A classic children’s storybook starts off with, “If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk.”
A California Milk Processor Board’s version would likely feature the cute rodent saying: “got milk?”
It appears as if the San Clemente-based nonprofit has taken a few pointers from the picture book in an effort to increase milk consumption in families with children—it recently licensed three companies to use its trademarked slogan to sell snacks “that go well with milk.”
Spoons and Straws
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. this month started selling “got milk?” hot cocoa spoons made by Melville Candy Co. in Weymouth, Mass. The “wooden, chocolate-coated spoons” make “a rich, inviting cup of hot cocoa when combined with a mug of warmed milk,” according to the company.
The spoons followed New York-based distributor Got Snacks? launch of a line of granola and granola bars with the “got milk?” name in stores at Sam’s Club—a Wal-Mart unit—in Puerto Rico. The company is also developing an assortment of “got milk?” baked packaged goods, including cookies, biscuits, wafers, cereals and cereal bars.
And now Bloomington, Minn.-based Diversified Flavor said it plans to bring “got milk?” drinking straws and milk infusers to market early next year.
The drinking straws contain “edible, dissolving beads that transform milk into different flavors,” the company said.
The three license agreements add consumable products to the list of companies that distribute “got milk?” promotional products, including apparel and kitchenware, under agreements with the processor board.
“These food licensees are the focus right now because they will be out in the consumer space in Walmart, in Target, and supermarkets, so we think that’s (a) much more fruitful avenue for us to pursue right now,” said Stephen James, executive director of the board, which is funded by the state’s milk processors and overseen by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “I think it’s important because not only do these products accompany milk—milk is something that goes with flavored straws and the hot chocolate spoons, cookies, granola and cereals—all of these products that will be branded as ‘got milk?’ products, will increase the consumption of fluid milk, which is our first goal, and with them out in the consumer space, it reminds people of milk.”
San Francisco-based advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners created the “got milk?” slogan for the general market in the early 1990s.
Grupo Gallegos in Huntington Beach converted it into “toma leche,” or “drink milk,” for Latino consumers in 2006. The agencies recently collaborated on a $20 million milk ad campaign.
Beanstalk
The processor board hired New York-based Beanstalk in July of 2013 to help expand its licensing program. Beanstalk is a part of Omnicom Group and represents clients such as Stanley Black & Decker, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, Ford Motor Co. and Jack Daniel’s.
“Their job is to manage our licensees and to prospect for new licensees in different categories,” James said. “It’s a much more focused effort for us to have a designated licensing agency rather than doing it in-house, which we’ve done for almost 21 years before that. It’s an open-ended contract that gives them a percentage of any royalties that come in from licensees that they bring on board.”
The licensing has “always been our strategy,” James said, “but it’s sort of been accelerated with the relationship with Beanstalk and these three new licensees.”
The percentage of revenue from licensing is still relatively low but expected to grow as more products hit store shelves, he said.
“We spend those licensing dollars promoting consumption of fluid milk, so we think it’s a good marriage.”
