RE: Where’s my Nespresso Sugar? 50 Shades of Sugar, please.

December 21, 2015 Leave a comment

IMG_20151219_164357It’s that time of the year again. You’re hunting for christmas presents. You find yourself caught in both physical shopping spaces as well as on e-commerce websites. This year’s annual Christmas routine brought me into the Nespresso store. Accidentally something positioned as “Nespresso compatible sugar” caught my eye. It was an instant flashback to thoughts I had four years ago, in a blog post called “where’s my Nespresso sugar?”  I believe it’s very cool to see Nespresso introduce this sugar (regardless of the fact that this is pure marketing trickery). However, I feel like they left loads of opportunities behind them when implementing.

What’s next for “Nespresso Sugar”? 

I think what we might see next is a complete range of sugars. That’s fully in line with the coffee range. And it also makes sense. There are many sugars in the world. And many tastes in the world. In this respect, Nespresso could easily market different kind of “sugars”. While doing so, they could have a look at the sugar packaging. Clearly, today’s packaging is not branded as the coffee is. It doesn’t breathe emotion. Redesign of the sugar package is highly recommended. Not only in terms of branding and identity, also with regards to “usability”.

Furthermore, why not push it a little further and conceive “coffee+sugar combos”?

Tipos-de-Açúcar

50 Shades of Sugar. What else? 

So to introduce their sugar product line, Nespresso could launch a very cool campaign from the concept “50 shades of sugar.”

Think about the power of this concept for both traditional advertising and so-called new inbound marketing communication.

Is sugar truly a money-maker? What about milk: 50 shades of white? 

I noticed Nespresso is recently starting to push their “coffee + milk” machines. Would it be a good idea to have a “50 shades of white” milk line? What can be said about coffee and sugar, holds also true for milk.

MD_types-of-milk

Looking forward to some creative communications about milk and sugar, Nespresso!

 

 

 

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Where is my Senseo / Nespresso sugar? Questions to a sugar cube factory!

January 12, 2011 1 Comment

Would it make sense to make a pad-and-capsules-compatible sugar cube?

Coffee. Loads of books have been written about it. Drinking coffee is an experience. And this experience has changed. At least when one thinks about new coffee machines that change the way we make, drink and experience coffee. What didn’t change was the sugar you put in your coffee: a cube. Why not change the sugar cube as well

cubing machine for the sugar industry by cfs-aquarius

cubing machine for the sugar industry by cfs-aquarius

What’s new in coffee machine land?

Question to the sugar industry

  • How would you market a sugar cube for Philips Senseo? For Nestlé Nespresso?
  • What message could you possibly bring?
  • What Channels would you deploy to reach that? Would you make it exclusive to stylish hotels, restaurants, bars?
    For Nestlé: only available through the community/club/members? Or full force retail? How would you package the cubes? And how do you believe this will influence the adoption of the new sugars?
  • How does such a sugar cube look like? Does such a cube require integration with the machines from the market leaders in pad- and capsules-land? Pads and capsules are integrated into the machines since you have to put them in to produce the coffee. Maybe the sugar cube needs to be integrated in the machine as to be able to introduce the sugar while operating the machine (in analogy to the pads). If you’d select this option you might even conclude that the sugar cube you were looking for does not necessarily needs to be a sugar cube as we know it today.
  • Would you need to team up with Philips and Nestlé? What would be the best way to develop business relations?
  • Do you have machinery in place that can handle mass manufacturing? Since this is a new product how much would it cost to build a machine that makes the special cubes?
  • How would you promote/advertise new sugar cubes?
  • …

Note on my coffee drinking behavior

I drink coffee. I enjoy coffee. I always drink it black. Sugar? No thanks!

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Most influential brands 2010 index: where are the FMCG giants?

December 2, 2010 Leave a comment

We often wonder what the most influential corporations or brands in the world are. To answer this, we need to pass two challenges: how does one define and measure “the most influential”? We searched for a list that could express “most influential”. We believe we found one that expresses this concept: the Thought Leadership index of TLG.

Defining influential as “Thought Leadership”

With the expression “most influential brand” we mean those brands and corporations that have impact on “opinion formers”. Opinion formers are human beings that, through their own actions and attitudes, shape those of others. They reside within several areas, such as business, politics, media, etc. Those opinion leaders often base their opinion upon the expertise available through organizations. Those companies are conceived and labeled “thought leaders” within a specific industry/sector/subject. “Thought leadership” is often cited as a strategy to build trust in your company and products – which in turn leads to growth.

Thought Leadership companies according to TLG

Thought Leadership companies according to TLG

“Most influential brands 2010 index” aka “TLG’s Thought Leadership index 2010”

The TLG index lists the “Thought Leadership” top companies aka “the top influential brands”. We believe that the TLG index is based upon a valid method: in-depth conversations with opinion leaders. We don’t have information on who exactly were the “opinion formers”, so one could question whether researcher selected “genuine opinion formers”. Let’s assume they did and analyze the list.

List trends: no FMCG concerns & dominance of web-based corporations

Have a look at the list again. There’s not a sign of FMCG concerns such as Unilever, P&G or Nestlé. On the other hand, relatively new corporations with web-focus seem to dominate the list (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon).

Do these FMCG groups realize they are not conceived (“decoded”) as thought leaders/influential? Do they need to deploy another communications (pr) strategy? Are they not striving for thought leadership? The latter is hard to believe. Let’s see whether they’re in the 2011 top list!

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