Nescafe Short Black

Overview

Nestlé Nescafé is the leading coffee brand in Australia. The country's burgeoning café culture has driven long-term growth in the premium end of the coffee market as consumers demand higher quality coffees at home. To address this shift, Nestlé decided to launch several new premium Nescafé products while refreshing the look of one of its best sellers, Nescafé Gold. One of the premium products introduced to the market was the instant espresso coffee Nescafé Short Black.

Challenge

Nestlé asked Landor to create the concept branding and package design for Nescafé Short Black, a sophisticated and innovative new product for espresso drinkers. Nescafé Short Black, the first instant espresso product in the market, is a unique brand and proposition within the highly competitive coffee category. Packaging has been shown to greatly influence perceptions of coffee quality in Australia. The design for Nescafé Short Black needed to express cutting-edge sophistication in order to appeal to the exclusive world of the espresso coffee drinker.

Solution

Landor developed a simple, confident, elegant, and sensual package design to appeal to young coffee sophisticates. The design features the iconic image of short black crema, the foam that appears on top of espresso. A halo-like rim evokes the product's perfection. The short jar shape (developed by D3 Design) reinforces the product proposition. The sleek, black color theme, understated typography, and minimal imagery all queue up the brand's offer-an exclusive and personal espresso coffee experience. In 2006, Nescafé Short Black won gold in the design innovation category at the Australian Packaging Awards and was lauded for "creative product innovation" by the Australian Financial Review newspaper (9 Oct. 2006).