Supported by a large Canadian dairy, a Burnaby, b.c.-based soy beverage marketer is hoping to take its line of alternative-to-milk drinks mainstream.

While SoyaWorld, a joint venture between Dairyworld Foods and Sunrise Soya Foods, is not the first company to introduce a line of soy beverages to the average Canadian shopper – at least two other companies beat it to the punch this past year – it is the first to advertise its line, called So Good, on tv.

The 30-sec. spot, by Saatchi & Saatchi, features a cow – whose ‘identity’ is concealed by digital distortion – admitting that it enjoys the taste of SoyaWorld’s So Good. The tag line is ‘It’s not milk, it’s So Good’. The spot breaks in Ontario Jan. 19, to be followed by a French version in Quebec several weeks later, according to Debbie Shork, SoyaWorld’s marketing manager.

Shork says the biggest challenge to getting So Good accepted by the mainstream market is convincing Canadians that it tastes good. ‘It’s getting over the obstacle in people’s minds that soya tastes awful,’ says Shork. She says because So Good is made from soy protein rather than straight soybean, it does not taste beany or chalky like most other soy beverages. ‘It tastes very similar to milk,’ says Shork.

However, Shork says the health benefits to soy protein – and So Good – outweigh those found in cow’s milk.

For example, in addition to being free of lactose, So Good is cholesterol free (a 250-millilitre serving of 2% milk carries 20 milligrams of cholesterol) and low in saturated fats (a serving of So Good Original has half a gram of saturates, against the three grams found in 2% milk), all while maintaining the high calcium of cow’s milk (both carry about 30% of the recommended daily intake per serving)

In addition, the company claims that So Good’s isoflavones – a class of natural plant estrogen – reduce elevated levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood, relieve the symptoms of menopause and check the onset of bone density-destroying osteoporosis.

The company has signed on an ‘international nutrition advisory board’, which includes a professor in the department of nutritional sciences and medicines at the University of Toronto, to back up these claims.

The health benefits are not touted in the tv spot, but will be highlighted in the product’s extensive sampling program, according to Shork, who adds that just over $2 million is being spent on the launch.

So Good is available in major grocery outlets, including Loblaws, Sobey’s and iga in Ontario and Overwaitea/Save-on-Foods in Western Canada. The company also plans to attend family-oriented conferences, such as the Canadian Living Parents and Kids show.

SoyaWorld is quick to stress that its product, which is available in original, fat-free, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavors and shelved in the dairy case, is not going head-to-head with conventional milk. ‘We don’t feel that we’re going to replace milk,’ says Shork.

The chances of any beverage replacing milk is unlikely, to say the least.

Milk is second only to soft drinks in terms of beverage sales, and dairy boards have spent a lot of time and effort – not to mention money – to ensure that the public’s love affair with milk doesn’t spill over to alternatives. And dairy companies, perhaps all too aware of the public’s potential for fickleness, have taken a brand extension approach to milk marketing, coming out with ‘purer’ milks (PurFiltre milk under Ault Foods’ Lactantia brand and Neilson’s TruTaste, for example) and calcium-fortified versions (Neilson’s TruCalcium and Natrel’s Ultra’lait Calcium) in the last several years.

The approach seems to be working.

According to the ACNielsen 1997 Beverage Study, Canadian grocery stores rang up $1.3 billion in milk sales for the year ended Sept. 13, 1997, five per cent higher than sales a year earlier.

However, the soy beverage market – traditionally divided between the mostly lactose-intolerant Asian community and those striving for a more vegetarian lifestyle – is growing, thanks in large part to the growth and immersion of both groups into the mainstream.

The soya- and rice-beverage category, worth just under $10 million, is nowhere near its rich milk cousin in terms of sales. However, it did enjoy the most growth of all beverage categories in Canada last year, with sales jumping an incredible 66% over the previous 52-week period.

Dairies, surely mindful of the lessons soft-drink companies learned when they received an unexpected blow from juices and sparkling waters a few years back, can’t afford to ignore that kind of growth.

Last March, Neilson Dairy launched Soy Delight into the mainstream market with little fanfare, relying instead on an in-store sampling program to sell the beverage. Six weeks later, Vancouver’s International ProSoya launched its soy beverage, So Nice, into some of Canada’s larger grocery chains.

Neilson’s director of marketing, Susan Kearney, is happy to see another company build awareness for the overall category because, so far, Soya Delight’s sales have been less than delightful.

‘It’s performing very well but we’re finding it more of a niche product than we originally anticipated,’ says Kearney. Soya Delight was positioned as a premium product – something that doesn’t necessarily attract the critical Asian market, according to Kearney.

She says the company plans on targeting the Asian market in the coming year with some grassroots promotional programs – but all this will only take place after more research is done to determine who exactly is buying the product. As for flavor extensions – Soya Delight is available in vanilla and original flavors – that, too, will be considered after the research is in.