Marketing Milo

My mother got back from a trip to Jamaica yesterday, and quite typically she'd brought back stuff. Among the items were eight packs of Milo, a Nestlé product I grew up having. Granted, it wasn't a frequent part of my childhood, but it's something I knew about.

So, the thought of this blog post came earlier in the week as I was looking at a can of Milo mummy had bought here in the US. Me knowing Spanish, I was comparing the English to the Spanish translation (or the Spanish to the English interpretation, whichever it is).

The Spanish translates literally as "Chocolate-Flavored Fortified Food", which is vastly different from the English. In Spanish, it makes the product to seem as if it's a meal replacement; in English, it's just something recreational to drink, a nice-to-have.

So, mummy coming back with Milo from Jamaica now, both the English and Spanish are a little more in line together, but in the islands they market it as something that can replace a meal as well, or at the very least it's something one can drink when you can't eat at the time (such as while at play).

That's interesting marketing, actually. Why would you market a product as a drink for one set of people and as a food for another? I'm certain that those who use it as a food can't be doing quite as well in all their health numbers, especially with the amount of sugar per serving. Is it a disposable income matter, that those who would use it as food have less money to spend, and so this is their quick-fix meal?

I really don't know, but marketing a beverage like that as a meal just doesn't seem right to me.