June 09, 2025 • 4 min read • Market News

How does a country so deeply rooted in tea traditions become one of the world's top coffee consumers? Dr. Clotaire Rapaille can help answer that. 

 

Nestlé’s roots go back to 1867, when a German pharmacist, Henri Nestlé, launched a milk-based infant cereal in Vevey, Switzerland. It caught on quickly. A few bodies of water over, three American brothers were building a rival condensed milk business. After decades of fierce competition, the two companies merged in 1905, laying the foundation for the Nestlé we know today. Government contracts and the invention of Nescafé in 1938 helped fuel its growth over the decades, though it was the post-war boom and bold deals like the $3 billion Carnation buyout in the 1980s that turned Nestlé into the global heavyweight that it is today.

 

In its pursuit of global dominance in the 1970s, Nestlé had set its eyes on its biggest target yet: Japan’s booming economy. A target market known for its tea-drinking tradition, it would prove to be an uphill battle. 

 

Nestlé’s first attempt to introduce Nescafé, its coffee line, in the 1970s was a flop. It appeared that coffee just wasn’t part of Japan’s DNA. For the Japanese, tea wasn’t just a beverage, it was a tradition and heritage. Coffee, meanwhile, was a foreign guest who didn’t quite fit in, yet. Sales quickly sputtered.

 

Enter Dr. Clotaire Rapaille.

 

Dr. Clotaire Rapaille was a child psychiatrist turned marketing guru hired by Nestlé. Dr. Rapaille’s thesis was that people don't buy with logic, they buy with emotion. And crucially, they buy what reminds them of their childhood.

 

The problem? Coffee had no emotional roots in Japan. No cozy childhood memories. No sentimental attachments. It was a blank slate. Dr. Rapaille believed that we had to create this memory in childhood. 

 

Buying into Dr. Rapaille’s suggestion of starting younger versus pushing harder, Nestlé launched coffee-flavored candies under the brand name KitKat (sound familiar?), subtly weaving coffee into the experiences of children. Nestlé was willing to plant seeds today for a harvest it wouldn’t see for years to come.  

 

The plan was more than successful. Decades later, the now-adults were no longer foreign to the taste of coffee. Instead, it brought up great childhood memories. The brand KitKat, when pronounced in Japanese ("Kitto Katsu"), connotes positivity and good luck. It became a cultural good luck charm, especially among students.

 

When Nestlé reintroduced Nescafé in Japan a decade later, they weren’t fighting tea traditions anymore. They were tapping into memories. Fast forward to today: Japan ranks among the top coffee consumers globally. And Nestlé? It owns roughly 70% of the instant coffee market there.

 

It’s one of the clearest, and perhaps most brilliant, examples of strategic marketing. Instead of fighting culture, Nestlé embedded itself into it. In a world obsessed with quick wins, Nestlé’s story in Japan reminds us that sometimes, the most lasting victories are the ones you nurture.

 

If you found this story as fascinating as I did, share it with someone — maybe even over a cup of coffee.

 

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