By  Princewill Ekwujuru

SMA nutrition, the 94year old infant formula took a new look when  producers of the baby milk decided to sensitize Doctors, nurses, mothers and stakeholders in the medical profession and business people on the benefits of the SMA baby  food, as it holds 50 percent market share.

The new look SMA, a changed face from the known small character of the name SMA, now has a bolder character with the S and A written in light red, but now in blue colour, whilst the M which was formally written in blue is now in bold red colour with curves legs, and the name SMA appearing more obvious on the tins, with each of the variants written beneath the name, SMA.

The product now in five variants include SMA Gold, the most popular amongst the lot, SMA white for hungrier babies, SMA Wysoy, a soya infant formula, SMA infant formula and SMA progress, a follow- on milk to complement the weaning diet, all of them fortified with the essential vitamins and minerals.

Osama Fikri, Marketing Manager, Africa/Middle East, Wyeth Nutrition said the company embarked on the new design as a result of a research carried out in various countries where the product is consumed and the result proved  that the SMA should appear bolder, “vor this reason we did just that.”

His words,  “we did a lot of market research in Nigeria and in many countries that SMA brand are available, the outcome was that the name of the product is small in character and has no connection, no warmth in the ways the CANs look. We  had to give the job out to a company to come out with a logo, and we think that this logo is very warm and very attractive to moms ans doctors. We have a little change in the formula to be more closer to breast milk . So, we decided to introduce all the changes at once.”

On expected Television Commercials (TVCs), Fikri said, “ we are following World (WHO) rules, the regulation is clear about this, that before six months you cannot unveil a TVC , but you can do that after one or two years. We are expecting to introduce, next year a new SMA brand , we are planning to have both the print and broadcast advertising platform to push the brand.

Speaking on the current position of the product in the market, the Marketing Manager said, “currently we do not specifically have the market share position of  SMA in the market. The research we did with a  company  said that SMA nutrition is not holding less down 50 percent of the market,” and this means that half of the moms in Nigeria; if hey  want to baby formula, they think  of buying SMA, and, “I believe this is a big percent and it gives us good image in the market, as well, it increases our confidence that we have a very good brand in the market, and We will definitely want to continue with this big market share if one of two moms buy our brand, we believe this is a very good achievement.”

Further on Wysoy, he said that Wysoy is a special formula which is in protein formula, “it is used for babies suffering from cowbell protein, allergy and diarrhea. Wysoy has been in the market for a long time, but it was not announced or promoted  properly that is why it appears to be new. The milk, Wysoy, is having a good position.”

Dr. Peter Willatts, Senior Lecturer, Developmental Psychology in the School of Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland,  Guest Speaker, said recent research has shown that Long_Chain Polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPs), especially Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) and Arachidonic Acid (ARA), are the key building blocks in the brain. There is an early and rapid uptake of LCPs by the developing brain, a process which begins in the second trimester and continues throughout the first two years of life’’.

Willatts, whose main research are in the areas of cognitive development with special emphasis on the development of thinking and problem solving in infancy; relationship between infant nutrition and cognitive development and effects of low birth weight on cognitive development, informed the gathering that his work, which uses new methods for assessing cognitive function has shown that LCPs, “contribute to the development of attention, memory, and problem solving”.

According to Peter de Jeu, Managing Director, EIL Services Ltd, exclusive West Africa agents for Wyeth Nutritionals, promised that his company is committed to providing alternative nutritional sources for women who choose not to breastfeed. He stated, “our Company recognizes that exclusive breast milk is the best for babies, but we are also committed to providing nutrition that’s as good as gold, especially for babies whose mothers choose not to breastfeed.”
SMA formulas, he noted, “are formulated to be closer than ever before to breast milk _ the GOLD Standard for infant nutrition.”
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