Although attacked by competitors on its own niche market, Nespresso resists actually better than I expected.

Their latest limited edition is from a marketing viewpoint very different from what they used to do. Until now indeed limited editions were marketed by focusing on the product’s origins. This classical method tends to mobilize the consumer’s imagination which, in turns reduces comparison possibilities and increase the perceived value (thus justifying the higher price). This recipe was applied with great success by many firms, including Alain Millat who basically based the whole success of his products on it.

All of a sudden Nespresso changes tactics and chooses to focus on an “hard” KPI, namely the strength of the coffee. Nespresso fans were already used to the 10-point scale used to rate the strength of the 16 regular coffee types (the scale itself is actually by the way a nice marketing tool too). Now they are aware that «Kazaar», the latest of the limited editions, is the strongest coffee ever sold by Nespresso and hits the 12-point mark. That’s all. No more, no less.

Amazingly this limited edition seems to be a blockbuster. I went to the Nespresso “Boutique” last week and the vast majority of customers purchased Kazaar.

My take:

Back to basics. In marketing like in any other disciplines, strategies need to be rejuvenated regularly. And curiously, after periods of sophistication (in the offer formulation, in pricing, …) a return to basics seems to work well.