The Milk is the Message

The Quality Milk signature will be phased out as processors sell their packaging inventories over the next few months. Some processors have already put the new 100% Canadian Milk brand on their new products, while others will be adding the new branding throughout 2009. To date, more than 30 processors – including Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Ltd., Nestlé Canada, Chapman’s Ice Cream, Northumberland Co-operative Ltd., and Amalgamated Dairies Ltd. – have adopted the brand for more than 2,000 products, and those numbers keep growing.

Although other food sectors, beef in particular, have a similar Canadian-first campaign to promote their respective products, MacDonald says the DFC didn’t look at any other programs in devising its new program. “We had been doing extensive research for a while regarding a new brand,” he says. “DFC has gone through many qualitative and quantitative phases of consumer research in order to better understand Canadian consumers’ attitudes towards the origin and quality of dairy products. Our research confirmed both the origin and the quality of dairy products are major factors in the minds of Canadian consumers when making purchase decisions.”

The campaign aims to increase domestic dairy product consumption and its success will be determined, in part, by whether Canadian consumers are willing to pay a premium for goods with the logo, especially during the current economic downturn. Adds MacDonald: “The main message we want to convey to consumers is that you can’t make a better product with anything other than 100-per-cent Canadian milk.”