Page 25 - MYM 2015

made to Marketing 2.0, which lets customers know about the quality of NESCAFÉ GOLD BLEND and its competitive advantage within the instant coffee category.
However, amid rising quality levels of other companies’ coffee due to advancing R&D, it will become dif cult to get customers to grasp slight taste differences. Under these circumstances competitive advantage cannot be maintained by communication through mass media of “A man who understands the difference” only - which is to say that a shift needs to be made from Marketing 2.0, which communicates the emotional value of ‘NESCAFÉ GOLD BLEND’, to Marketing 3.0, which focuses on the community value created through the coffee. NESCAFÉ AMBASSADOR represents the realization of this. Here is the background to the move to Marketing 3.0
In Japan nuclear family-type households of one or
two people have surged rapidly, and as a result the environment that people drink coffee in has changed. Rather than preparing coffee at one time for the family to drink, demand has grown for preparing coffee by a cup at a time. But it is time-consuming to boil small amounts of water every time one wants to drink a coffee.
With that, NESCAFÉ GOLD BLEND BARISTA was introduced. This machine, which makes it possible to prepare by a cup at a time at the low cost of only about 20 yen per cup, has been popular.
In fact, changes in coffee consumption have been seen not only in households, but in offices as well. Amid cost-cutting proposals due to the deterioration of the economic environment, coffee that used to be provided at the expense of companies has been gradually disappearing from offices. Employees are expected to bring in their own coffees purchased at cafés or purchase coffee from vending machines.
Meanwhile, face-to-face communication in the of ce has become less prevalent with the spread of internet and email. There is a business opportunity here as well.
The Emotional and Social Value for Ambassadors Is In the Building of a Community
“NESCAFÉ AMBASSADOR” is a business model in which NESCAFÉ GOLD BLEND BARISTA are provided free of charge to openly recruited Ambassadors. The machines are placed at their of ces and
they undertake purchasing coffee and collecting payments. Nestlé Japan, which sends the machines at no charge, get pro ts by having the Ambassadors purchase coffee from a dedicated online shop.
The important point here is the motivation of the Ambassadors. In addition to being able to drink good coffee easily at work at a reasonable cost, creating a venue for communication with colleagues at the of ce has become a motivator.
People congregate around the machine when drinking coffee which naturally leads to building communities. Upon collecting the actual opinion of Ambassadors,
it was learned that they received appreciation from bosses and colleagues for providing both coffee and a venue for active communication, and this was the source of their motivation.
Nestlé Japan also hosts “Thanks parties” to
which Ambassadors and their friends are invited. Ambassadors are not just customers to Nestlé Japan --they are also business partners who communicate the appeal of Nestlé products. One could say that the ability to build communities between Nestlé Japan and Ambassadors, as well as between Ambassadors themselves, is the shift of an era in which it is possible to connect directly with customers.
It is unknown whether Ambassadors aspired to
rebuild communities from the outset when NESCAFÉ AMBASSADOR launched. It’s also quite true that the results have surpassed Nestlé’s expectations. If the company had not thought about what kind of emotional value customers are looking for, and not just looked at functional value, then this initiative would never have started.
This is exactly the kind of value that customers themselves are not aware of. This is also something that cannot be seen through conventional research methods alone. In the Marketing 3.0 era, marketers who can do this are sought after.
The Future of Marketing
Twenty years ago, marketing was seen as largely as a function that supplied communication and promotional support for the company’s products and services. Using market research, marketers would improve their understanding of customers and work with advertising and promotional agencies to develop and send effective messages and media. Marketing was fairly easy to carry on at the time because there were only ve major media categories – TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and billboards - and even within TV, there were only a few major TV channels and shows.
The situation today is vastly different because of the explosion of new media – Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Pinterest, Instagram - that have been added to
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