This is the reason why I wanted to link this approach to the famous Blue Ocean strategy. The blue ocean strategy concept is to avoid the "bloody red competition" which is basically to confront your company to a competition which proposes somehow the same kind of product. The idea of blue ocean strategy is to change the landscape and to change the way customers perceive one product, bringing new added value, which will turns it into something without comparability.
This is exactly what Nespresso achieved: we don't talk about consumption but about tasting, not customers but club members, coffee types but grand crus...
The brand has no tried to create a premium product in an existing market, but to create a brand new category based on usage instead of product type.
Nespresso created a new way to consume coffee, at the crossroad of a mass market product (coffee) and a luxury product (about 6 times more expensive than a regular coffee).
