New Product Marketing Strategy: The Case of Binggrae’s ‘a Café la’

Abstract

All firms require new stimulus to spurt growth. Therefore it is necessary to successfully develop new products and to employ appropriate marketing practices for the new products to enter and settle in the market. Binggrae, a Korean company that specializes in dairy and processed dairy products, introduced a ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee product, ‘a Café la’ to expand its business into the coffee market in 2008. Binggrae was a latecomer in the RTD coffee market but a Café la has shown an impressive average sales growth rate of 115% as of 2011 since the launch. Moreover, it is a steady bestselling coffee brand among the Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)bottle category. Binggrae found potential and opportunity in the growing coffee market and made efforts to develop a new product that can be differentiated from the existing products. The result was PET bottle coffee, which was more portable and convenient to drink than coffee products offered in cups or cans. PET bottle coffee is produced through the patented Aseptic Filing System, thus the original coffee flavor stays fresh when combined with milk and has a longer shelf life than coffee products in cups. Moreover, as the taste of coffee consumers has become more sophisticated, Binggrae developed a premium product by differentiating the product processing method and by using higher-quality Arabica beans. After launching the new product, the company also employed a well-designed communication strategy. First, Binggrae was able to confirm the level of market demand and market potential for the product by employing BTL (Below the Line) marketing strategies through the consumers’ word- of-mouth. Afterwards, the company invested its resources for a full-scale ATL (Above the Line) marketing campaign. Later a Café la’s TV commercial effectively portrayed the product’s characteristics, and succeeded in raising consumer awareness of the product. As a result, a Café la has become the bestselling brand in the PET bottle coffee market. The successful new product marketing strategy of Binggrae’sa Café la offers many valuable implications for companies planning to launch new products in the future.