>--- Valerie McClain wrote:
>Are the marketing messages between particular infant formula companies
>forthright? I have never seen an ad by a particular
>infant formula company that compares itself against another
>infant formula.  I
>don't watch alot of TV so I may have missed that media.
>But in print media, I
>have never read an ad by an infant formula company that
>specifically states
>that their product is better than another infant formula
>company's.

Since the Lactnet rules prohibit mention of any specific infant formula
brand or company (I think), I am limited in pointing out examples to
you, but they are numerous. Here are a few you may recognize from both
print, TV, and online ads:

-"Most like mother's milk" (implying more like breastmilk than
competing brands)
-"The only formula with comfort proteins" (saying that the other brands
don't have whatever the hell "comfort proteins" are.)
-"Cheaper than the other brands" (buy our "store brand formula" at
substantial savings from the big brands.)
-"The only formula with brain enhancing oils and enzymes" (the new
campaigns drawing attention to the brand(s) that have begin adding
Martek's fish oil stuff)
-"The only formula specifically designed for the special needs of older
babies"
-"Our brand of soy formula has more iron than the other brands of soy
formula."
-"Our infant formula is the only brand made from certified organic
milk."

I could go on and on. Sometimes the "other" brand is mentioned and
sometimes not. More frequently the comarison doesn't name the other
brand because as a general rule, ads don't say competitors' names
because they don't want to draw free attention to the competition.But
the comparison for marketing purposes between/among competing brands of
infant formula is routine and, as you pointed out, something one would
expect from a for-profit corporation competing against other brands for
market share.

Additionally, the huge volume of advertising that formula companies
diret at health care providers is very brand-focused. The goal is to
get doctors and nurses and hospitals to suggest or endorse a particular
brand of formuls to patients. Since you are a health care provider,
surely you have seen ads in medical journals, etc that tell HCPs why
brand-X is better than brand-Y for their patients?

What you will **never** see are ads like this:

-"Use our easy-pour infant formula because it's far easier to deal with
than breastfeeding."
-"Buy our formula so you can get a break from feeding the baby and hand
the bottle off to Dad."
-"Pumping is messy and inconvenient. When you go back to work, you
should plan to start feeding our infant formula."
-"If you are struggling with breastfeeding, go ahead and switch to our
infant formula and bag the guilt."

Katie

-

=====
~Katie Allison Granju~My Home on the Web:  http://www.locoparentis.blogspot.com/ ~

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