This week, Coca-Cola launched a high protein, lactose-free milk called Fairlife. The reformulated “supermilk” contains 50% more protein, 30% more calcium and half the sugar of normal milk. It is available (at the moment in the US only) in regular, no fat, reduced fat and chocolate varities and costs approximately twice as much as ordinary milk.
Former Coke executive, Steve Jones, who has become the chief executive officer of Fairlife stated, “I hope it’s Coke’s next billion-dollar brand.” Coke’s core brand did not have a good 2014.
In fact, the milk is the brainchild of a sustainable dairy cooperative begun in Indiana USA in 2003, called Fair Oaks Farms. And this is its story:
Fair Oaks Farms doubles as a dairy with best possible clean food and healthy environment intentions and America's one and only dairy theme park. The dairy operation is, in fact, a serious business. It is one of the biggest and most sophisticated dairies in the country. It is home to 37,000 cows, divided into eleven different milking operations.
The idea for the high protein milk began years ago, when two of the founders of Fair Oaks, Mike and Sue McCloskey, were running a large dairy operation in New Mexico. They ran into a problem with bad water, and had to buy some expensive membranes to filter out impurities. That led to their thinking about what else those filters might accomplish. It turns out that the filters can separate milk into its five component parts - fat, water, protein, lactose and minerals. And, in November last year, that achieved a partnership with Coca-Cola.
With the idea for the Fairlife product underway, Fair Oaks Farms called on its brand and packaging design agency, Kaleidoscope, to turn the new product line into a marketable brand.
Prototype packaging 2014
Final packaging launched 2015
“Much of our initial time with the Fairlife team was spent immersing in the complex story behind the brand. We collaborated with the Fairlife team and its partners to identify compelling ways to bring the Fairlife brand to life. Those ideas were tested and shaped into a brand promise: a commitment to produce highly nutritious, great tasting innovative dairy products that give consumers the vitality they need to live life to the fullest. The sustainable, innovative dairy farms behind the products provided a strong reason to believe,” Kaleidoscope explained.
Fairlife milk is a new product in an established category, so Kaleidoscope’s first task was to create the packaging that would define the milk as a competitor in the traditional milk category and establish its credentials as a distinctive new product. An innovative bottle shape and graphics were chosen to stand out from the gable-top cartons and plastic jugs which would be Fairlife’s neighbours on shelf. The descriptor, Purely Nutritious Milk, was selected to ground the product within the milk category in a way that communicated both the product’s reason for being (nutrition) as well as the simplicity of the product (purely). The Real Milk seal was used to reinforce the fact that it is milk.
Design cues were identified through research: vitality, beauty, courage, playfulness and simplicity.
The final packaging decisions were made by the entire Fairlife team: “When it came to the structural package, we encouraged the Fairlife team’s technical packaging partners and leaders from the plant to be involved early to assure that the essence of the brand was not compromised in order to meet requirements. An iconic bottle shape was created to disrupt the category, while building ownable equity for the brand. It is a modern interpretation of the traditional milk carton. The cap and structural ribbing details pay homage to the brand mark. Overall, it is a proud stance for the brand and easy to handle by consumers.”
Creating the on pack communication about the product was the next task. There was so much to tell. The product is not organic, “but it is just as clean and more nutritious than most organic milk,” Fair Oaks contends. It is slightly thicker than ordinary milk and has a marginally different flavour. It is lactose free, hormone free, higher in protein and lower in sugar than any traditional milk.
“The long list of features are all important to consumers, but including all of this information on the front of a bottle would disregard the brand attribute of simplicity and almost guarantee that consumers would read none of it,” Kaleidoscope explained.
After several rounds of consumer research and consideration of consumer needs and trends, the Fairlife team decided that taste and nutrition, that is the high protein content, would take centre stage for the brand. Research indicated that consumers look for hormone-free and lactose-free claims on a package, so those could be lower priority. Finally, the back panel was used to tell the story about the farm, the people and the cow care to establish consumer trust in the new brand.
Coca-Cola has not yet announced any plans to take the new milk into other markets. That it is a product of the Coca-Cola company, known as a sugary soft drink maker, is proving to be a problem.
