Product type Instant coffee Country Switzerland | Owner Nestlé Markets Worldwide | |
 | ||
Introduced 1938; 79 years ago (1938) Tagline It all starts with a Nescafé | ||
Nescafé is a brand of instant coffee made by Nestlé. It comes in many different forms. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Nestlé" and "café". Nestlé first introduced their flagship powdered coffee brand in Switzerland on April 1, 1938.
Contents
History
Nestlé began developing an instant coffee brand in 1930, at the initiative of the Brazilian government, to help to preserve the substantial surplus of the annual Brazilian coffee harvest. Max Morgenthaler led the development project. Nestlé introduced the new product under the brand name "Nescafé" on April 1, 1938. In 1965, Nestlé introduced a freeze-dried coffee brand called "Nescafé Gold" in Europe.
Marketing
In the United States, Nestlé used the Nescafé name on its products until the late 1960s. Later, Nestlé introduced a new brand in the US and Canada called Taster's Choice, which supplanted Nescafé for many years. The company continues to sell Taster's Choice as a separate product, branded as superior to Nescafé and higher priced.
In the United Kingdom, a television advertisement campaign, the Gold Blend couple starring Anthony Head and Sharon Maughan ran in 12 installments between 1987 and 1993. The first 11 episodes were released as a promotional compilation video called Love Over Gold in 1993. A novelisation of the same name written by Susan Moody (under the pseudonym Susannah James) was released in the same year.
In 2003, the company reintroduced the Nescafé brand in Canada and the US, and the product is now known as Nescafé Taster's Choice. It is sold in North American supermarkets in both glass and plastic packaging.
While the Nescafé brand was created for soluble coffee, it has subsequently been used as an umbrella brand on a number of instant coffee products, including, in the UK, Gold Blend and Blend 37 freeze-dried coffees.
In 2006, Nescafé launched the new coffee machine system "Dolce Gusto" ("sweet taste" in Italian). The system allows consumers to make various styles of coffees themselves (cappuccino, latte macchiato, espresso, lungo, etc.). Additionally, hot chocolate and cold drinks can be prepared with the machine. The machines are now sold in more than 60 countries. Unlike other Nescafé products, most Dolce Gusto beverages use roasted and ground coffee beans, instead of instant coffee.
Other marketing activity included experiential marketing/relationship marketing, which led Nescafé to become the headline sponsor of Good Food Show 2008 at Birmingham NEC as part of their campaign to drive awareness of the increased Nescafé collection. About 95% of consumers at this popular event rated the Nescafé Collection stand the best at the show. Nescafé used advanced 3D technology to engage their consumers, led by iD Experiential.
In the UK in August 2009, Nescafé unveiled a £43 m ad campaign for Nescafé, focusing on the purity of its coffee and featuring the strapline "Coffee at its brightest".
Nescafé was ranked 153rd among India's most trusted brands according to the Brand Trust Report 2012, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory. In the Brand Trust Report 2013, Nescafé was ranked 230th among India's most trusted brands and subsequently, according to the Brand Trust Report 2014, Nescafé was ranked 209th among India's most trusted brands.
Lawsuits
In February 2005, the Associated Press reported Nestlé lost a lawsuit and was ordered to pay US$15.6 million to Russell Christoff for using an image of him without his permission on their Taster's Choice label for approximately five years (1998–2003). The $15.6 million judgment was subsequently reversed in its entirety by the California Court of Appeal. On 31 October 2007, the California Supreme Court, with a vote of 6–0, granted review. On 17 August 2009, the court reversed the judgment (opinion S155242) and remanded the case to the trial court to consider whether the ad campaign covered a "single publication," which would have prevented Christoff from suing because the statute of limitations would have lapsed, or multiple publications.
English band Muse successfully sued Nescafé in 2003 when their song "Feeling Good" was used in a television ad without permission, and donated the £500,000 compensation to Oxfam.
Products
Nescafé products include:
Nescafé's speciality range includes:
Nescafé has a Café Flavours range which includes:
They also have 3-in-1 sachets,namely:
A five-gram sachet of instant coffee contains 57 mg of caffeine.