The fact is, recruiting today is more challenging than it was five years ago. Here are the top five reasons that support this conclusion. 

Muller Quaker Dairy and Nestle were active with free-standing inserts for the week beginning Feb. 17. 

Dairy marketers took to the free-standing inserts this week to promote new flavors, nutrition and foods for the upcoming Super Bowl (although none identified the championship game as such).

With the Super Bowl approaching, dairy marketers are fine-tuning their pitches, offering cheese recipes that party hosts can serve during the "big game" in their free-standing inserts for the week beginning Jan. 20.

Consumers are moving away from the three-meal-a-day norm, which means more snacking. Yogurt is in a perfect position to help people achieve their wellness goals even while snacking. 

The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy Future of Dairy research highlights matching dairy with other ingredients as an important opportunity to expand dairy consumption among today’s aging consumer, as well as other demographics

Dean Foods reduces the sugar in its TruMoo chocolate milk, and Land O Lakes offers recipes using Saute Express flavored butter to smartphone users.

Creating new segments will help protect milk’s relevance, while developing products for those segments will help revitalize sales. Think about how a completely breakthrough product such as the Swiffer Sweeper can revolutionize a category — a new product of this magnitude can help capture sales and bring consumers back to fluid milk.

Consumers are looking for new and exciting tastes, and cheese is well-suited to help consumers expand their palates, while allowing manufacturers and processors to create new eating occasions and drive sales.