Nescafe vs. Starbucks

When I walk down the street in my neighborhood in Washington, DC and I see print ads written in Spanish I think to myself, “Now these people get it.” For the record, if you are buying media in Mt. Pleasant and your ads are in English, you’re probably doing it wrong. I was excited to see a Spanish Nescafe ad in the street today. Then I took in the message and was even more impressed with the company’s marketing.

Across the world, Nescafe is the undisputed king of instant coffee. When Starbucks rolled out a single serving instant product this year it tried to position the product as innovative and groundbreaking. However, the Starbucks product is almost identical to Nescafe including the individual packets it comes in. This is big for Nescafe in the states because its single serving product never had the traction here that it enjoys in other places including coffee countries like Columbia.

It’s not hard to imagine Nescafe brand managers scratching their heads regarding how to break into the market for coffee that Starbucks has created in the states over the past two decades. American’s would have laughed if Nescafe tried to create points of similarity to Starbuck’s with its soluble product. But then it happened, Starbucks entered Nescafe’s market. When Starbucks enters your market and rips off your product down to the pos you suddenly have a legitimate point of similarity. By the way, this isn’t Starbucks taking on a mom and pop. Nestle is a giant.

Nescafe is going for it. They have a print campaign up around public transportation terminals. The one above shows the two products stating that Starbucks is a lot of money and that Nescafe is a lot of flavor. Head on. Our product is like Starbucks, but better (sorry for the glare in the photo it was a bright time of day and I'm Amsel Adams.)

It seems to be hitting its demographic, which probably isn’t the same as Starbucks’, with the message, “We’re as good as Starbucks and cheaper.” Who knows, maybe Nescafe will convert some Starbucks customers but the campaign is more likely to leverage the Starbucks equity to grow the market in lower end single serving instant coffee. I say this because you see the Spanish ads and the ads are at the bus stop etc. Good for Nescafe. I think its product is underrated and it’s great to see it take advantage of opportunities that Starbucks creates.