Nespresso Shifts Marketing Strategy To Appeal To Gen Z's Cold Coffee Habits – CoffeeTalk

Nespresso, a coffee-machine maker, is aiming to win Gen Z’s cold coffee drinkers by focusing on their obsession with ice. The Nestlé unit has spent over a decade in the U.S. promoting hot espresso-based drinks with ad campaigns targeting older adults and starring actors George Clooney. However, Nespresso’s latest marketing push revolves around millennial pop star The Weeknd, whose forthcoming coffee collection with Nespresso is shown served over ice in dreamlike commercials. A new pastel-colored global ad campaign running throughout the summer will serve the Gen Z appetite for ’90s nostalgia.

Nespresso has responded cautiously, building up its iced offering without shouting about it. The company first sold capsules to brew over ice in 2017 and added a “click twice for ice mode” to some of its machines in 2023. It has since run influencer campaigns on social media showcasing iced offerings, developed the compact and colorful Vertuo Pop machine for smaller kitchens, and introduced cutesy accessories like tumblers and ice cube molds to appeal to the TikTok generation.

However, Nespresso marketers moved slowly because they were wary of accidentally dismantling any of the brand equity it had built up among hot coffee drinkers, who skew older than cold coffee fans. The company’s coffee makers also wanted to make sure any capsules designed for ice matched their usual quality. U.S. executives had to convince their colleagues in Nestlé’s Switzerland headquarters that iced coffee, which took off in America before it did in Europe, was more than a fad.

More than 50% of Nespresso’s marketing budget in the U.S. goes toward marketing its iced coffee, a proportion that has increased gradually throughout the past few years. Its sales target for iced producers has doubled since last year. The brand this year will serve as the headline sponsor of The Weeknd’s coming tour, promising to serve “exclusive experiences” to fans in stadiums. Teaser videos for its partnership with the Canadian singer evoke blissed-out surrealism, featuring shots of a rising sun, oversize droplets of coffee, and blooming puffs of mocha clouds.

Global Nespresso sales increased 5.7% to 1.6 billion Swiss francs or around $1.9 billion in the three months to March 31 compared with the year prior, topping the parent company’s overall sales growth of 2.8%. The sophisticated brand developed to promote it will remain as Nespresso’s foundation, but it should give them a springboard from which to launch and move towards something more experiential and playful.

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