Chris Tumelap, Contributor, Jakarta
Why is it often hard to convince kids to drink milk?
Perhaps it has something to do with milk's plain taste, among other things. Or maybe it has to do with packaging and design, too.
Thanks to advances in packaging technology as well as the glitzy age of innovative and creative product marketing, such likely impediments to drinking milk may soon no longer be an issue.
Research findings overseas have shown that flavors are important to make children want to consume milk.
Nutritionist Ali Khomsan of the Department of Community Nutrition and Family Resources at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) agrees that an added flavor ""is an important point to get children to like milk.""
Packaging, too, matters.
""Design is extremely important,"" says Ultrajaya Sales & Marketing Adviser Surendran Menon.
""Therefore one has to continue to come up with products that are freshly and attractively designed,"" he adds.
A quick supermarket tour and a brief look at the children's beverage shelve will show us how well milk producers understand the importance of design and flavor to child customers.
There are quite a few brands of ready-to-drink milk to choose from. The prices range from Rp 1,000 to Rp 2,000 per carton or bottle.
Indomilk, for instance, packs its milk both in cartons and bottles. Its UHT (Ultra High Temperature) milk has a cute cow drawing on the carton.
Frisian Flag sells milk packed in both cartons and plastic bottles in colorful and attractive designs. Frisian Flag's Susu Bendera and Yes! comes in plastic bottles of various sizes and is available in natural, chocolate and strawberry flavors. It also has fruity flavored milk in a carton that comes in grape, mango, orange and strawberry.
Chocolate is the most favorite flavor for children, Surendran says. It constitutes up to 65 percent of Ultrajaya's total milk sales.
Findings from research overseas suggest that milk flavor matters in order to get children to consume milk.
A recent study by the U.S.'s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont, Burlington, suggests that flavors in milk benefit children's diets and that it could eventually persuade kids to choose milk over other ""less healthy"" beverages.
They found that kids who drink flavored milk or eat presweetened cereal with milk have an increased likelihood of meeting their recommended daily intakes (RDI) for essential nutrients such as calcium, folate and iron.
Ali Khomsan agrees, saying ready-to-drink milk is very hygienic and nutritious. He recommends Indonesian parents include it in their children's school snack-packs.
""Do not worry about the quality of the nutrition. Both the natural and flavored milk have similar nutritious value,"" he adds.
Unfortunately, not many people are aware of the importance of milk to children's growth.
To raise public awareness, marketers have undertaken efforts to persuade kids to drink more milk by holding events in schools or in community health clinics (where mothers are targeted as well).
Tetra Pak Indonesia, for instance, recently launched the Susuku Perisaiku (My Milk, My Shield) milk campaign in a number of cities along with milk producers like Ultrajaya Milk Industry, Indomilk, Greenfields Indonesia, PKIS Sekartanjung, and Fonterra Brands Indonesia, and the Indonesian Association of Healthy Bone Community (PERWATUSI).
Amid the many beverage marketing campaigns targeting kids (through various events and advertisements), the milk campaign seems to be the most virtuous of all as it seeks to ultimately benefit both the producers (through increased sales) and consumers, especially parents wanting to introduce their offspring to the goodness of milk.
Such campaigns are not new, especially in more developed countries.
In the U.S., again, several milk campaigns have been held at schools by the National Dairy Council and School Nutrition Association.
In their 2002 campaign, they helped highlight the importance of providing children with milk that they like.
The campaign demonstrated that with simple product improvements, including adding flavors and appealing packaging, milk sales increased 18 percent overall at both the elementary and secondary levels and milk consumption increased up to 37 percent.
In Indonesia, however, there is one catch that may hinder a campaign's success, warned Ali Khomsan: attractive packaging may increase the unit price of milk.
In a country like Indonesia, where statistically about half or so of its population is considered poor, price could indeed be a real impediment.
In fact, it is due to the economic factor as well that parents in Indonesia often do not give milk to their kids after they turn five years old, according to Ali.
Indonesian per capita milk consumption remains low at 6.5-7 liters/capita/year compared to its ASEAN neighbors (India: 40 liters; Malaysia: 20 liters; Vietnam 8.5 liters), he adds.
