NotMilk calls out Danone's similar brand name with guerilla-style tactics

I know you are not, but what am I not? NotCo, the Chile-based maker of a plant-based beverage known as NotMilk, has taken to guerilla marketing to head off competition from dairy giant Danone, whose Alpro subsidiary has begun selling a plant-based milk in Europe called Not M*lk. Last week, NotCo launched a social media campaign and a microsite asking its fans to suggest alternative names for the Danone-associated brand, gathering more than 1,000 suggestions by this morning including “Could’ve Been Milk,” “Pilk,” “Nulk,” “Milk’nt,” and so on. The brand parked a truck outside of Danone’s White Plains, New York headquarters on Friday with digital signboards scrolling the suggestions. Get the latest Ad Age Super Bowl 2022 news here. Flavia Buchmann, NotCo's chief marketing officer, said the stunts were products of the brand’s internal marketing team—known as NotAgency, naturally. They are accompanying what she described in an interview as the pursuit of a trademark infringement action in Europe and an ongoing dialog between the companies in the U.S. The effort is aimed at raising the profile of NotMilk in a fast-growing and crowded category that in the U.S. includes the likes of Danone's Silk brand and other rivals such as Oatly. NotCo's guerilla-style tactics are a way to go after Danone—the world's 91st largest advertiser, according to the Ad Age Datacenter—with limited marketing spending. A Danone representative declined to comment. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Not Company US 🇺🇸 (@notcous) Got 'milk?' Plant-based milk alternatives accounted for about 35% of the total U.S. plant-based food market and generated $2.5 billion in sales in 2020, according to the most recent figures from the Good Food Institute. Sales of plant-based milk alternatives grew by 20% in 2020 and accounted for about 15% of all retail milk sales, by dollars—plant-based options are often priced higher per serving than their dairy competitors. Register for Ad Age Next: Health & Wellness at AdAge.com/NextWellness. Underscoring the tangle between NotCo and Danone is uneasiness within the dairy industry, which has objected to plant-based beverages being called “milk” in the first place. Dairy milk marketers argue that using the term “milk” violates the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “standards of identity,” and have urged the federal agency to require that alternative beverages use special labeling. NotCo was founded in Chile in 2017 behind a novel approach to product development, using artificial intelligence—a program it calls “Guiseppe”—to investigate plants that could be combined to create alternatives to traditional foods that look, feel and behave alike. The company’s NotMilk product uses pea protein and pineapple juice concentrate, for example, but its sights aren’t limited to milk. Its alternative burger product is utilized by Burger King Chile in its “Rebel Whopper” product. Mayonaise and ice cream alternatives are also in the works outside of the U.S. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expedition Fund is among NotCo’s investors.

NotMilk calls out Danone's similar brand name with guerilla-style tactics

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