Nestle Market Penetration | Manifested Marketing Blog

11/24/14, 6:39 AM

Bitcoin Marketing Bitcoin

Trading

SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL

Enter your email here

Email Address
Subscribe

http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/04/19/nestle-market-penetration/

Page 1 of 7

Nestle Market Penetration | Manifested Marketing Blog

11/24/14, 6:39 AM

Nestle Market Penetration

Nestle is one of the worlds largest confectionary manufacturers. Although this may at first
appear to be a good position to be in, it in fact means that Nestles marketing strategy has to be
particularly competitive. Thus it must be proactive to external change, formulated and last but
not least it must support the wider corporate strategy, a critical success factor for large,
multinational corporations. This is necessary just to maintain the companys global competitive
position as a market leader, let-a-lone increase sales. Nestles latest move to consolidate its
position and compete with Cadbury, McVities and Mars involves a market penetration
strategy using its popular Aero chocolate bar.
http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/04/19/nestle-market-penetration/

Page 2 of 7

Nestle Market Penetration | Manifested Marketing Blog

11/24/14, 6:39 AM

Market penetration involves trying to boost, or maintain, sales of an existing product to the
current market. This often involves minor product tweaks; this strategy, thus, offers minimal risk
albeit the pay-off is limited. Hence, this strategy is ideal for large firms with maturing products
how need to simply maintain their competitiveness, like Nestle. It should come as
no surprise then to see that the Aero chocolate bar has already been modified numerous times
different sizes (targeting different occasional uses), different flavours and even brand extension
into hot beverages and ice creams.
http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/04/19/nestle-market-penetration/

Page 3 of 7

Nestle Market Penetration | Manifested Marketing Blog

11/24/14, 6:39 AM

The latest enhancement to the Aero bar is to extend the brand further; this Easter a new Aero
Biscuit will be launched. Although this sound like product development, rather than penetrating
a current market, it is still a relatively low-risk strategy. This is because the fundamental
differentiation strategy used by Nestle to position Aero as a lighter and healthier chocolate bar
remain as part of the actual product the core and augmented product benefits are also relatively
similar to the traditional bar. Hence, Aero Biscuits will contain fewer than 100 calories a pack
and continue to target young women by emphasising the brands association with bubbles and
air, both of which have light-weight and weight-loss connotations.

All of these past strategies must, however, be viewed in the long-term. And by that I mean
consider how this fits into Nestles wider strategy. Firstly, it maintains sales of Aero by
generating new interest in the brand and generate short-term sales. This is called an extension
strategy, which aims to prolong the life span of a mature product to prevent a decline in sales
thus, the product can continue to fit in the firms wider product portfolio as a Cash Cow. While
this appears to be a short-termist tactic, it does actually work in the long-term: variety seeking
consumers will notice and try the new Aero variation and then return to become a habitual
customer of the original Aero chocolate bar.

http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/04/19/nestle-market-penetration/

Page 4 of 7

Nestle Market Penetration | Manifested Marketing Blog

11/24/14, 6:39 AM

Furthermore, market penetration aids Nestles competitive strategy. Does hearing of a lightweight chocolate snack with a crispy biscuit centre sound familiar? If so you may be thinking of
Maltesers. Not only is the core product fundamentally the same, the actual and augmented
features are strikingly similar: they both offer a light chocolate snack that appeals fundamentally
to women consumers. Moreover, Cadburys Whisper chocolate bar makes use of the
connotations of bubbles to create a very similar offering to Aero. This highlights just how
ruthlessly competitive Nestles market is; although it is a market leader, it still needs to defend its
brands from market challengers.
I appreciate that Nestles latest move is nothing out of the ordinary or particularly innovative, but
it highlights the fact that the best strategies used by the best firms are those that are tried, tested
and proven. Some may call this bureaucratic or inflexible marketing, but I think it is refreshing
to hear a company going back to basics. Perhaps more firms need to focus on traditional
marketing, as opposed to devoting too much time to social media?

http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/04/19/nestle-market-penetration/

Page 5 of 7

Nestle Market Penetration | Manifested Marketing Blog

11/24/14, 6:39 AM

We Want Malaysian
Authors
Start Publishing Your Book.
Get A Free Book Publishing
Guide Now!

Joshua Blatchford, author of Manifested Marketing and Bitcoin Marketing Consultant,

19/04/2011
Like this:

Like Loading...

Related posts:
1. Budweiser Market Penetration
2. Kelloggs Market Penetration
3. Nestle BCG Matrix and Brand Divestment
4. Reckitt Benckiser Market Penetration

Posted by Josh on April 19, 2011

http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/04/19/nestle-market-penetration/

http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/04/19/nestle-market-penetration/

Page 6 of 7

Nestle Market Penetration | Manifested Marketing Blog

http://manifestedmarketing.com/2011/04/19/nestle-market-penetration/

11/24/14, 6:39 AM

Page 7 of 7