A Cultural Conversion for Nestlé™

Creating CoffeeMate Natural Bliss™

Nestlé charged Marketing Semiotics with developing new product and package design concepts for a new, all-natural version of CoffeeMate™, a popular non-dairy creamer. Nestlé faced the same challenges as fast food giant McDonald’s to persuade consumers that their long-standing processed brand could be extended into the health-conscious Natural food category.  Drawing from our semiotic toolkit, we analyzed the Processed/Natural binary with regard to a large sampling of brands across the packaged food brandscape. The analysis revealed a distinct set of codes structuring consumer perceptions of ingredients, packaging semiotics, and even the product names associated with processed or natural foods. Management correctly gave the product a double name, Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss™, which both mitigated tensions between the two food categories and also leveraged CoffeeMate’s™ very strong equities as a fun, flavorful addition to America’s favorite beverage.

Results: Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss™ contributed to year upon year of growth in Nestlé’s CoffeeMate™ line and prompted extensions of the Natural Bliss™ brand into new Organic and Plant-Based creamers.