Fresh Milk, Brand Myopia and One-Word Equity

Something caught our attention in the supermarket the other day.

On the otherwise unproblematic and somewhat uninteresting yogurt packaging, a new phrase leapt out as a special product USP:

MADE WITH FRESH MILK

Hmmm... well... geeze:
Thank God!

I would certainly hate to buy "new" yogurts made with rancid milk, wouldn't you? Is this a valid advertising claim in today's saturated supermarket aisles?

Many of you will immediately jump to the defense of the Brand indicated in this example. You will point to the need to emphasize food safety, KM Zero iniciatives and perhaps the growing groundswell of consumers interested in eco-based foods. All well and good.

It is simply that we see a certain Brand Myopia at work here. In our meeting rooms, sometimes we can get lost in complicating the obvious. Our consumers and customers are not that obtuse. Nor do they have time, really, to analyse the Copy Platforms and Reasons Why behind the words we choose.

Today, in 2013, is it really necessary to underline the idea of fresh milk? An already saturated consumer standing in front of refrigerated dairy goods is bound to inwardly answer, "Of course it should be!" It's a given, isn't it?

Perhaps not. Copywriting has become even more complex; simplicity has become complex, ever since Maurice Saatchi announced the "The Strange Death of Modern Advertising" way back in 2006, introducing in the same breath the idea of One-Word Equity.

One-Word Equity is the insightful observation on the part of Lord Saatchi that in today's Matrix of Social Media-driven digital ad messages, what we are really left to care for and cultivate is that ONE WORD that most precisely defines the DNA and USP of our New Brands.

However, even before Saatch's groundbreaking speech, the four intellectuals behind The Cluetrain Manifesto had pointed out the imminent power of the New Consumer, her sense of humour and her irony vis-a-vis our self-absorbed Marketing campaigns. As well as the imperative need for companies of the Twenty-First Century to join an intelligent dialogue in a worldwide, 24/7 "Conversation" that would drive markets, thanks to a new business and communications paradigm: the NETWORK.

It's probable that the shortened copywriting on the yogurt packs we show here are due to a perceived faux-pas from 2012, when the New Consumer made light of the claim here in Spain that the brand's milk came fresh from the farmers.


As one quips here,
"I'd rather it came from the cows themselves!"