For those lactose intolerant or animal-free dairy lovers holy cow how times have changed. The alt-milk aisle is more crowded than the line outside
Besides the diverse collection of nut milks now available (almond milk, macadamia milk, pecan milk, walnut milk), there’s also oat milk, coconut milk, brown rice milk, sesame milk, banana milk, and pea milk. Now they can get a frothy oat milk latte at any local cafe or buy the same quality stuff used by my barista to make my own alt-milk drinks at home.
Companies will keep riding the success oat milk has already had.
New dairy-free oat milk products will come in the new year following the marketing success of Oatly, the Swedish oat milk brand. Oatly’s brand, packaging, content and a few other things have made them pretty oatsome.
But it wasn’t always like that, before the known and loved brand, their packaging reflected who they were: a group of academics and scientists trying to find a better alternative to milk. That is, until CEO Toni Petersson brought in Creative Director, John Schoolcraft who created an in-house creative team that allows them to move fast and make tough calls to pivot from a traditional beverage brand to a lifestyle brand.
They used their largest piece of real estate as their main driver: their packaging; Oatly’s DIY-inspired packaging peaks curiosity mixing unexpected illustrations with unconventionally bold statements. But while their packaging is nothing short of aesthetic, the favorite brand component is their copy where aside from their staple statements like “wow no cow” and “It’s like milk but for humans” they didn’t shy away from political topics and having an opinion.
The openly talk about politically charged topics like their impact on the environment. Previously, they even published a lawsuit they’ve received from the Dairy industry in major publications to fight back against “big-dairy”. Separately, they’re also comfortable sharing where they play, on their website they state “we only do oats” — while could potentially limit their field for expansion this statement positions Oatly as the leaders in Oat-based food products.
All of these individual brand choices were then brilliantly executed on social. Both their creative and copy is contagious and fun — and people want more of it. Their instagram feels like that of your art school friend than that of a milk-alternative. The images are artsy and relevant, the models relatable, the copy long, casual and personal. All of this moves them away from being a corporation and instead a group of people.
Their unconventional marketing practices spanned past just their packaging and copy, they also focused their marketing efforts across unexpected channels. They printed out full page magazine ads and even had presence at music festivals.
Oatly’s customer avatar is willing to pay more to avoid traditional dairy milk. But they don’t know how much they would prefer oat milk in their morning latte versus almond milk or soy milk. Who would be able to convince Oatly’s ideal customer avatar they’d like oat milk in place of other milk substitutes? Their local barista.
They focused their distribution to baristas and sold only to niche cafes with strong followings like Intelligentsia, Birch Coffee and Boba Guys. While this strategy led to wide adoption from the cafes, it more importantly resulted in user adoption. Oatly’s rise to fame can be attributed specifically to their knowledge of their customer. By using the loved aesthetic of smaller coffee shops, Oatly didn’t come into the field as a dominating brand—they peeked in as an exciting new option for your morning cappuccino.
Just back in August 2020 while everybody was trying to have a semi-normal summer, Oatly was valued at $2 billion after securing $200 million in equity from private equity company, Blackstone BX with investors including Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Natalie Portman and Starbucks CEO, Howard Schulz. Oatly is also reportedly considering an IPO at a valuation of as much as $5 billion.
“It’s simple, really,” Björn Öste, plant based beverage disruptor and co-inventor of oat milk said. “Taste is king.”
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