A note regarding my piece yesterday about the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) “Top of Mind” survey, from CGF’s Richard Lewis:
Thank you for covering our survey.
A slight clarification, if I may. The issue is "the retail/brand offer". The slash is important because we are asking the question of all brand owners, whether their brand is associated with products they make or with a retail banner. Otherwise, your point is dead on. The brand offer ought perhaps to be as pressing a concern for "national brand" owners (for want of a better term) as it appears to be for retailers: in this time of SKU rationalisation, there is everything to play for and shelf space to be won. The lesser priority given by manufacturers may reflect their confidence that consumers are not ready to give up their most trusted brands in favour of retailers' private brands. This is more true in some parts of the world than in others. Meanwhile, some of those private brands are also quietly building trust ... It's something of a cliché, but you have to keep winning trust and loyalty every day, whatever business you're in.
MNB user Jim Godwin had a tongue-in-cheek thought about the proposed tax on pizza:
Instead of taxing pizza and hurting all of us, why not put a 50% tax on large size clothes? (Width, not height) You need a 50 inch waist? It's gonna cost you! This leads to two alternatives; lose the weight and fit into the non-taxed smaller sized clothes, or walk around naked. Option two (naked) would lead to enough ridicule and cat calling to also possibly lead to the desired weight loss.
At least, I think his tongue was firmly in cheek...
Regarding my crack the other day about the restaurant in NYC making cheese with human breast milk, in which I commented that if I’m going to drink breast milk, I’d like there to be an actual nipple involved...
One MNB user wrote:
So you didn’t end up sleeping on the couch ….!
I am encouraged that your daughter spoke up about it to you, sounds like a great relationship between dad and daughter, and it gives me hope for the next generation! Maybe her generation will be the one where pay scales are equal for equal jobs!
Interesting comment by the reader about people being grossed out by human milk, yet not by cow’s milk. It made me think….but I still wouldn’t try the cheese, unless it was my own milk. And I have no intellectual explanation why at this point.
My daughter gives me hope for the next generation every day.
Another MNB user wrote:
I couldn’t help but wonder why no one didn’t address the bigger issue here- those parents need to be educated that breast milk can be frozen ( for up to 3 months) and there are actually hospitals that will pay $ for quality breast milk for AIDS patients. And their child will have a stronger immune system if she is able to get mommy’s milk until she’s two. I wish I had had that much milk coming in to store for when I went back to work for my kids. Don’t waste it in food experiments!
MNB user J. Schindler wrote:
I guess I was more focused on the fact that "the New York City Health Department has advised him not to sell or give away products made from human breast milk, even while conceding that there is no specific law against it."
My thoughts were that soon the USDA will be holding a public hearing to determine what price class such milk should carry under the federal milk orders, and whether it qualifies as "organic". The Ag Dept. will surely investigate to see if the containers were kept refrigerated, and if any rBST free claims are properly qualified.
And - is it just a coincidence that the man owns a restaurant named "Brasserie"? I don't think so!
Not sure if the breast milk is organic. But I’m reasonably sure that he can legitimately claim that it came from local sources...
MNB user Jeff Folloder wrote:
I think that anyone with a passing sense of awareness can see that your editorials are written with a certain "informed, casual edge" (call it ICE). Just about every media outlet was chirping about the breast milk thing. TV news, sports talk radio, blogs, etc. And most folks were snarking around the virtual water cooler with comments nearly identical to yours. You said it "out loud". So what?
MNB user Connie Montgomery wrote:
The people who found your comment on the Nipple joke offensive, must not have a sex life.
Mine is kind of stale at my age, but I not only do not find the comment offensive, I could not stop laughing! What a great one-liner!
That is what I love about your comments; the open thoughts. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but like one comment noted, with so much "sex" involved on the TV and other media sources; why not!
I too tend to get myself in trouble from time to time by saying my actual thoughts!. Usually someone has a good one-liner to come back at me, just like that one.
Don't stop what you do or how you thing; that is what makes you so SPECIAL!
Also--I loved your book and don't mind hearing about it. It really has great points in it and has prompted me to want to go back and find some of those movies to see again or for the first time on some. A wonderful perspective of how we are influenced daily by television and movies.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Thank you for covering our survey.
A slight clarification, if I may. The issue is "the retail/brand offer". The slash is important because we are asking the question of all brand owners, whether their brand is associated with products they make or with a retail banner. Otherwise, your point is dead on. The brand offer ought perhaps to be as pressing a concern for "national brand" owners (for want of a better term) as it appears to be for retailers: in this time of SKU rationalisation, there is everything to play for and shelf space to be won. The lesser priority given by manufacturers may reflect their confidence that consumers are not ready to give up their most trusted brands in favour of retailers' private brands. This is more true in some parts of the world than in others. Meanwhile, some of those private brands are also quietly building trust ... It's something of a cliché, but you have to keep winning trust and loyalty every day, whatever business you're in.
MNB user Jim Godwin had a tongue-in-cheek thought about the proposed tax on pizza:
Instead of taxing pizza and hurting all of us, why not put a 50% tax on large size clothes? (Width, not height) You need a 50 inch waist? It's gonna cost you! This leads to two alternatives; lose the weight and fit into the non-taxed smaller sized clothes, or walk around naked. Option two (naked) would lead to enough ridicule and cat calling to also possibly lead to the desired weight loss.
At least, I think his tongue was firmly in cheek...
Regarding my crack the other day about the restaurant in NYC making cheese with human breast milk, in which I commented that if I’m going to drink breast milk, I’d like there to be an actual nipple involved...
One MNB user wrote:
So you didn’t end up sleeping on the couch ….!
I am encouraged that your daughter spoke up about it to you, sounds like a great relationship between dad and daughter, and it gives me hope for the next generation! Maybe her generation will be the one where pay scales are equal for equal jobs!
Interesting comment by the reader about people being grossed out by human milk, yet not by cow’s milk. It made me think….but I still wouldn’t try the cheese, unless it was my own milk. And I have no intellectual explanation why at this point.
My daughter gives me hope for the next generation every day.
Another MNB user wrote:
I couldn’t help but wonder why no one didn’t address the bigger issue here- those parents need to be educated that breast milk can be frozen ( for up to 3 months) and there are actually hospitals that will pay $ for quality breast milk for AIDS patients. And their child will have a stronger immune system if she is able to get mommy’s milk until she’s two. I wish I had had that much milk coming in to store for when I went back to work for my kids. Don’t waste it in food experiments!
MNB user J. Schindler wrote:
I guess I was more focused on the fact that "the New York City Health Department has advised him not to sell or give away products made from human breast milk, even while conceding that there is no specific law against it."
My thoughts were that soon the USDA will be holding a public hearing to determine what price class such milk should carry under the federal milk orders, and whether it qualifies as "organic". The Ag Dept. will surely investigate to see if the containers were kept refrigerated, and if any rBST free claims are properly qualified.
And - is it just a coincidence that the man owns a restaurant named "Brasserie"? I don't think so!
Not sure if the breast milk is organic. But I’m reasonably sure that he can legitimately claim that it came from local sources...
MNB user Jeff Folloder wrote:
I think that anyone with a passing sense of awareness can see that your editorials are written with a certain "informed, casual edge" (call it ICE). Just about every media outlet was chirping about the breast milk thing. TV news, sports talk radio, blogs, etc. And most folks were snarking around the virtual water cooler with comments nearly identical to yours. You said it "out loud". So what?
MNB user Connie Montgomery wrote:
The people who found your comment on the Nipple joke offensive, must not have a sex life.
Mine is kind of stale at my age, but I not only do not find the comment offensive, I could not stop laughing! What a great one-liner!
That is what I love about your comments; the open thoughts. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but like one comment noted, with so much "sex" involved on the TV and other media sources; why not!
I too tend to get myself in trouble from time to time by saying my actual thoughts!. Usually someone has a good one-liner to come back at me, just like that one.
Don't stop what you do or how you thing; that is what makes you so SPECIAL!
Also--I loved your book and don't mind hearing about it. It really has great points in it and has prompted me to want to go back and find some of those movies to see again or for the first time on some. A wonderful perspective of how we are influenced daily by television and movies.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
- KC's View:
