Building a brand community: two different strategies

Coffee lovers taking a bath

Today, brands are well aware of the power of consumers. With blogs or social networks, consumers are able to connect, to discuss and to challenge brand's legitimacy.
We are now going to analyse what are the strategies of our two premium regarding brand communities, do they have full control upon it? Are they able to answers consumers concerns?

Nespresso exclusive club:
Nespresso strategy is clearly to control their consumers, to make them feel part of an elite group. Indeed, once you buy a Nespresso machine, a number is attributed to you and you become part of the club. Then special dedicated events invitations or promotions are sent to you, everything is made to make you feel important for the brand. This strategy is very efficient, it enables Nespresso to know precisely its consumers and to target them in a relevant way.

Nespresso facebook page

Another part of their brand community strategy is their facebook page. On it, consumers can express themselves, post photos or directly address the brand. For instance, Nespresso promotes jewelry made with used Nespresso coffee pads by a Facebook fan.

Concerning Lavazza the feeling of brand community belonging may be less powerful. The brand has no such thing a "Lavazza club". Lavazza tries more to derive a brand community feeling through social media. They have on their website a dedicated page to "Community" which is an interactive platform in between the brand and its consumers. This page clearly enhance consumers to "express" themselves by posting questions, liking the Lavazza facebook page or suscribing to Lavazza youtube channel.

Eventually, it seems that Lavazza and Nespresso have two different positioning regarding their brand communities. Meanwhile Nespresso tries to be in total control of its customers, Lavazza leave space for the community to express itself.

Nespresso's brand endorsement strategy goes on

A new icon will embody Nespresso brand values. This time, it is a European actress promoting cappuccino. This slight change is meant to appeal American consumers (who fancy more coffee with milk)

source: http://theadsmag.com/penelope-cruz-the-new-face-of-nespresso/

Competitive war : a tight market competition environment

An interesting article about the present war going on between Nespresso and Ethical Coffee Company (which sues Nespresso for smear campaign and unfair competition practices) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-05/nespresso-sued-in-paris-by-ethical-coffee-for-smear-campaign.html

Coffee at the working place : a different target, a different branding strategy

We seen before that both Lavazza and Nespresso play on senses and emotions when targeting their usual consumers. However this emotional branding strategy is changing when these two brands attempt to reach BtoB market (to sell machines and coffee pads to companies).

Indeed coffee (outside of work) is associated with coolness, going to a cosy bar in the city, but above all having a good time at home after lunch. Indeed the initial idea of Nespresso was to give the opportunity to consumers to have at home an expresso of the same quality of the ones that are delivered in restaurant or specialized places.

Coffee at the work is thus linked with very different ideas in consumers' mind. It is not about taking its time, enjoying a peaceful moment at home, but more about having a small break, little chat with colleagues in a stressful environment. We see well that the nonchalance of Georges Clooney in Nespresso ads is not really compatible with the common associated ideas of the workplace.

We are now going to see how do these brands address themselves to professionals and they are able to change their identity without loosing their premium attributes.
First of all, concerning Nespresso, it is interesting to see that they have a dedicated website for professionals (entitled "business solutions"), it is not a sub-part of their general website but a real other website.

Nespresso professionals dedicated website

The website is really simple and sober, the colors used are in line with the global visual identity of Nespresso. However we do not get that feeling of exclusiveness and classiness. The global atmosphere of the website is much more neutral. We cannot find any emotional elements usually linked to the brand (Signature: "What's else?" or Georges Clooney pictures)


It appears thus that Nespresso choose to use functional branding instead of emotional branding when targeting the professional market.

Lavazza professionals dedicated page

Concerning Lavazza even if they have not a dedicated website for professional, they instaure in their website very different ambiance according to the place where coffee is taken. In their page at work, we can see that all the codes of the working environment are used: the smart guy in a suit, standing up near the coffee machine gives an impression of dynamism and efficiency which far from the home cosiness feeling.

Nespresso shop & consumer insights

Interviews of two Nespresso consumers at the Nespresso shop in Lille :

Is recycling a touchy topic about Nespresso’s and Lavazza’s coffee pads?

In the domain of recycling, the aim of Nespresso is to facilitate as much as possible the collect of used coffee pads. However, the firm had to establish different ways according to the country. In Germany and Sweden, pads are considerated as household wastes and thrown with this kind of wastes. On the contrary, in most of European countries (like France, Spain, Belgium), Nespresso tries to collect and get back used pads to recycle them through a special system. To set up this system, Nespresso consumers can bring their used pads in Nespresso shops since 2008.

Nespresso had also improved in the recycling of the pads, particularly in France because small aluminium wastes are not always recycled (and are burnt): they create a system of magnet which permits to gather aluminium coffee pads but also small aluminium wastes (like cans). This way, consumers don’t have to bring their coffee pads to shops and can throw them with household wastes. This technical is implemented in few departments of France.

When coffee pads are collected in shops or special place, recycling starts with the separation of aluminium and the coffee grounds. Then, the last one is used to make compost and the aluminium is reused after becoming aluminium again.

By this way, Nespresso directly implies consumer in the recycling of the pads. The firm testes new system less restricting for customers and innovates by making consumer able to throw the pads with household wastes. But by getting back the coffee pads, the firm can send the used aluminium to specialized firms and earns money. This money represents 5% of the cost of this recycling system. And in an environmental way, recycling aluminium is more sustainable than the production of primary aluminium.

The main objective for Nespresso is to recycle 75% of sold pads in 2013.

On the other side, Lavazza proposes pads composed of aluminum, polyester and polyethylene which are not recycled neither reused. Those pads are burnt in incenerators.

In both case, one of the main brake in consuming coffee by pads is the ecological impact: indeed, coffee bean is really less pollutant than coffee pads.

Nespresso in particular is accused of greenwashing about the recycling.

The Ethical Coffee Company explained that Nespresso insists on the fact that they recycle pads so they reuse aluminium. However, in a global way, it is more pollutant recycling pads than just throwing them with other wastes. The Ethical Coffee Company wants the consumer be conscious that recycling includes also transporting pads to the right place, separating coffee grounds from aluminium... all those steps produce more CO2  than just burning pads.

The firm accuses Nespresso of greenwashing and challenges Nespresso to submit the pads to a strict control about recycling. The Company asks Nespresso to get the ADEME label which takes into account all the steps of recycling to calculate the generated CO2 and which guarantees that technical used by Nespresso is really positive in an environmental way.

In fact, Nespresso built up a strong communication strategy (called ECOLABORATION) about recycling whereas it is not a topic in Lavazza website: Does Nespresso want to hid the reality about its environmental impact?

Press Articles

Two very interessting articles to read in CB News (January 2012) :

Le café noir du désir à la dosette, pourquoi la relation avec le café est passée d'une liaison corsée, sensuelle à grands coups de volutes et de velours, à...la quête du temps. (étude de cas)

Le café promu grand cru, la responsable de la com' Nespresso France revient sur la valeur émotionnelle du café. (interview)