Patience Pays Off
Overview
Problem: In 1970s Japan, coffee had no cultural foothold. Tea dominated rituals, nostalgia, and daily life, so despite Nestlé’s strong product and heavy advertising, coffee sales failed.
Insight: Dr. Clotaire Rapaille revealed that consumption habits are emotionally imprinted in childhood. Without early associations, coffee was simply “foreign.”
Strategy: Nestlé pivoted from selling coffee to adults toward creating coffee-flavored candies and desserts for children, seeding positive associations early.
Result: By the 1980s, those children entered adulthood already primed for coffee. Japan is now one of the largest coffee markets globally, with Nestlé holding dominant share.
Deep Dive
Emotion > Rationality: The case shows that consumer behavior is rarely rational. Product quality, price, or packaging cannot override cultural or emotional absence. Entrepreneurs often forget that habits and identity trump features.
Cultural Imprinting as Strategy: Nestlé’s success hinged on recognizing that culture is not static—it can be shaped, but only through long-term, generational investments. They effectively “rewrote” Japan’s emotional code for coffee.
Trojan Horse Marketing: Coffee-flavored candy was not the product Nestlé wanted to sell, but it was the doorway. Sometimes the path to adoption is indirect—selling the taste before the drink.
The Long Game: Nestlé waited years to reap results, showing the importance of designing for future markets, not just quarterly wins. This is rare discipline in business today.
Market Lessons:
Don’t confuse product excellence with readiness. A perfect product in the wrong cultural context will fail.
If the culture isn’t ready, seed it. Find adjacent, lower-resistance entry points that shape future demand.
Adapt, don’t force. Instead of trying to “convert” tea drinkers, Nestlé created new coffee drinkers.
The story is less about coffee and more about patience, cultural empathy, and psychological leverage. True market leadership comes not from pushing harder but from reshaping the conditions of demand itself.
There are many examples of this:
Apple and the Personal Computer
Context: In the late 1970s, computers were viewed as cold, corporate machines.
Strategy: Apple reframed them as personal, playful, and creative tools (famously with the “1984” ad and later with colorful iMacs).
Parallel: Instead of forcing adoption into existing business contexts, Apple reshaped what a computer meant emotionally, from mainframe to lifestyle.
Red Bull and Energy Drinks
Context: Western markets didn’t have a cultural category for “energy drinks” in the 1990s.
Strategy: Red Bull first seeded its product in nightclubs and among extreme sports communities, building cultural cachet before going mainstream.
Parallel: They didn’t sell caffeine-in-a-can; they sold an identity: daring, rebellious, high-energy. They created the imprint before there was demand.
Starbucks and Coffee in the U.S.
Context: Before Starbucks, coffee in America was a cheap, utilitarian commodity.
Strategy: Starbucks imported the Italian café experience, embedding coffee into rituals of community and status. They cultivated an emotional “third place” between work and home.
Parallel: They reshaped not just taste but the social meaning of coffee.
Nike and Running
Context: In the 1970s, running was a niche, almost eccentric activity.
Strategy: Nike didn’t just sell shoes; they nurtured the jogging movement itself, publishing guides, sponsoring community runs, and connecting it to self-improvement.
Parallel: They didn’t ride a cultural wave—they created one.