The Challenge:
Nescafe Taster’s Choice (NTC) is Nestle’s leading coffee brand in North America. Globally, it is called ‘Nescafe’ and is the world’s largest coffee brand. However, NTC suffered within the United States from category stigmas, including customers believing that instant coffee was not real coffee and was an old brand not reflecting today's lifestyle.
Nescafe was not alone in its struggles. The overall U.S. instant coffee category had declined -6% per year for over 20 years. Nestle wanted to buck these trends and grow the brand by attracting a new segment of customers open to instant coffee.
Finding the Prime Prospect:
As the Brand Manager, I led a segmentation study to identify the largest growth opportunity for Nescafe Taster’s Choice. Ultimately, my goal was to identify:
Who is my prime prospect and influencers to my target?
What should be the Brand Equity (and how to communicate it)
How to optimize my product offerings
To do this, I took the following steps:
1. Completed a competitive assessment.
2. Created quantitative research, identifying the segments of instant coffee drinkers (included age, income, usage and attitudes).
3. Analyzed the quantitative results and identified the 'Coffee Enthusiast' segment,
Comprised of Baby Boomers with more specific coffee drinking routines.
4. Developed focus groups to discover:
Consumer Insights: Deeper insights on when Baby Boomers drank instant coffee and what they wanted from the experience (convenience, pure coffee, gourmet taste)
Product Opportunities: What additional innovations would accommodate their active lifestyle.
“The Baby Boomer:
This segment is very different from previous aging generations. This group is highly dynamic in community, family and business. Baby Boomers want to make the most of life’s everyday moments.
- 67% of the nation’s wealth
- Estimated to double in size over the next 20 years
- Highly active lifestyle”
There were other secondary segments that the brand could target and related influencers. We often now call this work ‘segmentation’ and identifying personas. Here are 5 tips I have found to ensure that I have clear segments.
Key Outcomes:
Coming out of the research, several key projects were launched and supported by an overall marketing plan targeting the Baby Boomer. In total, it led to Nescafe Taster’s Choice's being able to turn the decline in its instant coffee sales and have a positive year of growth.
Developed a package that expressed the key brand benefits, including a 100% pure coffee claim (circle with beans).
Worked with our advertising agency to launch the ‘Spills Campaign’, expressing a gourmet instant coffee experience that highlighted the product.
Launched stick packs, a trial size that sold for under $2. The convenience packaging did not cannibalize the canister sales and helped grow the brand in all channels. It even grew new usage opportunities, such as airlines serving decaf using NTC stick packs.
Leveraged stick pack to do considerable in home communication and drive trial through print, direct mail with samples, affiliate programs and sampling events.
Also, a biannual brand equity/tracking study was established to continually evaluate advertising impact and brand awareness particularly within the Baby Boomer segment.