Even if nine out of 10 consume breakfast, it does not really mean they are eating healthy breakfast. Most of the usual Malaysian breakfast fares including nasi lemak and Chinese oil stick are high in calories and fat. This is where the money lies. Brands want you, the consumer, to eat more nutritious breakfast to start your day. Milo recently organised the annual Milo Breakfast Day on 20 April 2014, an event participated by about 20,000 people. The mission was to “rally the nation in making the right nutritional choices for a balanced breakfast and to encourage an active lifestyle”.
 |
| F&N Seasons NutriSoy |
However, many brands do not emphasise nutrition in their breakfast marketing. They simply want you to have something pleasant to start your day. Such positioning is taken by F&N, the maker of the Seasons Nutrisoy range of soya bean milk, for its latest F&N Seasons NutriSoy Breakfat Love campaign. The key message is love your breakfast and remember to eat it.
For Lam Soon, the producer of Home Soy, the tagline for its latest instant breakfast soya product is it “warms you up to a great day!” The main unique selling point of this product is it comes in the powder format, ideal for at home/office consumption and easy to carry around. The two variants are original without oat and with oat. Both are priced RM9.90 per pack at Aeon Big.
But for all Malaysians, we just want something quick, cheap and tasty. It is even better if it comes free. McDonald’s knows it and that is why its National Breakfast Day has been so popular. McDonald’s breakfast campaign has successfully converted many non-users into customers, thanks to the affordable pricing, innovative new products and price promotions (eg. free McMuffin and RM 1 Brekkie Wrap).
Similar to McDonald’s value meal, Oldtown, a coffee chain similar to Starbucks but with affordable price, is using MyBreakfast to drive footfall. The value meal program, launched in 2010, has increased usage during the breakfast daypart as patrons not only can enjoy their local breakfast fares but can also use the WiFi for free.
Breakfast is an important battle ground for brands as they are still many consumers who have yet to be persuaded to eat breakfast. You don’t need to tell people to eat lunch or dinner but you can for breakfast. The challenge is converting more people to consume your products for breakfast.
The good news for breakfast contenders is Nestle is going to increase Milo’s prices in Malaysia by 5-7% in May 2014 due to higher raw material prices However, the impact of the price hike will not be strong as Malaysians have been brought up drinking Milo and still can’t get enough of it.
