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Case Study

Nescafé "café à la carte"

By Kamran Kashani and Rebecca Chung

6 pages

October 2008

Reference: IMD-5-0715

Part of a case series on marketing innovation, the Nescafe Café a la Carte illustrates how Nestlé turned around its stagnant soluble coffee business in one of its key European markets. The marketing team, armed with local consumer research, replicated a successful product launch from another market. Once they achieved success here, they created a new sub-brand and an innovative packaging to go with it. The sub-brand strategy was initially vetoed by the top management. But the local marketing team finally overcame the management’s resistance by confidently arguing for their strategy and not taking “no” for an answer. The case depicts how a series of small-step innovations can lead to a big results.

Learning Objective

This case study can be used to 1) demonstrate how a stagnant brand can be rejuvenated through innovative marketing; 2) show how innovative strategies can be inspired by listening to consumers; 3) illustrate how successful product launches can be replicated from other countries; 4) address the issue of overcoming top management resistance to novel ideas that are perceived as too risky. The case can be used alone or with one or more of the other cases in the series on marketing innovation.

Keywords

Marketing Innovation, Marketing Renovation, Brand Management, Product Launch, Food, Coffee

Settings

Netherlands
Nestlé
1990-2006

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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