk. They want or are allowing more whole milk to be sold.
More calories, fat and sugars.
From our USDA
Nonfat plain milk: 84 calories, 0.1 grams saturated fat, 12 grams sugars
Nonfat chocolate milk: 160 calories, 1.5 grams saturated fat, 25 grams sugars
Full-fat chocolate milk: 208 calories, 5.0 grams saturated fat, 24 grams sugars
It took literally an act of Congress to allow schools to offer milk with more saturated fat and more calories.
Our government will remove requirements that school milk be fat-free or low fat, flavored or not.
This permits our schools to also offer whole and reduced-fat milks, flavored or not. Excluding the saturated fat in milk from counting toward limits.
In 2024-25 recent milk demand has seen an increase surge in whole milk sales, with a “promotional” focus on protein, and a rise in lactose-free options.
I like teaching Marketing. I like Promotion, one of my nine P's of Marketing. Not so sure I love to tell a story of selling, one of the elements under Promotion, of whole milk in schools, looking at the last several decades.
I like finding Marketing opportunities and solving Marketing problems using the nine P's of Marketing. I like teaching them.
I use my 9P's to illustrate Marketing examples in the classroom, in court as an expert witness, in seminars and to solve Marketing problems and to find opportunities.
My 9P's of Marketing do include these important concepts, practices and components:
I am using the 9P's with Planning, People, Product, Price, Promotion, Place, Partners, Presentation and Passion to illustrate an unusual insight or example. To find opportunities and problems in Marketing.
- Planning and Research.
- Today and June it's about milk being sold and offered in schools.
- Finding copy points is part of the creative and promotional planning.
- Planning for marketing activities, objectives, strategies and tactics. Viewership, revenue, sales. All sales, whether in services, fashion, sports, amusement parks, hotels, resorts, autos, fast food, retail sales or tires, refreshments or cereal, as three examples.
- From the founder of Intuit, Scott Cook, said: " A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is -- (maybe from Marketing Research never was is my comment) it is what consumers (“People” in the 9P’s) tell each other it is.
- People (Segmentation and Targeting)
- Consumers and users, as in shoppers. Selling to school administrators? Fashion consumers. Add travelers.
- In my 9P's, I stress that firms need to look and analyze potential, new, existing and repeat customers and users.
- Product and Services, includes milk, airports, sports teams, people and celebrities too. I teach that perfection resides in quality, not quantity.
- Place (Distribution), includes schools, retail and online. How about locations of airports, team stadiums, amusement parks and resorts?
- Price or Pricing, many contingency plans needed.
- Promotion:
- There are eight (8) major, strategic components or communication elements which are personal and non-personal communication activities.
- The activities that communicate the merits of the overall product include:
- Personal Selling/ Sales Force: Sales persons
- Listen more than you talk. People who listen more, learn more, plus helps you position your service/product/solution or offering.
- Advertising:
Like Super Bowl advertising in February for Super Bowl. Think about this expression "It is only creative if the product or service sells." I wanted to add "It is only good media spending if it sells."- Sales Promotion, advertising mascots can fit here, too. Signage would fit here.
- Collateral Materials
- Direct Marketing (also referred to as Action or Direct Response Advertising)
- Interactive/Internet/Web, Digital Media, Social Media:
- Events and Experiences, sampling
- Public Relations/PR
- One stop shopping is more important than ever.
- Partners/Alliances, can be one of the most powerful of the 9P's if researched, performed and handled well.
- There should be moving forward towards shared goals or goals.
- Presentation:
- The act or acts of strategically presenting any of the different 9P’s© and/or components to your customers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, partners, and/or others.
Presentation aspects may be signs, symbols or images that represent something; a descriptive or persuasive account (as a sales person of the product or service). Something set forth for the attention of mind of your targets ("People") and media audiences. I've added "culture," too. I'm adding "culture," too.
- Passion, including consumers and employees. Think about the lines sometimes of consumers waiting for a new Apple product
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said “ To put your ideas into action is the most difficult thing in the world." But Nike says "Just do it."
I am an experienced, senior Forensic Marketing Expert, Advertising expert, Advertising/ Marketing consultant with Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.
I created the 9P's. I own a copyright for these Nine P’s/9 P's of Marketing©2007 concepts and Marketing practices, which augment the 1960's Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) or the 4P’s by the American Marketing Association (AMA), Neil Borden and Jerome McCarthy in the study and practice of Marketing. It's sixty years later and we are in the digital age. Now.
The Nine P's/9P's of Marketing help identify marketing problems in a number of strategic areas and help develop profitable marketing’s objectives, strategies, tactics and solutions. The 9P's are insightful. The nine P's were created for the digital age.
Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts: Go to Marketing Trivia with more than 75+ stimulating questions and answers at Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.