Marketing placebo

At home, I have a 13-year-old son who plays a lot of sport. As a father, I sometimes notice how quickly an image created by marketing turns into interest, whether it's new football shoes or a product he comes across in a shop.

This time it was a drink displayed with breakfast as the main message. Protein, fibre and everything ready in an on-the-go bottle.

Naturally, my son was interested. So I had to turn the bottle around.

The product did contain protein and fibre. It had about half as much protein again as the same amount of milk. But it contained less energy than a glass of milk and a medium-sized banana combined.

It wasn't a bad product. A perfectly good snack or part of breakfast. I was just left wondering whether the image created by the display was a little bigger than the product itself.

I found a similar example abroad. The pack highlighted 23 grams of protein in large print. Smaller text revealed that this amount was only reached by adding about 250 ml of milk to the bottle.

Made with water, the product contained 15 grams of protein. So about a third of the big number on the pack came from milk the consumer added themselves.

That doesn't make it a bad product either. It contained wholegrain oats, fibre and protein. The 23 grams just didn't come from the bottle as such.

In both cases, the product and the image it created weren't quite the same size. The first needed something else to eat alongside it to be a breakfast. The second only delivered on its protein promise with milk added by the consumer.

I call this the marketing placebo.

With messaging, a product can be made to feel more nourishing or more complete than it is on its own. That may well be enough for the first purchase. Next time, the consumer already knows what they actually got from the bottle.

If a product bought for the morning doesn't keep hunger away or provide enough energy, people will notice. The same goes for a product whose convenience requires buying and adding another product.

Marketing can make the first sale. The product decides the repeat purchase.

Breakfast isn't rocket science

Food eaten in the morning should carry you through the school day, training and recovery. A growing young person also needs energy to grow.

A good breakfast isn't very complicated. Good carbs, something rich in protein, berries, fruit or vegetables, and ideally some healthy fat, from nuts for example. For a young athlete, it's one of the main meals of the day.

A single drink can be part of breakfast. It can also be a good snack or a backup option on a busy morning. But it doesn't become a complete breakfast just because breakfast is given top billing in the display.

Busy mornings need new solutions. Not everyone has the time, or always the desire, to sit down to a bowl of porridge.

Breakfast is on the move

Among the new launches we track with Global Product Radar, a lot is happening around breakfast right now.

The market has seen protein cereals, pre-portioned overnight oats and waffles whose protein comes from Greek yoghurt and eggs. There are easy-to-eat breakfast bars and even a shelf-stable breakfast in a can, combining milk and oats with 20 grams of protein and five grams of fibre.

So breakfast is breaking away from the bowl and the kitchen table. Products are being made for people who head out quickly to school, work or training.

I think there's a lot of commercial potential here.

A new pack or format alone won't do it, though. If a product is meant to take the place of breakfast, it has to be up to the job. It has to provide enough energy and keep hunger at bay. The big promise on the pack should be delivered by what's inside it.

At its best, marketing makes it clear what the product is for. The marketing placebo arises when the message starts working harder than the product itself.

Consumers have plenty of everyday needs where products can genuinely make life easier. But a need isn't met just by printing its name on the side of the pack.

Commercially yours,
Harri Saalasti
Co-founder