Once-elitist Nescafé goes all out to woo masses

With the arranged marriage advert, Nestle is making a very conscious effort to bond its coffee brand with the general public

Till a few years ago, life with Nescafé was exotic. You could enjoy the aroma of the dark coffee beans, feel the nip in the air, overcome hurdles, win acclaim, bond with friends and peers with laptops, as the catchy Western jingle played in your mind. Remember, “The taste that gets you started up...”?

Nescafé, back then, meant many exciting things, but only for a select few. Relishing coffee was an experience to aspire for. It was occasion-specific, but not a familiar experience. Tea was familiar. Mundane. And perhaps, the people's choice. The Tea Board of India tried changing that perception, though.

The noticeable difference between Nescafé's old campaigns and the latest arranged marriage advert (and also the earlier train ad, featuring VJ Gaurav) is the latter's bid to familiarise itself to the Indian middle class. This is evident from the subject of the story, which is spun around the most common of all cultural aspects of the Indian society – an arranged marriage.

It's also apparent that Nestle and McCann-Erickson's choice of protagonists – actors Kashish (Aamna Shariff) and Sujal (Rajeev Khandelwal) from STAR Plus' popular serial 'Kahin To Hoga' – was driven by the single objective of making the brand popular with the masses. The serial is among the top four serials on STAR and even after a run of one year, still enjoys a TVR above 10.

Clearly, with this particular ad, Nescafé is making a very conscious effort to bond with the masses. Now before we venture further in understanding how Nestlé is nudging Nescafé closer to the the masses, a look at the ad.

The 30-second ad by McCann-Erickson opens with the prospective groom and his parents coming to see the girl. With an objective to get familiar with each other, the boy and the girl step out into to garden. Noticing that neither of the two is able to initiate a conversation, the concerned parents wonder how to shake them up.

“Arrey inhe jagao,” (Wake them up) says the father of the girl. And, Nescafé is served to the couple. With just a few sips, the initial awkwardness, quite surprisingly, disappears. What follows is a chat with an allusion to movie titles. So when the boy asks, “Toh Hum saath saath hain?” (So, are we together?), the girl replies, “Qayamat se qayamat tak.” (From one apocalypse to another.) The ad ends with the super “Jagao, Nescafé pilao.” (Arouse them by serving Nescafé.) Comment on this ad.

The creative and the one before that were decided after Nestlé told McCann-Erickson that the FMCG major was to expand the market. So, it was time for a makeover. And, drinking Nescafé had to become a relatable experience for the masses. If that literally meant repositioning Nescafé, so be it.

Thus, arranged marriage proved to the right backdrop for the new ad. “Do you know that 90 per cent of the marriages in India are still arranged? Since, the objective was to connect with the middle class, we decided to use an everyday situation to convey the experience of drinking Nescafé,” says Prasoon Joshi, regional CD, South & South East Asia, McCann-Erickson.

With this advert and the one before (the train ad), the once-elitist Nescafé has begun talking the language of the masses. In the train ad, for example, the tag line, voice-over, the train attendant, and the model all looked and sounded Indian. Except for the train and the location, which definitely looked 'phoren'. Perhaps, the only traces of aspiration.

But then, Nestle's attempt to include Nescafé in the Indian every-day life seems justified since the promise of good times is firmly in the territory of urban, hip coffee hubs – Barista and Coffee Cafe Day these days.

With Nescafé being pitched as an everyday drink, where does it leave that old mate, tea? “While we are trying to make Nescafé a regular feature in the lives of many, we are also giving a very specific reason for that. Nescafé stimulates the mind, relieves mental fatigue; it is a very invigorating experience. And that's what precisely differentiates coffee drinking from tea,” points out Joshi.

While McCann and Nestlé hope to make Nescafé the choicest hot beverage for the masses, surfers of agencyfaqs! find the new identity of Nescafé rather disturbing.

Sample this: “Another one bites the dust! In an attempt to broadbase the TG and make the brand relatable to the middle of the market, the brand essence has been completely killed. Nescafé can never be 'massified' like 'cutting chai'. Sadly, it has also lost all its aspirational appeal completely,” writes a surfer. Another comment: “The brand's regressed a million years...” “It's outrageous. Whatever happened to all the mind-blowing ads I've seen before. The girl standing in her balcony with long black Alanis Morissette-like hair and the works. This one's so low.” There's another: “Terrible ad, goes to show how one can actually screw up a brand identity.”

Readers of agencyfaqs! have not taken to the ad, kindly. Now whether “Jagao, Nescafé pilao” could revolutionise drinking coffee as McCann's “Thanda matlab Coca-Cola ” did is too early to say. Now, only if Nestle shared Nescafé's sales figures.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!