Summary
Nescafe – Creating India's Coffee Generation This campaign offered lessons on how to use a brand's perceived drawbacks in its favour to win audience's hearts. Nescafé told young Indians who thought that coffee was "too strong", "too grown-up" to drink coffee for those exact reasons. And when the lockdown hit, Nescafé convinced Indians to start drinking coffee at home, unlike most other brands trying to re-position themselves for work-from-home, Nescafé chose to re-position the home
Challenge
It's not as if Nescafé was the new kid on the beverage block. It had been in India for over 2 decades and had tried all manner of arguments to get Indians to give up tea and switch to coffee. It had tried to pitch it as a modern progressive lifestyle choice in the mid 90s for the neo middle-class who was adopting new habits…Didn't work. It then tried to pitch coffee as the ‘social' drink- break the ice with neighbours, invite the pretty girl next door for a coffee and so on…didn't work. It then tried to pitch coffee as the perfect way to start one's day. For all these efforts, by 2016 Nescafé penetration in the chai-strongholds of North-East-West had fallen to an all-time low of 12.9% Challenge: How could Nescafé drive mass adoption for coffee when Indians have a near addiction to their beloved chai?
Objective
Simply put, expand the category in the N.E.W regions (north-east-west, the tea drinking areas or TDA. These N.E.W markets were where the future growth was going to come from since they were represented the biggest population. With regard to brand metrics- Nescafé wanted to improve its positioning on the key attributes that are crucial for coffee- Perception of taste, lifestyle and so on. Since it first came to India decades ago, Nescafé had always tried to go after the urban tea drinker. That made sense. Coffee had an ‘international' feel. Chains like Barista and Coffee Day had sprung up all over urban India and had introduced Indians to cappuccinos and espressos. Coffee was at a premium price compared to tea. Made sense to talk to those who could have afforded it. But nothing still seemed to work. Till it identified the correct audience which the insight that changed the game.
Strategy
Strategic Idea Position Nescafé as the late teen's step-change fuel, rite-of-passage, best-friend, all rolled into one strong cup of coffee. Insight-1 Nescafé couldn't break the tea habit, It would have to create its own coffee-generation Nescafé realized that tea was more than a beverage. It was a deeply ingrained habit that couldn't be broken. So how do you deal with this fact? Simple. You need to find consumers who didn't have this habit. Which left just one option in India- The Indian late-teen. The late-teen's beverage habits were still getting moulded. They might have had chai or even coffee occasionally but not regularly. But unfortunately for Nescafé there was a problem here as well. Teens didn't like drinking coffee! They thought coffee was "too strong", "too grown-up", and something that "doesn't let you sleep at night". Insight-2 We would have to make teens drink coffee, not despite these qualities, but precisely because of them Taste is fundamental to the F&B category. If there was an issue here we couldn't tip-toe around it. We needed to catch the bull by its horns and wrestle it to the ground. Lean into the perceived drawbacks and own them completely. Nescafé turned the very coffee qualities that teens were rejecting and made them into the very reasons for consumption
Data
Client Data
Solution
Phase 1- 2017 Seeded the coffee-habit Kicked it off with a TVC that showed a father teaching his young son that his life was about to change, he was going to need to stay up all night, so he needed a strong cup of Nescafé. The purpose was to start chipping away at all those strong coffee qualities that teens were averse to and make them the whole reason they needed to consume them in the first place and that ‘Gentle Wont Do' (gentle taste of tea, gentle action, gentle stimulation) Phase 2- 2018 and 2019 Drove frequency of consumption Once the habit was seeded and the brand had become part of their lives it was time to drive the consumption. A new TV spot was released around ‘badal life ki raftaar' (kick up the pace). It showed young college kids busy from dawn-to-dusk and so in need for the strong stimulation of Nescafé throughout the day. By telling them "Ek Nescafé aur chadaa" (put one more Nescafé on the kettle) we embedded ourselves in every stage of college life from posts during admission to a college ‘get started kit' which contained all the college essentials- a jar of Nescafé, stationary, key chains, mousepads and so on. Phase 3- 2020 During Covid Nescafé had to make a quick pivot. For Nescafé to come home, The work codes had to come home first. Instead of re-positioning Nescafé for work-from-home, We re-positioned the home itself. We released a TVC exhorting young Indians to re-start their lives by re-starting the big-action that led to big-changes We told them; Karne se hee hona hai (action is the only way).
Results
Household penetration in North-East-West. In 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, Nescafé expanded its presence in tea-strongholds of North-East-West every single year. 21.5%- HIGHEST EVER PENETRATION in north-east-west (tea strongholds) achieved during the pandemic. 1.23 BILLION cups ADDED IN 2018 (1 year after campaign launch) - 4 times the cups added between 2010 and 2016. 2.5 million number of tea drinking households Nescafe entered in 2019 alone (2nd leg of the campaign). COVID Campaign Result -1 Nescafe received its highest ever Most Often Consumed Brand (MOCB) score during the pandemic. The significance of this result shows that our campaign, released during the pandemic, got regular coffee drinkers to drink more Nescafe while they were working from home than when they were working-from-office! This also shows that the consumer is slowly changing their beverage habits inside the chai-only home. COVID Campaign Result -2 Nescafe received its highest ever Active Consideration score during the pandemic. The significance of this result shows that there were more coffee drinkers actively considering Nescafe when the country was in lockdown than in any pre-covid year. This also shows that regular coffee drinkers of competing brands chose to switch to Nescafe even more than they were before the pandemic. Improvement on Metrics vs Bru in first phase Owned Critical ‘strong' and recharge associations compared to Bru – Strong Coffee -> Nescafe - 61 | Bru - 29 Recharges me -> Nescafe - 63 | Bru - 30 Fits my lifestyle today -> Nescafe - 60 | Bru - 29 Gives me a good start to the day -> Nescafe - 62 | Bru - 30
