
It is not a particularly new business strategy. This data can be saved for future useĭata mining to understand future behavior is called predictive analytics. For example, a woman planning a pregnancy may search for good deals on folic acid, a nutrient needed to prevent birth defects. Formula Marketing Before PregnancyĪs reported in The Guardian, formula companies now use pregnancy and fertility online shopping and browsing behaviors to target women before their first pregnancy. Online shopping habits are a rich trove of information that companies can use for a long time.Ĭombined with pain point marketing companies camouflage marketing as education and support. Marketing has changed a lot in the last twenty years, especially with the rise of social media and digital marketing.

By 2002, even marketing professors wondered how to go about ethical advertising of infant formula. Direct consumer marketing was a big shift and one that the American Academy of Pediatrics did not like. "The companies have an incentive to give as much away early on, because it kind of gets hospitals and mothers hooked on that," said Chessa Lutter, regional advisor on food and nutrition for the Pan American Health Organization, part of the World Health Organization.Modern Infant Formula Marketing Is a Problemįormula companies have only marketed directly to consumers (mostly moms) since 1988. But as research has shown, more often than not they're provided by formula companies. Sometimes those bags are funded by the hospital. "The bottom line is that the hospitals are marketing for the formula industry." The free samples typically come in diaper bags that maternity wards give out to moms when they leave the hospital.


the patient thinks it's the best thing for the baby," said Anne Merewood from Boston Medical Center, who worked on the new study. Experts worry that giving new moms the free samples could undermine official recommendations that they stick to breastfeeding until their baby is at least six months old.

Company-sponsored infant formula samples are still the norm at many hospitals, although fewer are giving out the freebies now than in 2007, according to a new report.
