Marketing Madness

Last month I found myself flipping through the pages of a "farm" magazine (focusing primarily on family gardening, antiques, and the good old days) as a means of entertainment during a long car ride. It became clear to me that the targeted audience of the monthly writing is an older generation of folks than myself, but I stuck with it and eventually worked my way to the "letters to the editor" section where I found a collection of brief notes from readers telling fond stories from a past life on the farm. Out of the assortment of letters only one stuck in my mind because the topic, unbeknownst to the writer, focused on a marketing trend that is once again relevant today: raw milk.

The raw milk craze, to provide a little background for those who have managed to avoid it, is headlined by a group of people who have decided that the modern act of pasteurization is destroying the quality of our food and, as a result, our health. They suggest quitting the use of grocery store milk and opting for "a more natural, healthier option" when it comes to your cold cereal essentials...milk straight out of the cow to your refrigerator.

The write up I found told a story of a brand new small dairy (the milk bottling and distribution center..not to be confused with the farm and the cows) that was in existence when pasteurization was just becoming mainstream - the late '20s or early '30s. There was a segment of the population making a heated stand against the new pasteurization technology, but the owner of this particular dairy was a believer in the process and opened his business offering only pasteurized milk. To his dismay, he soon discovered that nearly half of the families on his route turned down his product when they realized raw milk was not an option on the order list (it was common at the time for milk bottling plants to offer both a line of raw and a line of pasteurized milk). Pondering his dilemma, the owner came up with a unique solution: print "Raw Milk" bottle caps, add a raw option to the order list, but continue producing only pasteurized milk. Halfway through the day, workers would simply switch the lids from "Pasteurized" to "Raw" on the bottling line, placing the same milk into bottles with both labels. As the mislabeled faux-raw milk made it into circulation, word got out in the community that "raw" milk from this specific dairy did not make ANY of the customers sick...his business quickly doubled and then tripled as raw milk fanatics lined up to get their hands on his non-threatening product (if you read between the lines here it becomes evident that non-pasteurized milk related illnesses were commonplace). According to the article, the owner never told his secret and his business boomed for many years.

I am passing this story along because it is a very good, non-biased look at consumer buying decisions. People, obviously, want the best quality, most nutritious product available for their families. Although they probably do not realize it, customers demanding raw milk (at the time of the story and those today) are not actually seeking a raw product, they simply desire a healthy, high quality product - characteristics that are more often associated with the word 'raw'. Therefore, anything without the word is viewed as inferior and of lower quality even though the perception is not necessarily true. Place a modern product into the hands of concerned consumers, advertise it with the words they are looking for, and they will continue to purchase it despite the fact that it is something they claim to oppose. Why? Because it is, in fact, a healthy, high quality product and consuming it results in a good eating experience. The same goes for trends like 'organic', 'free range', and 'grass fed'...people purchasing those options are doing so because they want a good product that was raised or grown correctly, and marketing tells them a product without those credentials was not.

There is currently a lot of flak wrongfully fired towards conventionally produced food, but eventually the aforementioned marketing terms will become overused and stale (I see this happening to some extent already), falling into the background as oversaturation weakens their attention grabbing effect. As the trend burns out, it (and the conventional food opponent) will be replaced by more of a middle ground: really good food, plain and simple. No presumptuous thoughts as a result of marketing associations, no health improving claims, no trends...just awesome food, production or niche, organic or conventional, raised out back or a thousand miles away. This will require minor adjustments for both those producing the food and those eating it: the industry is always working to meet the demands of consumers, and if the consumers want a little better look into food production, those producing it better make a window; on the flip side, eaters will have to break free from the current term-oriented buying impulse and open their minds to everything available...buy a product for its true quality that you can see and smell and touch and taste, not because you recognize the sticker on the package.