COFFEE MATE STUDY CASE
COFFEE-MATE appeared in 1961 as a non-diary creamer, which is a liquid intended to substitute milk or cream as an additive to coffee or other beverages. COFFEE-MATE soon established its position as America 's most popular non-dairy creamer. This favored status was strengthened with the introduction in 1989 of NESTLÉ COFFEE-MATE liquid, which quickly became the number one non-dairy liquid creamer on the market.
PRODUCT and CONSUMERS
Coffee Mate is made up of dried glucose and vegetable fat and it is considered as non-dairy although it contains milk derivatives.
Some of them are liquid, others are reduced-fat and others are sugar free. There are also seasonal products that will keep you warm during the season, flavors only available from September through December.
The brand is composed by 33 different products each of them aimed at different consumers depending on their preferences, this is explained with what is called Product Line Filling: a product can be offered with different characteristics, it first creates a product (in the case of Coffee Mate, its first product, the Coffee Mate The Original, was the starting point). Then, the company adds more features to that product, and that way it can be more differentiated from its competitors’ products.
There are several reasons why a company might want to add more items to the present range of the line. It may want to increase profits, use the excess capacity it has, satisfying new consumers and that way, to increase the number of buyers…
Consumers are increasingly getting concerned about what they are eating and what companies offer them. The trend over the past few years is consuming products made up of natural ingredients. That is why Coffee Mate has created Natural Bliss, which is made up with only four simple ingredients: milk, cream, sugar and natural flavor.
When a company increases the number of products in the brand, sometimes it can find itself in a situation of cannibalization (it happens
PRODUCT and CONSUMERS
Coffee Mate is made up of dried glucose and vegetable fat and it is considered as non-dairy although it contains milk derivatives.
Some of them are liquid, others are reduced-fat and others are sugar free. There are also seasonal products that will keep you warm during the season, flavors only available from September through December.
The brand is composed by 33 different products each of them aimed at different consumers depending on their preferences, this is explained with what is called Product Line Filling: a product can be offered with different characteristics, it first creates a product (in the case of Coffee Mate, its first product, the Coffee Mate The Original, was the starting point). Then, the company adds more features to that product, and that way it can be more differentiated from its competitors’ products.
There are several reasons why a company might want to add more items to the present range of the line. It may want to increase profits, use the excess capacity it has, satisfying new consumers and that way, to increase the number of buyers…
Consumers are increasingly getting concerned about what they are eating and what companies offer them. The trend over the past few years is consuming products made up of natural ingredients. That is why Coffee Mate has created Natural Bliss, which is made up with only four simple ingredients: milk, cream, sugar and natural flavor.
When a company increases the number of products in the brand, sometimes it can find itself in a situation of cannibalization (it happens
Bibliography: Coffee Mate Offical website: http://www.coffee-mate.com Non Dairy Creamers Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-dairy_creamer Coffee Mate twitter: https://twitter.com/Coffee_mate Principles of Marketing, Fifth European Edition