Formula Won: a Category You Can Trust
Posted on 07. Oct, 2010 by The Relationship Era in Blog, Blog, Brand Stories
New parents inherit a lot of responsibility when the nurse deposits mom and baby curbside and strolls back into the hospital, and no matter how much they may have thought about and planned for this moment, it’s overwhelming. The first few anxious weeks as a parent of a newborn are typically complicated by the fact that you have to make a lot of decisions with little clear direction. One of those moments of truth is deciding what to feed your baby, but it’s apparently one of the easy decisions for most parents and something that they will ultimately feel pretty positive about if our research is any indication.
Even among families that opt to breastfeed, most will supplement with formula at some point. I’ve done a little informal polling among friends and co-workers and it’s interesting, given the presumed importance of the decision, how few people actually spend much time on the choice of infant formula. I’m sure that my wife and I spent a lot more energy selecting the strollers, car seats and baby monitor than we did looking at formula options. It appears that most of us either start off using what the hospital provides or we get a recommendation from the pediatrician. It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of advance planning either.
This seemed like an interesting category to shed some light on brands and consumer trust, so we included the three most popular infant formula brands—Enfamil, Gerber Good Start and Similac—in the 2010 Q3 imc² Brand Sustainability Map (BSM) survey. If you’re familiar with our BSM tool, you’ll recognize that the goal for most brands is to reach the Sustainable Relationships quadrant (the upper right portion of the map), which means that the brand has both high trust and high transactions with consumers.
The results were a little surprising. This is the first time since we started mapping brands that an entire category ended up in the Sustainable Relationships quadrant.
It should probably be less of a surprise than it is (Who would let their newborn eat something they don’t completely trust?), and it seems likely that infant formula is a higher trust category in general. But trust, as measured in the BSM consumer survey, is a composite of credibility (Does the brand deliver on its promises?), care (Does the brand understand my needs?) and congruency (Do the brand’s values resonate with me?). And here, the results are not necessarily what I expected.
None of the infant formula brands ranked highest among the 58 total brands in the survey for credibility. In fact, none of the three even made the top ten for credibility—essentially establishing, whether consumers believe the product does what the brand says it will do. But since parents tend to rely on recommendations from influencers in this category, and less on their own research or product advertising, they are not dealing with the brand’s promise so much as they are relying on the people and institutions advising them. And the fact that the FDA regulates infant formula probably helps establish the entire category as generally acceptable.
Survey respondents noted high results for care, with all three brands ranking highly, though not first, in this measure of a brand’s concern for consumers. But congruency appears to be the real story. In this component of trust, Gerber Good Start, Enfamil and Similac ranked one, two and three respectively among all 58 brands in the survey. Something is clearly happening here and I could speculate, but I would prefer to hear your thoughts.
What is it about the values of these companies that so clearly resonates with consumers? How did you select formula for your newborn? Has that brand done anything special to build a relationship with you and your family?
Lindsay Rose
07. Oct, 2010
Formula brands use a lot of direct mail marketing, as opposed to less personal forms of media, like TV. I’m guessing this route really resonates with parents as it allows the brand more space to demonstrate that they really care about what’s best for your baby. It also doesn’t hurt that attached to that ad is a very valuable coupon. No $0.50 off for these guys, they usually offer $3 to $5 off. I can say that the primary factors in my baby formula decision were my doctor’s recommendation and the fact that I always had a good coupon to use.
Brock Hardman
08. Oct, 2010
I really like how the Similac brand handled the recent recall. Even though there were no serious threats, they reacted quickly and were extremely transparent. It just goes to show that even through a mistake, you can actually build a stronger relationship in response to how you handle it.
Josh
13. Oct, 2010
As a male that does not have kids I am not as familiar with the brands as a mom, but it seems like some obvious things are putting Gerber at the top. First, the brand names. Similac sounds like something pharmaceutical, EnFamil is better but still vague, neither rings like Gerber ‘Good Start’. Who doesn’t want to give their bundle of joy a good start?
Second, the websites add to the story with Gerber offering tips for moms, a forum to add baby pictures, and a site (and relationship) that changes as your baby grows.
Perhaps in the need to add creditability, the other brands have focused less on the relationship for building trust.
What do you think?
Greg Flory
14. Oct, 2010
You all make some strong points. Lindsay, I think your position accurately reflects what a lot of parents appreciate–respected opinion and value. And Brock, your notice of how Similac handled the recall seems on target from what I know.
Josh, you bring up some interesting thoughts. Yes, I believe that Gerber’s digital efforts certainly help the brand express it’s values and personality in a way that resonates with parents. I think that the pharma-sounding names tend to support credibility since they reinforce the idea what you’re giving your baby is scientifically proven and manufactured with a lot of scrutiny. But you know, you could be dead on since the thought of feeding my child food from a lab, however pure it may be, seems a bit unsettling.