Designing a product-brand strategy for a coffee bean service

Abstract

The coffee market is moving towards coffee preparation based on the whole bean in the household sector. Consumers are buying new machines and are looking for higher quality beans. At the same time, more and more appliances are becoming connected to the internet, and consumers are looking for holistic digital solutions. For appliance-oriented brands, such as Philips (PH), this raises crucial questions about the extent to which a brand can be extended into new product categories within the coffee market to provide holistic services to consumers. Research showed that the generation of “millennials” in particular should be addressed as a target segment: The group places high value on digital experiences and values high quality of coffee and beans. At the same time, it was identified that they have little confidence in broad appliance brands, such as PH, to offer a holistic coffee service that provides them with coffee beans. It is, therefore, necessary to offer a trustworthy experience through the creation of a new brand. To provide a trustworthy value-added brand experience, two key steps were identified. First, a new brand is needed that evokes desired brand associations in the coffee and coffee bean sector. Secondly, once this brand has become associated with high-quality coffee beans in the consumers’ minds, it is necessary to build a connected coffee machine app in collaboration between the new brand and the existing appliance brand (PH). The interaction of these two brands enables a trustworthy brand experience, including when offering desired features in the area of personalisation and bean recommendation.