Over 3.6 million babies are born annually in the US, which means millions of parents and guardians potentially need infant formula to feed their children. But in a category with very little perceived difference between products, how do you drive preference for one brand over another?

Compounding this general category hurdle, what happens when a national baby formula shortage caused by a competitor brand throws the whole category into crisis?

Against this backdrop, Enfamil pivoted its entire marketing approach to create a singular trusted voice that parents could turn to in a time of uncertainty and stick with long after.

Enfamil is a household name for infant formula in the US with three distinct brands - NeuroPro Routine, NeuroPro Digestion, and Enspire, but in a category more competitive than ever, we needed to create a first-of-its-kind holistic marketing approach for all three of Enfamil’s products.

However, there was a curveball to our plans: Enfamil’s key competitor had to recall three of their infant formula brands, fueling a nationwide formula shortage. The category was in crisis. Credibility plummeted, and as parents rarely distinguish between formula brands, blame was placed on the whole industry.

Enfamil now had to overturn negative category sentiment and position the brand as part of the solution. If successful, we could increase brand equity and set ourselves up for long-term success when rival products returned to shelves.

We needed to pivot quickly and effectively to respond to the crisis and drive preference for Enfamil’s brands.

A single masterbrand voice within one ecosystem would allow Enfamil to find marketing efficiencies, so we consolidated each brand’s content budget into a cohesive and comprehensive content campaign that weaved-in messaging across all three products.

We formed a content partnership with Everyday Health (EDH), a trusted source of information on pregnancy, children's health, and other parenting-focused topics, to educate parents on Enfamil’s best-in-class formula and quality assurance through customized parent-to-parent, expert-to-parent, and community-based communications. Consolidating our efforts under one publishing house enabled us to tailor messaging across unique titles and touchpoints while simultaneously creating a masterbrand 'voice.’

Our masterbrand strategy had three tiers: Equity, Superiority & Ingredients.

Drive brand equity for each brand (plus masterbrand) by establishing their key differentiators.

Maintain Enfamil’s superiority, as parents no longer have to choose between ingredients - they could have it all with Enfamil.

Our content strategy relayed our key product differentiators:

•NeuroPro Routine with its brain development nutrients

•NeuroPro Digestion with its suite of products that resolve tummy troubles

•Enspire as closest to breastmilk as it has lactoferrin

Importantly, we were deliberate in the roles each asset and channel played, while being smart with innovations and unveiling new ways collective assets could work together.

But when the crisis hit and the nation faced product shortages, we knew parents were going to become more knowledgeable about the replacement products that were available. After all, they didn’t know whether they would be able to get what they needed and who they can trust. So, we responded by reassuring parents that we were a dependable partner, especially throughout the shortage.

We knew that in the long-term, consumers would recognize our role in the market crisis and know that they could distinguish Enfamil as a trusted brand.

Our multi-platform, full-year partnership spoke to parents in multiple ways to educate, drive messaging, and relay to consumers that Enfamil was the infant formula brand-of-choice.

We executed our multimedia content across Paid Social, Custom Content, OLV and Search to ensure broad reach and fast delivery.

Custom content ran across EDH’s platforms to fill parents’ information gap with educational content and information about formula products.

During the shortage, we tweaked our content strategy, knowing that moms and parents were leaning on each other for information and support on social platforms and tapped into Facebook to reach parents at scale with our reassuring message.

Parents who were actively searching for information and updates regarding the shortage or formula recall were captured through Paid Search with our Trust messaging.

In total, we created 108 pieces of content to drive preference for Enfamil and build trust in our products during a challenging time.

Through our masterbrand voice, Enfamil remained the #1 infant formula brand recommended by pediatricians, and thanks to our crisis response, we also became parents’ favorite brand.

•8% more Moms (year-on-year) named Enfamil “the best available infant formula brand.”

•89% of parents believe that Enfamil “offers complete nutrition” and “supports my baby’s brain development, tummy health, and immune health” – a 5% year-on-year growth.

•Enfamil declared the #1 trusted brand for brain-building nutrition and immune support.

•Enfamil voted as the ‘Best Formula Brand’ by What to Expect Mom Must-Have 2022, among other awards voted on by parents.

During the shortage, we reached 8.7 million people on Facebook to let them know Enfamil was working with retailers to fill shelves faster and support parents every step of the way.

We were proud to play our role in reassuring parents during a testing time and ensuring their babies got the nutrients they needed.