Milk moves to the front seat; Dean Foods steers the category into the fast lane with its new grab-and-go Milk Chugs concept - Dean Foods Co

Dairy Foods, Sept, 1997 by Sue Markgraf

Dean Foods steers the category into the fast lane with its new grab-and-go Milk Chugs concept

Dean Foods Co. is underlining its commitment to fluid this month with new plastic packaging for all its products one quart and smaller, with an emphasis on single-serve bottles.

Subbranded "Milk Chugs," the line includes 8-oz bottles (in a six-bottle multi-pack), pints and quarts, all of them resealable. The recyclable HDPE bottles are rolling out in Florida under Dean's T.G. Lee and McArthur Dairy labels. Dean, Franklin Park, Ill., is discontinuing gabletop cartons for all its fluid products, except school milk.

The company will spend $40 million on capital improvements to convert its plants to plastic, primarily on equipment and remodeling. During the next year, Dean also will spend about $10 million on consumer promotion and advertising.

The company will follow the Florida debut with a rollout in Chicago markets in October, accompanied by a test of the package concept on Dean's half-and-half and whipping cream products. Distribution throughout Dean's core markets should be complete by end-1998.

Nostalgic design

The packaging, which closely resembles the bottle introduced by Dean's Athens, Tenn.-based Mayfield Dairy Farms subsidiary in late 1995, is designed to change the way consumers think about-and drink-milk.

"Since 1989, the fluid milk category has looked like a flat line on a heart monitor," says Jim Page, v.p.-marketing. "Even more concerning is what's happening to per capita consumption. Milk has dropped from 26 gallons per year in 1971, down to 18 gallons per capita today. Milk is not portable, it's not resealable, it's difficult to open. It really doesn't fit today's lifestyles."

Dean plans to change that. With its white flared cap and nostalgic bottle design, the new fluid packaging offers old-fashioned appeal with contemporary, on-the-go styling, moving milk very much into the front seat, Page says. The multi-pack and pint containers fit most car cup holders and have usage applications in restaurants, foodservice, school cafeterias, kiosks and vending.

The plastic bottles have a tamper-evident break-away ring that stays on the bottle, and a 38mm opening for drinking ease. The graphic splash is designed to add character, while the sleeve allows room for other elements, such as recipes on Dean's buttermilk and possibly other products. The label also is flexible to interchange Dean's subsidiary brand names.

"Whether it's liquid yogurt or nutraceuticals, we think we've created a container for the future," Page says. "We have tremendous opportunities to extend into other juices, juice blends and other flavors of milk. We're currently working on development of all those."

New usage occasions

Doug Parr, v.p.-dairy marketing/sales, says pricing has not yet been set, but "all products are going to be a little higher" to help offset the cost of the plastic bottles. The six-pack, Parr says, will retail for less than $3.

The multi-packs will perhaps single-handedly put milk in places it's not traditionally been.

"The contemporary bottle design will open up a world of new usage occasions and will enhance Dean's ability to compete as a beverage outside of traditional dairy," Page says. "Milk Chugs offer consumers a new way to drink milk and a new way to think about milk-as a convenient, year-round alternative to other beverages."

Regional rollouts will be supported by a consumer marketing campaign that includes television, radio, outdoor, in-store advertising, sampling and FSIs. Dean developed the Milk Chug concept over a two-year period, conducting 150 hours of consumer research and 18 months of in-market testing through Mayfield Dairy Farms.

"Milk Chugs have the potential to double Dean's sales of quart, pint and 8-oz fluid milk sizes," Page says. "In the first year of market testing, Milk Chugs were responsible for sales increases of 96% in chocolate pints and 77% in overall pints. Our white milk quarts have been up about 10-15%. Our chocolate milk sales as we introduced quarts were up almost 50%."

Mayfield's monthly unit pint sales were up 72% in one year at a 50-unit petroleum convenience store chain, Page reports.

"We believe our program breathes life into the refrigerated small container category," he says. "We think we have the right amount of research. We have multi-packs, quarts and pints that answer almost every retail channel's needs and bring a lot of extra value to customers and consumers. We're pretty excited."