Nestle’s customer insight creates a new market in Japan
Traditionally Nescafe was bought in grocery stores and consumed at home. As Nestle Japan searched for new ways to expand its coffee business it found that the economic downturn led to Japanese companies ceasing to supply coffee on the job for their employees. There are about 6 million offices in Japan, most having less than 20 workers and few coffee suppliers were selling directly to offices.
Nestle Japan developed the concept of the Nescafe Ambassador – an office employee with a passion for coffee, interested in collaborating directly with Nestle on behalf of their workplace and acting as an “in-office barista”. The company supplied an in-office Nescafe Barista soluble coffee machine and the Ambassadors ordered the coffee from Nestle, collected money from their co-workers for coffee consumed and forwarded payment.
This innovation came from the insight that Japanese employees liked to have the convenience of having coffee in the workplace. But more than that it was an opportunity to talk with their colleagues, collaborate and catch up with what is going on – it rebuilt their social interaction and a sense of community at work which had been lost in many office environments. Nestle was able to capitalize on this unique understanding of what was happening in the Japanese office environments
Nestle is also looking for new ways to meet the needs of Ambassadors to enhance the atmosphere at their workplaces and facilitate communication between their colleagues.
This new business model based on a customer-centric approach to business has been very successful for Nestle japan. The program was rolled out in November 2012 and by early 2015 there were 170,000 Nescafe Ambassadors. Their goal is to establish 500,000 Nescafe Ambassador cafes at the workplace as well as 6,000Nescafe Satellite cafes and Café-in-shops over the next five years.
Source: Kotler Impact, “Mind your Marketing”, Volume 1, October 2015, Business Model Innovation: The Nescafe Ambassador Program, pages 120-121