By: Jim Davis, Staff Writer

December 1, 2005, San Jose Business Journal (CA)

The Shatto Milk Co.'s products became a means of time travel for Paul Diamond. Their effect was not unlike that of the Wayback Machine on the old "Peabody's Improbable History" cartoon series.

When Diamond, 39, held the gorgeously rounded bottles in which the milk was packaged, he flashed back to how he awaited the milk truck's deliveries to the insulated case outside his childhood home.

Diamond, now working for advertising agency Sullivan Higdon & Sink Inc. in Kansas City, thought Shatto could milk the warm comfort associated with its cold product. He made his pitch to milk meister Robert Shatto just a few months after the bottles' introduction in 2003.

To enhance what he described as the bottles' "'50s simplistic elegant design," Diamond developed a new logo for the dairy featuring a bucolic cow's placid face.

To catch consumers' eyes, each bottle is imprinted with a descriptor of the product experience: "YUMMY" proclaims one; "FAMILY" says another. You get the idea.

Diamond is not alone in his efforts. From fast food to insurance, marketers are finding that retro marketing has struck a chord, particularly among baby boomers.

Authenticity makes these campaigns work, said Sam Meers, president of Meers Marketing Communications Inc. in Kansas City.

"In a culture where the media is so fragmented, where the average consumer sees 3,000 ads a day, people are looking for something that's comforting," Meers said. "People are tired of being sold. They want to find a company and a brand they can trust."

It seems to be working for Shatto, self-described as "just an old dairy farmer." He said he has been overwhelmed by the response in the two years since the dairy began using glass bottles. The dairy sells everything produced by its herd of about 180 cows in Osborn, Mo., about 50 miles north of Kansas City -- upward of 1,700 gallons a day at this time of year.

In addition to being stocked in supermarkets from St. Joseph to Belton, Shatto Milk accents chocolate cappuccinos poured at The Roasterie Café, a new coffee shop in Brookside, and coffee drinks served at the Sheridan's Frozen Custard stand that opened in the fall at Crown Center.

Shatto's bottles help distinguish its milk from the competition -- much larger dairies whose products are packaged in more utilitarian plastic or cardboard.

Shatto's milk, cold and rich-tasting, delivers on its bottles' promise, Meers said. The product's high quality, in turn, enables it to sell for a premium price, on top of which is added a refundable deposit of $1.50 a bottle.

The trick for retro marketers is to identify attributes that buyers value beyond whatever nostalgic feeling a product can create, said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in suburban Chicago.

"The big challenge is finding a benefit that matters today," he said. "Heritage is not a benefit. Nobody cares how long a company has been around."

When Hewlett-Packard Co. touted its legacy as the Silicon Valley's symbolic founder, for example, the campaign flopped.

"Why should we care today that (Hewlett-Packard's) founders worked in a garage and believed in innovation?" Calkins said. "There's no benefit."

Similarly, Levi Strauss & Co. wasn't able to compete with more fashion forward jeans-makers by hearkening back to the 19th-century California gold panners it clothed.

"If that (historical) message did anything, it was negative," Calkins said, "because it reminded you that you were old and out of date."

Historical tie-ins tie in better to businesses, such as insurance, that are less tethered to shifting tastes.

Visitors to Kansas City Life Insurance Co.'s Web site, for instance, are greeted with a message from company President Phil Bixby. He is the latest in a succession of family members who have led the publicly traded company (Nasdaq: KCLI) for most of its 110-year history.

Kansas City Life's reputation is steeped with integrity, he said.

"The promise of financial security is only as good as the company that makes it," he says on the site's opening page.

Walz Tetrick Advertising of Mission advised Kansas City Life to emphasize its longevity as a key attribute in providing assurance to customers who literally are buying peace of mind for their dependents.

"It's nice to offer that stability in a world that's not so stable," said Charles Tetrick, Walz Tetrick's CEO.

Other companies make more lighthearted use of their past.

Take, for example, the Blue Bunny Bomb Pop. The frozen treat, introduced in 1955 in Kansas City, marked its golden anniversary with a summertime sweepstakes conceived by Barkley Evergreen & Partners Inc. of Kansas City. Bomb Pop sticks were imprinted with prize awards. The grand prize was a trip to Disneyland, also celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Andy Iverson, a Barkley Evergreen executive, said the agency leveraged the Bomb Pop's "invisible equity of history," memories of slurping the red, white and blue pops at Independence Day parties and other happy times.

To gain attention in the future, the campaign inaugurated an annual Bomb Pop Day, to be celebrated on the last Thursday in June. Suitable activities for the day include buying and eating the treats.

Sonic Drive-Ins, another Barkley Evergreen client, also makes a nostalgic nod with oldies music that provides the background soundtrack for customers in neon-lit parking areas.

Iverson said these touches differentiate Sonic from other fast-food restaurants. But the throwback theme only goes so far. To keep customers coming back and increase their visits' frequency, Sonic continually updates its menu with new items.

Similarly, Shatto Milk is introducing a new product: butter. Wrapped in aluminum foil encased in cardboard sleeves, the wrappers are stamped with adjectives -- "CREAMY," "HEAVENLY" and "DELISH" -- that remind buyers of the time when such pleasures were common.