Nescafe and RED FM create a heartwarming ad to Stay Started

Nestle India has introduced a brand new co branded ad for the first time with RED FM with a message of not giving up and Staying Started.

One of the biggest brands from the Nestle family, Nescafe, as been in news for its heartwarming ads especially after discontinuing breaking up with brand ambassador Deepika Padukone. The exponential journey of the brand started in India when Nestle India roped in Deepika Padukone for Nescafe who was seen shaking her legs with their Nescafe Cold Coffee Shaker few years back. This series of ads also featured known names like – Purab Kohli and Karan Johar. However, the decision to move away from these known faces raised eyebrows as generally its takes a hit on the brand equity which is generally on a high. However Nestle’s creative agency MaCann Erickson seems to have pulled this off beautifully and has taken the brand to new highs in-spite of absence of known face used by the brand in the past.

Nescafe’s Latest Ad 2016 – As in Practice

The latest ad features a RJ (portrayed as RJ Rishi from RED FM) hosting the night show where probably no one hears him and he waits for that one phone call every night. One fine day, his biggest concern that ‘no one is hearing him’ becomes his main selling proposition which invites listeners and flurry of responses even in the night band where people start talking their heart out just because no one is listening to them.

For the first time, Nescafe has created a co branded ad and has partnered with RED FM on this. The alliance seems mutual as RED FM’s biggest competition Radio Mirchi has its sole brand campaign – Mirchi Sunne Wale Always Khush up and live across all premium channels including GECs.

Nescafe’s Ad –  As in books

We, at Marketing Lessons, tried to map this with how this practice syncs with what we read about Advertising and Marketing Communications in books. This reminds us of a piece of text from one of the most celebrated books on Marketing Management by Philip Kotler.

Kotler, in his book, while talking about Integrated Marketing Communications mentions about ‘Brand Attitude’ in a segment ‘Determining Communication Objectives’ where he classifies the communication routes as below:

1. Category Need – Establishing a category need. e.g. While talking about electric cars the communication will hover around creating a category need.
2. Brand Awareness – Build a recognition and recall, especially inside the store.
3. Brand Attitude – Perceived ability of the brand to meet current relevant need. 
4. Brand Purchase Intention – Communication to take purchase related action.

The series of Nescafe ads, especially the current one with RED FM, is a classic example of portraying the ‘Brand Attitude’.

As Kotler points out,

Brand Attitude – Evaluation of the brand with respect to its perceived ability to meet a currently relevant need. Relevant brand needs may be negatively oriented (problem removal, problem avoidance, incomplete satisfaction, normal depletion) or positively oriented (sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation, or social approval).

Now lets break up the above state and see how the Nescafe ad hits the bull’s-eye as below:

1. ‘perceived ability to meet a currently relevant need’ – The problem of an RJ working in the night show is filmed as a current relevant need.
2. ‘positively oriented’ – Clearly an intellectual stimulation in case of this ad where the audience is compelled to see the brighter side of life.

This ad can be stated as a classic example of ‘Brand Attitude’ as stated above.