Declining Milk Sales Essay

According to a current study in Age and Aging, starting and continuing to drink milk at a young age can lead to improved physical ability and balance at an older age (â€Å"New study finds,† 2012). Because of milk’s inherent attributes of calcium, protein and vitamins A and B, milk has also been linked to bone strength, muscle strength and better eyesight, to name a few. So why have the US milk sales been slowly declining since the 1970s? A recent article on Forbes. com poses the same question. People are well aware of milk’s existence. The ‘Got Milk? ’ Advertising campaign was debuted in 1993 and won several awards for its ingenuity. It works wonders for getting people to think about milk, but that is only half the battle. The other half, and arguably more important, is getting them to drink it. Jonathan Baskin, the author of the Forbes. com article, believes this is what the dairy industry is failing to do by not compelling consumers to drink milk. â€Å"Memorable branding,† he states, â€Å"is not necessarily the same thing as compelling marketing†(Baskin, 2012). To illustrate this, Baskin offers a few ideas, including packaging innovation, partnering with companies and local sourcing. While I believe all three of his ideas are valid, local sourcing seems like it could be very beneficial, at least for the moment. Within the past few years, buying crops locally is becoming more relevant to many people. The thought of promoting local business growth and living a healthy lifestyle drives people to buy locally. So if a local distributor could deliver these local crops and bundle it with fresh local milk, consumers would be willing to pay for the convenience, healthy lifestyle and support of local businesses; at least that is the idea. Milk mustaches seem to be imprinted in our minds. We know milk is there, but we are not drinking it. In order to change this, the dairy industry needs to focus on giving consumers reasons to drink milk. Local sourcing and distribution of milk could be one solution to this. Proper research would need to be done to determine viability, and a new marketing strategy, possibly implementing the ‘Got Milk? ’ branding with a new local twist would need to be created; however, perhaps then we will finally be drinking more milk. Who knows, maybe cartwheels at 80 will be the new normal. References Baskin, J. (2012). Everyone ‘gets’ milk, so tell us why we should drink it. Forbes. com, Retrieved from http://www. forbes. com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2012/12/17/everyone-gets-milk-so-tell-us-why-we-should-drink-it/ New study finds milk-drinking kids reap physical benefits later in life. (2012, November 15). Retrieved from http://www. prnewswire. com/news-releases/new-study-finds-milk-drinking-kids-reap-physical-benefits-later-in-life-179464301. html.