Nestle Campaigns Report

Nestlé is the world’s biggest food manufacturer. It has almost 450 factories globally. Nestlé’s products include things from baby food, pet care, chocolate, to mineral water. Some of Nestlé’s most famous brands include Nescafe, Kit Kat, Perrier, and Maggie. Over the years Nestlé has placed health and wellness as a main concern for it’s marketing. As a result it developed the widest range of nutritionally balanced products under the slogan “Good Food, Good Life”.

As any other global company Nestlé also has to deal with the many hardships of global marketing. One of the marketing mishaps Nestlé experienced resulted in a lawsuit and a movement to boycott all Nestlé products. This started with baby formula. Nestlé started to expand to under developed companies. They had also just started to develop infant formula as a substitute for human milk. They said it was to “Save the life of an infant who could not breastfeed”. The overall global percentage of women who had children who could not be breast-fed was very small, so this did not seem like a way that Nestlé could make money.

To promote their product Nestlé targeted all mothers and tried to convince them that their baby formula was better than breast-feeding. They were able to convince millions that bottle-feeding was better. This resulted in nestle becoming the number one manufacturer of infant formula.

The promotion and sale of infant formula had consequences all around the world. For example in the 1950s Chile recorded that 95 % of the one-year-olds were breast-fed. By 1970 only 20 % were being breast-fed at two months. In Singapore breastfeeding went down by up to 30 % between 1951 and 1960. In the Philippines it also decreased by around 31% between 1958 and 1968. Mexico also saw a decline in breastfeeding by around 22% from 1960 to 1966. These are a few of many countries that faced a decline in their breastfeeding rates after Nestlé’s campaign for their baby formula spread globally.

Mothers in third world countries especially were affected by these advertisements because they saw them everywhere, supported with the alleged benefits of the formula as opposed to breastfeeding. Between 1975 and 1977 a World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in countries like the Philippines and Nigeria, mothers knew infant formula products by their brand names; including the mothers of poor, urban areas.

The WHO observed that the reason for the decline in breastfeeding was the propaganda of the companies. Nestlé also hired “milk nurses” to visit patients in maternity wards to promote bottle-feeding.

Another issue Nestlé faced with promoting their baby formula was the lack of the customer’s ability to read the instructions on how to prepare the formula. For example, in Tanzania, Nestlé’s Lactogen is widely marketed. A local doctor reported that the instructions were written in English, despite the fact that a majority of the mothers were fluent only in Swahili.

Third World mothers would mix the formula with unclean water and not sterilizing the bottles. The babies would then drink the contaminated formula and become sick. It was estimated that around 15 million children under the age of five would die every year from malnutrition. And this was also found as a result of the extensive rise in using baby formula as a replacement for breastfeeding.

In a response to the negative effects of the products, people moved to boycotting Nestlé products. Many countries even imposed marketing restrictions on Nestlé, even after they canceled some of their radio advertisements in underdeveloped countries. Nestlé faced six years of boycott slogans and press conferences around the world before it gave in to INFACT’s demands in 1984 and agreed to redirect its marketing priority.

The baby formula incident wasn’t the only mishap that Nestlé faced through its advertising. There was also an issue when it started expanding its Gerber baby food product globally. On the Gerber label there is a picture of a baby. Nestlé continued to use the same label, even after it started distributing its product in Africa. It was unsuccessful. They failed to research their consumers, and eventually found out the reason behind the lack of popularity for their product. In Africa, countries place pictures of what is inside the package on the label. This is due to the fact that a majority of the population is unable to read. So when people in Africa saw the Gerber baby food product with a baby on the label, some believed Nestlé was selling bottled babies.

Unfortunately to this day Nestlé faces a strong dislike to its products from the public after its huge mistakes. There are people who continue to boycott its products, whether it is due to customer disloyalty, or their beliefs on Nestlé’s ethics and principals.

Nestlé had some very successful advertising campaigns too. They were able to bounce back after the mishaps and blunders, and win back the hearts of some of the consumers.

For example, for Nestlé’s Nido product, they focused on the idea of child growth and mother’s preference to distribute the advertisement globally. They focused on properly translating their meaning to avoid mishaps that they had faced in the past. As a visual, they had the Nido gold heart around families in advertisements to embody the family feel. This is something that was relatable in multiple countries around the world, making it successful. They were also able to use their slogan “Good Food, Good Life” to embrace their ideals of producing the most nutritious products for the public. In the Middle East they would use words like “compatible” or “fitting” on their products, and in other places they would use words like “fortified” or “revived” to grab the attention of their consumers.

Kit Kat also had a few successful advertisements. When they launched their “have a break, have a kit kat” campaign, they took advertising to another level. They did this by distributing Kit Kat benches in various countries. This helped fortify their slogan and embody the idea of taking a break with Kit Kat. Their commercials were also successful as they had different scenarios, whether it was at the workplace or at home or during any stressful situation. There were even advertisements for Kit Kat during a movie break.

In countries like India and Korea they used famous pop stars or Indian icons to help embody their product while still using their slogan “have a break, have a Kit Kat”.

Nestlé continued it’s good campaigns, especially with the latest one “Share your goodness”. It is a series of heartwarming ads that emotionally resonate with millions of people all over the world, but especially in India. It also had a good effect through social media, which is a huge plus for Nestlé.

One of their commercials is about adoption. It shows an Indian boy, jealous of his new adopted Asian sister. And at first he would try to take everything away from her to keep it for himself. Eventually throughout the advertisement he was able to put aside his distaste towards her with her continued attempts at sharing things with him. So as they worked together, they worked to climb into the kitchen pantry and share “goodness”. It is a campaign for Nestlé foods in general. It was a huge success in India, and the advertisement itself ended up resonating with the global population via social media after the ad was shared virally.

Another Nestlé advertisement for the “Share your goodness” campaign that was also a huge success was about the Dabbawala. The Dabbawala is a person in Inda who is part of a delivery system that collects hot food in lunch boxes from the residences of workers in the late morning. They then deliver these lunches to the workplace. These people are most frequently found in Mumbai; however, they are commonly known across all of India. They are considered something that the population could relate to. So when the Nestlé commercial came out in India based on the Dabbawala it touched many people and resonated with them because it was something the entire population could relate to. This is an example of Nestlé’s good use of marketing in other countries. This campaign would not work as successfully in countries like England or Canada, because they do not have a Dabbawala. But due to the high acceptance of the ad, it was a success globally after it was shared online and became a viral hit.

In Malaysia, Nestlé took a different approach and challenged the people to live a healthy life through a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. Both are things that they believe their products can offer people. The way that they did this is by talking about the health of the nation in terms of the economy. Their slogan is translated to “Nestlé more goodness, more value”. It was promoted throughout Malaysia in an effort to better the lives of the people as a whole. It was a six-week campaign that was supported by road shows at supermarkets throughout the country.

This campaign gained the support of the Ministry, because it was in line with one of their aims and missions.

Nestlé also took a similar approach in the US by creating a “Balance Your Plate” initiative to provide health professionals with resources to use in their work. They launched a new nutrition and education campaign to help people achieve a healthy, balanced diet easily. Their campaign included a list of easy steps, meal plans, and trends for people to follow. The success of this campaign is backed up by their cooperation with specialists in the country as well as Nestlé’s worldwide commitment to the cause.

Nestlé’s revival of proper marketing encouraged them to rekindle campaigns for old products like their Outshine Fruit Bars. Their campaigns give the feel of summer and enjoyment despite the winter weather. They were targeting women between the ages of 25 and 54 so they used women as their main characters in their advertisement. Their tagline is “Snack Brighter”. The campaign was a success in the US.

Going back to Nestlé’s health campaigns, they also launched on in Dubai. Their Dubai campaign focused mainly on encouraging women to maintain healthy bones. They worked with the Dubai Health Authority to provide free health screenings to the public. They then worked on encouraging a healthy diet – which Nestlé products provide.

By focusing on important issues based on individual countries, Nestlé was able to successfully market their products. This of course was done after the unfortunate mishaps of the past that the company is still dealing with today.