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The NESCAFÉ Ambassadors use Nestlé products at their workplace, introduce those products to their colleagues, and purchase products on behalf of them. Although we provide bene ts to the Ambassadors such as product gifts, there is no payment involved, and
the system is based entirely on people’s freewill. This concept is rooted in the Japanese culture. It was a bold idea, but we carried out test marketing in June 2012, and in the space of roughly one week we received applications from more than 1,500 people. This unexpectedly good response gave us the con dence
to put the plan into action. About ve months after that experimental start, we prepared for the nationwide rollout. From late November of that year we started airing nationwide television commercials, and we have now received applications from over 170,000 people.
We named the program NESCAFÉ AMBASSADOR because the word “ambassador” has a special ring to
it for Japanese people. The Ambassadors collaborate with us on behalf of their workplace, and they are, if you like, very special members of the Nestlé team. Some
of the reasons people gave for applying to become Ambassadors were actually quite surprising for us. We expected people to say they were applying to make it easier for them to enjoy good coffee at their workplace, but in addition to that, people were also mentioning
a more emotional motivation: they wanted to rebuild
the sense of community that had been lost at their of ce. Japan’s post-bubble economic environment is possibly a reason for this. In view of the worsening economic conditions, cost cutting meant that the free coffee that companies had once provided to employees had disappeared, and employees began to go out to buy their own coffee. And that change in the of ce environment along with the proliferation of computers weakened the sense of community in workplaces,
and opportunities to chat with colleagues decreased. Ambassadors who were concerned about this kind of of ce environment were interested in rebuilding that sense of community by gathering people around their Barista coffee machine. And we have subsequently received feedback from people saying things like “the mood in the of ce has improved,” and “people in the of ce are communicating in a livelier way now.” One can see that it is the joy of pleasing others that is motivating these Ambassadors.
Our vision for the future is to create a network of NESCAFÉ branded cafés that will be equipped with Barista coffee machines, the so called “NESCAFÉ SATELLITE” cafés. There are examples of eateries or shops such as supermarkets setting up cafés serving NESCAFÉ coffee, the so called “Café-in-shop”. We have
already established 420 NESCAFÉ SATELLITE cafés and, believe it or not, 2,050 Café-in-shops. The number of such cafés is likely to continue to increase at an accelerating rate.
Over the next ve years we are aiming to establish 500,000 NESCAFÉ AMBASSADOR cafés at workplaces, as well as 6,000 NESCAFÉ SATELLITE cafés and Café- in-shops. The NESCAFÉ AMBASSADOR program began with the grand plan of establishing NESCAFÉ cafés throughout Japan and making NESCAFÉ synonymous with coffee.
It is estimated that currently around 50 billion cups of coffee are consumed annually in Japan. Roughly one in four of those cups of coffee is NESCAFÉ, making it by far the most popular brand. Our long-term vision is to increase that gure to one in three cups of coffee, by further increasing the number of cups consumed through rapid expansion of our network of out-of-home NESCAFÉ cafés.
When introducing innovations like the NESCAFÉ AMBASSADOR program, it is inevitable to think about adverse effects such as competition with existing channels. However, even if a number of unknown factors exist, nothing will ever get off the ground if you are not prepared take on challenges.
The recent development of IT and social media networks has made it possible to carry out effective marketing in areas where it is easy for consumers to build communities. With the NESCAFÉ AMBASSADOR business model, which enables us to interact with our consumers face-to-face, it is dif cult for competitors to step in, and in addition to that, prices are stable. It is possible to secure loyal consumers, receive direct feedback and use this information to improve or develop new products. In addition, thanks to word-of- mouth publicity through the Ambassador community, the number of NESCAFÉ fans increases and the NESCAFÉ brand is strengthened. We can also meet the needs of Ambassadors to enhance the atmosphere at their workplaces, facilitate communication between their colleagues, and help them with their self- ful llment. This is marketing in a new era.
How can we shift sales and marketing from the 20th
to the 21stcentury? Many Japanese companies can improve their corporate value and pro t through real marketing, thus strengthening the Japanese economy. Marketing not only concerns marketing departments, but it is something that is necessary for all departments across the company. In the end, “Marketing is management.”
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