Nespresso in China

China’s household appliances market has been expanding with more and more tools entering Chinese houses. That is notably the case with the coffee machines. Today we are taking a look at Nespresso in China, how it’s doing, and its marketing strategy in the mainland

Nespresso: fostering the emergence of Chinese connoisseurs of good quality and strong coffee.

Nespresso is trying to implement in China its concept of coffee capsules (a type of pre-apportioned single-use container of coffee) and with its coffee machine but will it succeed in finding a place with other small home appliances in Chinese households?

It won’t be easy as for most Chinese consumers, coffee is a beverage to drink outside of their house. In order to change these cultural codes, Nespresso adopted an integrated digital strategy. First with a Chinese website allowing consumers not yet educated enough to make the difference between coffee capsules, ground coffee, and instant coffee.

The website of Nespresso China

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The second pillar of the digital communication of Nespresso is the « Nespresso Club ».This is an online shop for members only that allows the online purchase of Nespresso machines and capsules. The members will benefit from exclusive products that cannot be bought in a department store. Such a communication aims at gradually building up a community of connoisseurs who will be used by the brand as Key Opinion Leaders (KOL).

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This strategy could be a success but in the long run. It will be necessary to create a disruption and then a shift in the Chinese public representation. Today Nespresso may suffer from the strong pressure from coffee services such as Starbucks or Costa Coffee. Indeed it reinforces the tendency of Chinese consumers to associate « coffee consumption » and « outside ». But at the same time, this strong presence can change the habits and tastes of Chinese consumers.