■Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 13,1981
Dairy advertising dollars,
BYJOYCEBUPP
Staff Correspondent
TOWSON, Md. - The amount
deducted from one dairyman’s
milkcheck, a one-percent figure
per hundredweight, seems in
significant to the budgets of the
advertising world.
But multiply a single producer
contribution by 7,500, the number
of farm families contributing to
Hairy advertising in the Middle-
Atlantic Milk Marketing area, and
the budget bottom line for
promotion comes to some six
million dollars.
“I don’t think people are aware
of the magnitude of this program,”
asserts Dick Norton, manager of
the Mid-Atlantic Advertising and
Promotion Agency. “Dairy
products advertising is alive and
well.”
Norton heads a staff of four,
headquartered in the Carroll
Budding on LaSalle Road in
Towson. Other staffers are Carol
Gray, director of communications,
Joyce Graybill, dairy promotion
director, and Cathy Preis, ad
ministrative assistant and
bookkeeper.
The Middle-Atlantic agency is
the regional funding office for the
national American Dairy
Association, the umbrella
establishment that covers a
variety of milk products promotion
and nutrition research programs.
Established in 1945, the second
region organized in the nation,
Mid-Atlantic agency is the child of
far-sighted dairymen of the post
war era who saw the need to
promote their product. Mid-
Atlantic funding comes primarily
from dairymen in the Federal
Order No. 4 area, but some funds
are also contributed by checkoffs
from Orders No. 2, the New York
area, and Order No. 36, of western
Pennsylvania. Bulk of the budget
monies, about $5,400,000 is spent
locally, aimed at the high
population centers of Washington,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and the
triangle of York-Lancaster-
Hamsburg.
“It’s a total marketing program,
based on nutrition education. We
go where the people are located,”
Norton explains. “We’re also in
volved with both dairies and
grocery centers, building markets
for dairy products, and have about
85 percent market penetration in
3,000 area supermarkets.”
Imitations are the newest threat
to the dairy product market, and
Norton says about 50 million
dollars are being spent advertising
imitation products, an amount
equal to the funds spent on dairy
advertising.
“Almost everyone has a ‘look
alike’ product, and some cheeses
are making big inroads,” Norton
adds
Dairymen’s biggest gun in the
imitations battle is the recently
developed REAL seal, a
trademark logo of the United
Dairy Industry Association- The
stylized milk-drop symbol is
allowed to be used only on labeling
of products having genuine dairy
ingredients. REAL seal use im
plies quality, freshness and the
high standards represented by the
dairy industry’s strict production
and handling regulations.
Most of the Middle-Atlantic
agency’s current promotions are
part of an all-out national cam
paign to educate shoppers to
recognize the red-outlined r n ’lk
drop symbol and the genome dm: y
products it represents.
“We’re beginning to get milk re
mvolved in everyone’s life style,”
is Norton’s capable explanation of
the newest trends in milk
promotion. “We’ve lost breakfast,
lunch and dinner to today’s life
styles; we’ve lost those family
meal occasions where milk was
traditionally served. So now we
where do they go?
With a REAL job on his hands, Dick Norton, head of the
Mid-Atlantic Milk Marketing Agency sees the identification of
genuine products a real plus for both dairy farmers and
quality-minded consumers.
have to go where the game is
played ”
And the game is played at places
like the seashore, theme
amusement parks and the growing
number of 'fast-food establish
ments.
So, that’s where the agency is
looking with their innovative
advertising. Catching consumers
where they play has led Middle-
Atlantic into a new type of ad
vertising campaign, a team link-up
with “promotion partners.”
Foster Grant sunglasses is a
summer partner, linked up in a
special promotion to enjoy the
vacation season with milk. And a
special offer on “Soft Soft Dnnk”
milk beach towels also makes use
of the “Real” seals as redeemable
coupons.
REAL seals can be used toward
lowered gate prices at Kings’
Dominion theme park, too, a
program the agency is also hoping
to use with Hersheypark.
Cooperative advertising has
been successful beyond, an
ticipation, for both partners, to the
point where the Middle-Atlantic
agency is now being approached
by firms interested in tying into the
sales standard represented by the
“Real” seal campaign, Norton
boasts.
Potential suitors in the REAL
seal promotional matings are such
nationally-known as Tastykake,
Time-Life publications, and the
McDonald’s food chain.
Norton says McDonald’s, for
instance, is interested in
eliminating their “junk food”
image, a goal that fits perfectly
with the REAL dairy products
theme. Recent market testing with
the chain, featuring the Mc-
Donald’s “Happy Meal” which
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included milk, showed highly
favorable results.
Although not the highest-budget
item, one agency activity that
touches both farmers and con
sumers personally is the Dairy
Princess program.
Although agency staffers
oversee some aspects of the dairy
princess pageant and promotion
events, hundreds of dairy farm
volunteers plan and carry out the
shopping mall, supermarket and
school visits where consumer
contacts are made.
Dairy farmer contributions also
are directed at nutrition education
and product research through
other, branches of the American
Dairy Association.
Nutrition education is the
foundation of all dairy promotional
programs, aimed at teaching
shoppers the nutritive benefits of
milk and its products. National
Dairy Council and its local af
filiates administrate the
educational activities, holding
numerous school and industry
seminars and workshops,
publishing nutrition literature for
school and public use, and making
frequent contacts with media
representatives.
Research is conducted mostly
through the programs of DRINC,
Dairy Research, Inc., where ex
panded uses for dairy products are
being sought. Sterile milk is one of
the research headliners, a product
with prolonged shelf life at room
temperatures made possible
through flash high-temperature
treatment. Dairy scientists are
also close to breakthroughs on the
freeze drying of both whey and
milk, powdered products that
would cut storage space needed
and greatly lengthen storage time.
See your nearest
HOLLAIND
Dealer for Dependable
Equipment and Dependable
Service:
Alexandria. PA
Clapper Farm
Equipment
Star Route
814-669-4465
Annmlle. PA
B H M Farm
Equipment, Inc
RD.I .
717-867-2211
Beavertown. PA
Bfiß Farm
Equipment, Inc
RD 1, 80x217A
717-658-7024
lernvil
Stanley A Klopp, Inc
Bernville, PA
215-488-1510
Carlisle. PA
Paul Shovers, Iric
35 East Willow Street
717-243-2686
Catawissa. PA
Abraczmskas Farm
Equipment, Inc
R.D.I
717-356-2323
Chambersbure, PA
Clugston"
Implement, Inc
RD.I
717-263-4103
Davidsburg. PA
George N Gross, Inc
R D 2, Dover, PA
717-292-1673
Elizabethtown. PA
Messick Farm
Equipment, Inc
'Rt. 283 - Rheem’s Exit
717-367-1319
Gettysburg, PA
Ymglmg Implements
R.D.9
717-359-4848
ireencai
Meyers
Implement's Inc
400 N Antrim Way
PO Box 97
717-597-2176
Halifax. PA
Sweigard Bros
R D. 3, Box 13
717-896-3414
Honey Brook. PA
Dependable Motor Co
East Main Street
215-273-3131
215-273-3737
Honev Grove. PA
Norman D Clark
Honey Grove, PA
717-734-3682
Hughesville, PA
Farnsworth Farm
' Supplies, Inc
103 Cemetery Street
717-584-2106
Lancaster. PA
L H Brubaker, Inc
350 Strasburg Pike
717-397-5179
ibanon. PA
Evergreen
Tractor Co, Inc
30 Evergreen Road
717-272-4641
Lititz. PA
Roy A. Brubaker
700 Woodcrest Av.
717-626-7766
Loysville, PA
Paul Shdvers, Inc
Loysville, PA
717-789-3117
Lvnnport. PA
Kermit K.Kistler, Inc,
Lynnport, PA
215-298-2011
Martinsburn. Pi
Forshey s, Inc
110 Forshey St
814-793-3791
Mill Hall. PA
Paul A Dotterer
RD 1
717-726-3471
Nazareth. PA
Edwards Farm
Equipment'
291 West
Moorestown Rd
215-759-0240
A.B.C Groff, Inc.
110 South Railroad
717-354-4191
New Park. PA
M4R Equipment Inc
P O. Box 16
717 993-2511
QlctJ*
C J. Wonsidler Bros
RD 2
215-987-6257
Palm. PA
Wentz Farm -
Supplies, Inc.
Rt. 29
215-679-7164 ,
Pitman. PA
Marlin W Schreffler
Pitman, PA
717-648-1120
Pleasant Gap. PA
Brooks Ford Tractor
W College Ave
814-359-2751
Ouarrwille. PA
C E Wiley 4 Son, Inc
101 Soutl) Lime Street
717-786-2895
Big Valley Sales
4 Service,
Inc
PO. Box 548
717-667-3944
Rmgtown Farm
Equipment
Rmgtown, PA
717-889-3184
Shippensburg, PA
R B Miller, Inc.
N Seneca St
717-532-4178
Silverdale. PA
I G. Sales
Box 149
215-257-5135
Tamaqua. PA
Charles S Snyder. Inc.
RD 3
717-386-5945
M.S Yearsley&Son
114-116 East
Market Street
215-696-2990
West Grove. PA
SG Lewis & Son, Inc.
R.D 2, Box 66
215-869-2214
Walter G Coale, Inc.
2849-53
Churchville Rd
301-734-7722
Rising Sun, MP
Ag Ind.
Equipment Co, Inc
1207 Telegraph Rd
301-398-6132
301-658-5568
215-869-3542
Bridgeton. NJ
Leslie G. Fogg, Inc
Canton &
Stow Creek
Landing Rds
RD.3
609-451-2727
Frank Rymon 4 Sons
814-793-3791
Woodstown. NJ
Owen Supply Co
Broad Street 4
East Avenue
609-769-0308