How did "protein beverages" change from macho-oriented products to women's health-conscious products

ByU.S. Department of Agriculture

Protein (protein), which also serves as a "material" for human muscles, is recognized as one of the essential nutrients for the creation of a healthy body. In the old days, it was a typical pattern that body builders and athletes ingest protein to increase muscular strength, but in recent years the protein has been used for consumers who are "health-conscious" and for products targeting women It is to be done.

How Protein Conquered America - Eater
https://www.eater.com/2018/2/12/16991634/muscle-milk-protein-culture

Speaking of "protein", it was mostly sold at a can of about 20 cm in height, and items of about 1 kg in weight in a big bag were sold at sports specialty shops. This was mainly because the protein was used as "to make the muscle bigger and stronger", it was not necessarily widely consumed in general.

Also, Protein is not that delicious food. "Whey", which is one of the typical components of protein, basically reuses residual debris generated when dairy products such as cheese and yogurt are made, it is not so delicious on its own. For that reason, the protein is generally recognized as "for training" and has an image that muscle muscles bodybuilder mixed with milk after training and forcedly throwing something not delicious into the throat There should be many people.

However, that trend has changed since Cytosport (Cytosport) in the United States since the beginning of the 2000s made a change to the protein food brand "Muscle Milk". Muscle Milk is known to have been reborn as "the tastefully delicious" for the first time the protein which was previously recognized as "Mazuimono", 20 kinds such as vanilla taste, chocolate taste, blueberry taste banana cream taste, etc. We have a range of flavors line up.

Products | Muscle Milk ™
http://www.musclemilk.com/products/


Cytosport is a company that was born in 1998 by Mr. Greg Pickett and Mr. Mike Pickett of his son and daughter Nicky Pickett and others in 1998. Mr. Greg bought sports drink powder brand from Champion Nutrition who used to work previously Was established in. The company's representative product "Muscle Milk" is the name that gets images from both mother's milk (mother's milk) which was considered the best as a natural nutrient source and protein brand "Mother's Milk" which was popular in the 1960s It is said that it is named.

Protein products that Cytosport was once manufacturing are 32 grams of protein and 18 grams of carbohydrates and 12 grams of fat in a single tablet so that users can dissolve this tablet in water and drink it It was said that it was. However, the announcement of the first drink type "Muscle Milk" in 2004 was the big turning point for Cytosport.


Muscle Milk which can be easily drunk easily with easy to drink taste like flying, and it is a company of a size far exceeding the aim of the picket family which I thought was "a great success if sales are about 18 billion dollars (about 2 billion yen) per year" growth. Inquiries came to Cytosport from retail stores throughout the United States, and others suggested product development from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. PepsiCo has also said that they have offered a merger with a 50% holding ratio, but Cytosport has declined all of them.

After that, dealings with Wal-Mart and Costco, the world's largest retail chain, began and as of 2014 the annual shipping record reached 22 tons. In the same year, Cytosport is a US food company "canned goods" Spam "is a signboard product"Hormel Foods"About 500 million dollars (about 55 billion yen at the rate of the time) has been bought.

According to Mr. Nikki, one of the founder of Pickett's eldest daughter, Muscle Milk is now positioned as "for body creation" as in the past, now as "for healthy and active lifestyle" It is said to be accepted by society. Protein is a nutrient with a high thermal effect, it is thought that the body consumes more energy (= calories) than protein, that is, protein uptake, such as fat and carbohydrates. Proteins also have the effect of promoting the secretion of hormones causing feeling of satiety, and it has been confirmed that taking high protein diet has the effect of decreasing body fat percentage and maintaining lean muscle mass for a long time.

As of 2018 Cytosport is focusing on marketing targeting women through SNS. In 2016 Cytosport has introduced smoothies protein drinks, among which the "Greek style yoghurt" lineup is specifically targeted at women. The corporate image has become "more soft" than in the past, and female athletes were also appointed to the public relations work previously used only by men, and women's campaigns are being implemented.


In the commercial, Julie Johnston Ertz of professional soccer appeared with a woman doing fitness and finally a copy called "Stronger Everyday" which is a key phrase will be displayed.

Muscle Milk | For Women With Muscles feat. Julie Johnston - YouTube


On the other hand, it seems that Muscle Milk brand's interesting place is also having a slightly comical feeling CM as follows.

Muscle Milk | For Women With Muscles - Yoga - YouTube


Mr. Yvette Kearson, an international ethnographic magazine scholar, said, "These beverage products are not related to previous functions, but are becoming more in line with lifestyle." Even now SNS has uploaded many posts on protein, and in Instagram search by hashtag "#protein" has hit about 20 million posts.

#protein • Instagram Photos and Videos
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/protein/


Picket family believes that "flavor" has played a major role in the reason why Cytosport's Muscle Milk swept the market. My father, Mr. Greg, said that he developed Muscle Milk as "a dessert" rather than a protein drink. When Muscle Milk was still in the development stage, Mr. Greg gave the staff managing the factory mixer a chocolate taste prototype and when asked about the taste evaluation, the staff faced downwards and kept silent It is said that it has gone. Although Mr. Greg was a little confident in the taste, we started to improve further by looking at the state of the staff, from "dark chocolate taste" until then, "milk chocolate taste" where the milk ingredient is felt stronger Has been created. After that, the staff who was in charge of the first tasting visited Mr. Greg and said that he said "I think that this protein product is the most delicious product created by the machine that I manage".

In this way, since the recognition has changed from functional foods as "former muscular strength up" to foods to realize "healthy and active lifestyle", the protein is accepted for more people That is why. However, the protein is not necessarily "a panacea that becomes healthy if it is drunk", but it is a thing with sufficient effect only after proper exercise corresponding to the intake amount, so it is effective if you ingest with atmosphere-oriented importance Not only because there is too much protein overload, kidney stones are caused, and kidney dysfunction is caused, which may cause unexpected health problems, so it is important to ingest with correct recognition.