Coca-Cola's Fairlife Milk: Right Move, Wrong Category

via AdAge

I was impressed when Coca-Cola announced the introduction of Fairlife, the first brand of "expensive" milk. Or as Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America, called it, "the premiumization of milk."

Finally a great idea from the world's largest beverage company. Apparently, Coca-Cola has finally learned how difficult it is to build a new brand when you are not first in the category.

Witness the lack-luster performance of Coca-Cola brands like Powerade, Full Throttle, Mellow Yellow, Mr. Pibb and Fruitopia. (As opposed to the first brands in the categories: Gatorade, Red Bull, Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper and Snapple.)

Now that Coca-Cola has launched the first high-end brand of milk, it might be interesting to see how the company is planning to position the brand.

What's the category?
A new category starts with several category names. After a certain amount of time, consumers coalesce around a single same.

• BusinessWeek calls Fairlife a "high-end milk."
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls it a "lactose-free drink."
• Fairlife packages call it "purely-nutritious milk."
• Fairlife.com calls it "ultra-filtered milk."
• Other news stories call Fairlife a "value-added milk."

The biggest mistake a company can make is taking a laissez-faire attitude toward its category name and letting the market decide. Once a category name gets accepted, it's almost impossible to change. Even category names that have little or no meaning.

What's a sport-utility vehicle? Or a station wagon? Or a sedan? Everyone knows what these vehicles look like, but those category names don't really describe them.

Long-term, the most-powerful brands are brands that start out by controlling the category name. Red Bull was introduced as the first "energy drink." A category name that was almost instantly accepted by the media and the marketplace.

But will milk drinkers use Fairlife's category names? I think not.

• Get me some "purely-nutritious milk."
• Or, Get me some "ultra-filtered milk."

What category name should Fairlife use?
The marketing principle is: Category name first, brand name second. First, you need to pick a category name that suggests the essence of the brand. Then pick a brand name that "locks into" the category name.

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Yet most companies do the reverse. They pick the brand name first and then the strategy for the brand. And let the media decide what category name to use for the brand.

So how should you decide what category name to use? The best approach is to first decide what the position the new brand should own in the mind.

As far as Fairlife is concerned, there are four possibilities: (1) No lactose. (2) 30% less sugar. (3) 50% more calcium. (4) 50% more protein. If history is any guide, Coca-Cola will decide to promote all four.

Not a good idea.

Years ago, that's what BMW tried to do to wedge its way into the American market. A typical advertisement from the early 1970s: "BMW is a unique combination of luxury, performance and handling. And it's amazingly easy on fuel."

BMW didn't pick up speed until it narrowed its focus to "driving," a concept the company still promotes today.

If you can build the world's largest-selling luxury-vehicle brand with a single attribute, why can't you do the same for a cup of milk?

My suggestion would be to narrow the focus to "protein."

Relate new categories to old ones
The first brand is a new category can only suggest what the new category name ought to be. Consumers will decide, but their decisions are heavily influenced by the media. One likely outcome, however, is the use of a new category name that is related to the current category.

Mainframe computers sat on the floor, so the first personal computers were called "desktop" computers. And the first small personal computers were called "portable" computers, but that name didn't stick because it wasn't related to desktop computers. Hence the new name "laptop" computers.

PowerBar was the first "energy bar." Red Bull was the first "energy drink." And Five Hour Energy was the first "energy shot." Three categories all related to the word "energy."

Take milk. You have whole milk and reduced-fat milk, either 2%, 1% or skim milk. In other words, milk is divided into sub-categories depending on its fat content, even though fat is not the largest component of milk. (Sugar is.)

What would have been a good category name for Coca-Cola's Fairlife brand? I would have called it "high-protein milk."

To hammer the high-protein idea even further, I would have introduced Fairlife as a skim-milk product only. Not the three types Coca-Cola is apparently going to introduce (2%, skim and chocolate milk.)

With 50% more protein than regular milk, no fat and half the sugar, "high-protein milk" would likely be perceived as an exceptionally healthy beverage, thanks in part to the many other brands jumping on the protein bandwagon.

Witness the vast array of protein bars on the market and the many "protein" line extensions like Cheerios protein oats & honey, Special K protein cereal and shakes.

A new brand name
If high-protein milk is the category, what should the new brand name have been. Instead of Fairlife, I would have tried to register ProMilk.

Not only does ProMilk, the first high-protein milk, link the brand name to the category name, it also hammers the hottest idea in the food industry today.

Protein.

You don't build brands in the marketplace. You build brands in the mind. And the best and easiest way into a human mind is with a singular idea.

For a new high-end milk brand that singular idea, in my opinion, is "high protein." A singular idea that should be the name of the category.

A singular idea that should also be reflected in the name of the brand.

PepsiCo cooks up a kooky Super Bowl food competition

via USAToday

PepsiCo has cooked up a kooky way to bring attention to its products: It's asking top culinary students to create the ultimate Super Bowl party fare by using the company's food and beverages as ingredients.

This weekend, four student teams at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., will test a variety of recipes in a bid to win PepsiCo's "Game Day Grub Match" competition.

Each two-person team will have to use at least three PepsiCo products in their final concoction, including one food and one beverage.

PepsiCo — which produces brands such as Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana — will provide students with ingredient options such as Mountain Dew, Tropicana juice and Doritos chips.

The competing cooks will also have access to meats, produce and dairy, among other kitchen staples.

Chef and Food Network star Anne Burrell will host the weekend cook-off. The student submissions will be judged on Sunday afternoon by chef David Burke, PepsiCo's Corporate Executive Research Chef Stephen Kalil, Culinary Institute of America senior director of food and beverage operations Waldy Malouf and New York Jets player Nick Mangold.

Two of the four culinary teams will be selected to travel to Phoenix, which will host the Feb. 1 Super Bowl XLIX.

Both teams will sample their dishes at an NFL event before the game. A winner will be selected then, and the victorious duo will earn tickets to the Big Game and a $5,000 scholarship to share.

Bands and Brands: Universal Music Partners With Havas

via AdAge

Havas and Universal Music are launching the Global Music Data Alliance, a partnership both companies hope will create new revenue streams by mining the data provided by consumer behavior around Universal's artists.

The partnership has been driven by the Bolloré family: Vincent Bolloré became chairman in June 2014 of Universal's parent company, Vivendi (as well as being its biggest shareholder, with a 5% stake). His son Yannick Bolloré is chairman and CEO of Havas, whose biggest shareholder is also the Bollore Group. There has been frequent speculation that Mr. Bollore hopes to someday combine Havas and Vivendi. Both companies are based in France.

Dominique Delport, global managing director of Havas Media Group and chairman of Havas Media in France and the U.K., has been closely involved with the deal. He said, "There's been a will to foster a collaboration between Vivendi and Havas, and Yannick saw a way to provide fresh insights for clients."

Yannick Bolloré said in a statement, "This Global Music Data Alliance will allow our clients and other brands to further expand their common passion for music with fans, and create deeper experiences for them."

The alliance will be launched this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Universal Music, and Yannick Bolloré, during a cocktail party where Universal artist Nick Jonas will perform live.

Taylor Swift

Universal Music is the world's biggest music producer, with artists including Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Adele, BB King, Cher, Elton John, Katy Perry, Pearl Jam, and U2.

Mr. Grainge said in a statement, "We want to continue to find new revenue and marketing opportunities for all of our artists by …supercharging our efforts to realize previously untapped revenues from consumer brands and other new business partners."

Universal already runs the Artist Portal, which measures music and video sales, streaming, social media, airplay, merchandising and ticket sales. The alliance hopes to use Havas' behavioral data to identify new marketing opportunities for brands and artists.

Mr. Delport said, "We are bringing in talent from both sides. Universal is already the leading music company in terms of data, and we are taking it to the next level by bringing in Havas data scientists and algorithm experts, merging the two worlds."

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It's unclear whether any brands have committed to being part of the Global Music Data Alliance; Mr. Delport wouldn't name any. He said, "The biggest trend in the industry is for brands and entertainment to work together to co-create content and services. We will have so much data that we can leverage for the purpose of better understanding the consumer and creating better experiences – there is so much to invent – we need to be bold enough to create new solutions."

The main hubs will be cities like Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris where Universal Music and Havas already have large operations. Mr. Delport said that Asia will be equally important.

"We understand that music is less siloed than before and consumers may jump from classic to hip hop," he said. "This isn't just about teens, it's the whole music world – and it's all very focused on business, on creating messages that are more and more relevant. We are not here to produce surveys."

Your EDM’s Artists to Watch in 2015 #Your2014

via EDM

Of course we have a list of artists to watch out for in 2015; we wouldn’t be a proper dance music blog without it. But while others only focus on emerging talent, this list is much more comprehensive. Our staff has comprised a catalog of ALL artists –  not just the unsigned, next-big-stars – who will make an impact on dance music in the next calendar year. There are some you know well, some you’ve never heard of, and maybe even some that might make you scratch your head.

The artists on this list all go beyond mass appeal and bring something new to the table. Whether it’s the breakthrough genre tropical house or some more experimental trap, these young (and old) artists will be rocking next year. Take a look, and let us know who you agree and disagree with.