Building a Strong Brand - Case Study Example

Within the industry some are questioning the long-term strategy of confectionery in the Nestl group, after the company announced that it wants to position itself as a "health, nutrition and wellness company". Competition - Nestl owns more than 25% of the L'Oral beauty business. When L'Oral purchased The Body Shop in May 2006, L'Oral handed back a 14% stake in the fair trade Day Chocolate Company, formally held by The Body Shop. Nestl has been dogged with adverse publicity surrounding its ethics in baby milk production, and it would seem that a share in The Day Chocolate company would have been untenable.

Nestl launched a fair trade coffee, Partners' Blend, in 2005, which may signal a company intention to enter the fair trade chocolate market. Product Strategy - Nestl appears to be following a different premium strategy, bundling non-edible products to enhance gift status and encourage price trade up. To some degree this may be due to an over-reliance on child-targeted products and character licences in the portfolio. However, by offering non-edible components the amount of chocolate is limited and products might be perceived as healthier, thereby dovetailing into the over-arching Nestl Strategy towards health.

Across the child-targeted everyday chocolate products, Nestl has followed a strategy of reformulating recipes to replace artificial ingredients with natural flavouring and colouring. This is a different aspect to the wider healthy eating agenda.Brand offering/product portfolioA large range of seasonal products are available, with a strong presence in novelties. Nestl uses the boxed chocolate brands to offer seasonal packaging formats and purchases character licences to offer products targeted to children.

Easter - Value-added non-edible gifts are being added to products as an alternative strategy to encourage premium trade up. For Easter 2006, Nestle mugs and games featured on a Yorkie Subbuteo football egg and also a Milkybar Buckaroo egg.Christmas - The chunky chocolate brand Yorkie follows a masculine strategy and this was used for several Christmas products. 'Hot Stuff' was a rum flavoured version launched for the winter season 2005. A pint glass filled with Yorkie chunks, and a roulette game featuring a spicy chocolate were also available.

Nestl claim that the products satisfied men's most popular hobbies of drinking and eating spicy food. Other occasions - A packaging strategy is used on the Yorkie brand to