Marketing lessons from Lidl's Milbona evaporated milk
How Lidl's Milbona evaporated milk earned a market share
Lidl’s Milbona evaporated milk is a perfect example of how a private label product can compete with well-established brands and dominate a market segment.
Without doubt, the low price of this product, similarly to other products that are offered at discount prices by this discount supermarket chain, is a decisive factor that has helped in boosting the popularity of the product.
A large number of consumers have chosen to buy it, as a result of the fact that it is more competitively priced than other products in the same category.
In general, consumers buy certain products, because of the corresponding value that these products have to offer to them. Therefore, it is clear that price is part of this perceived value and can have more influence on consumer decision than other factors.
So did well-established brands get it wrong this time?
There is no unambiguous answer to this question.
However, it looks like consumer tastes have shifted to private label products, since consumers no longer seem to place as high importance on aspects such as brand recognition and brand strength, as they used to.
Once the first consumers (trysumers) have tested a product and approved it, other more reluctant consumers will follow.
This is what happened with most of Lidl’s products. The initial hesitation due to the fact that consumers were not familiar with those products, was overcome, after consumers found out that Lidl offered products of good quality at an attractive price.
The rise of Milbona as an umbrella brand
Lidl was smart enough to use the Milbona umbrella brand for all of its dairy products. This tactic could prove to work like a double-edged sword for Lidl, because if consumers disliked one of its Milbona products, this would have a negative effect on other products sold under the same brand, as well.
Fortunately for Lidl, its Milbona brand finally earned customer recognition, which has had a multiplying and sustainable effect on cross-selling within this brand so far.
Not so far in the past, major food manufacturing companies used to give different names to their products, in spite of the fact that they belonged to the same category, for example dairy products. As a result, they had (and many of them still have) different names for their cheese, milk, yogurt, and ice cream products.
Lidl, on the other hand, uses a single brand name for the whole range of its dairy products, i.e. Milbona.
In this way, consumers do not face dilemmas, for example, when they have to select a can of evaporated milk over another, because they are given only one option. If they like this option, they will continue buying the specific evaporated milk brand; otherwise they will reject it and buy a similar product from another supermarket.
Currently, Milbona evaporated milk is sold in two versions: Milbona Whole Evaporated Milk and Milbona Light Evaporated Milk. Personally, I prefer the light version.
Competitive evaporated milk products from other supermarkets
First and foremost, Aldi offers a similar product with Lidl’s Milbona condensed milk, which is competitively priced, as well. As a result, consumers have benefited from this strong rivalry between Lidl and Aldi, at least in terms of low prices.
Other major high street supermarkets have followed suit and they currently offer private label evaporated milk products at very competitive prices, as it seems that they have learned their lessons from Lidl’s aggressive low-price policy.
Another thing is that Lidl has managed to establish and apply its own quality control procedures across its supply chain, in addition to similar procedures that are implemented by its branded suppliers.
Although Lidl sometimes offers other branded evaporated milk products, such as Nestle, along with its own Milbona dairy products, this does not seem to have affected the popularity and level of sales enjoyed by Milbona products, and especially the two evaporated milk options.
Sources and further reading:
Milbona evaporated milk calories and nutritional information
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thepavsalford
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