Picture
gallery: Free supplies to Malaysian, Hong Kong and
UAE hospitals.
New
sample: one dose, one bottle.
|
Direct
promotion to mothers
During their
hospital stay or upon discharge, new mothers often receive
gift packs directly from company reps or through health
workers. Gifts include formula samples, feeding bottles,
coupons and gifts such as diaper bags, diapers, bottle
bags, towels, bibs, video cassettes and CDs. Cards inside
the packs invite parents to fill in a form and return
it to the company. The information goes into an electronic
mailing list used by the company for targeted marketing
at one, three, four or six months, times when mothers
are most vulnerable.
Nestlé
gift packs in Canada.
FREE
NOW, PAY LATER
Monitoring
in 2000 witnessed an alarming resurgence in free supplies,
a time-tested technique to encourage routine bottle
feeding. Baby food companies know all too well that
free supplies are an effective way to interfere with
breastfeeding and induce mothers into using their brands.
93% of mothers are likely to continue with the brand
they were given at the hospital because of implied medical
endorsement. For the company, free supplies are an investment
that will be recovered through future sales. On average,
each bottle-fed baby will consume US$ 450 worth of milk
per year.
The potential
for brand loyalty and its influence on sales are so
great that companies are known, for example, to enter
into contracts with hospitals to be their exclusive
supplier of free infant formula. On top of that they
pay the hospital US$ 25 to US$30 per infant fed on that
brand! In some countries, companies take turns supplying
formula to hospitals. In North America, there are longer-term
exclusivity contracts.
Free or low-cost
supplies are usually unsolicited donations and are delivered
at regular intervals. For example, a hospital in the
UAE reports that it receives 26 tins of Wyeth's S-26
every week. In Mexico, 12 tins of Mead Johnson's Enfamil
Pre-Maturos are delivered to one hospital every 4-6
weeks.
|
