Thread by @stockifiabhijit

Nestlé wanted to sell coffee to Japan.

They spent millions on ads.
Hired the best marketers.
Perfected the product.

But no one bought it.

Until one French psychologist cracked the code.

And changed a nation’s taste forever.

Here’s how Nestlé manipulated memory to sell 500,000 tons of coffee a year

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Let’s rewind.

Post World War II, Nestlé had a clear goal:

Create a coffee culture in Japan.

The product was flawless.
Well-packaged.
Great taste.

But sales were dismal.

Why?

Because coffee wasn’t a drink. It was a stranger.

The Japanese weren’t rejecting the product.

They just had zero emotional connection to it.

Traditional marketing kept shouting benefits.

But no one was listening.

So Nestlé tried something wild.

They hired Clotaire Rapaille a psychoanalyst trained in consumer emotion, and cultural imprinting.

His insight?

“People don’t buy food with logic.
They buy it with memory.”

And here’s the brutal truth:

In Japan, coffee had no childhood memory.
No scent from grandma’s kitchen.
No rainy-day cup after school.
No nostalgia.

But tea? That was everywhere.

Rapaille’s solution was unthinkable:

Stop selling coffee to adults.
Start giving coffee to kids.

He wasn’t joking.

Nestlé launched a new strategy:

Coffee-flavored sweets for children.
Candies. Chocolates. Jellies. Desserts.

Why?

So that children would grow up with coffee as a familiar taste.
A comforting memory. A habit.

They didn’t just market caffeine.
They planted nostalgia.

Fast forward 20 years.

Those same children grew up.
Started jobs. Faced long hours.

Now? They craved coffee.

Not just for energy, but because it reminded them of being safe, warm, happy.

In the 1980s, Nestlé re-introduced instant coffee.

This time?
Sales exploded.

By 2014, Japan imported over 500,000 tons of coffee a year.
Nestlé became the undisputed leader.

From zero sales to complete market capture—all by engineering childhood memory.

But here’s the deeper layer:

You’ve already lived through this.
You just didn’t notice.

Think about it—

Why do you bring cake to birthday parties?

Why do you crave a Pepsi even today?

It’s not the food.

It’s the feeling.

Corporates know:
Childhood is the battlefield.
If they win your kid’s memory, they win a lifetime customer.

The question is:

Whose memory are you building today?

Because the next time you give your child a “treat”…
You’re not just feeding them.

You’re programming them.

What Rapaille taught Nestlé is now taught in every major brand strategy class.

You don’t sell coffee.
You sell comfort.
You sell memory.
You sell home.

That’s the real product.

Let this sink in:

A hundred years ago, most Indians had never seen cake.

Today?

We cut it at:
Birthdays. Promotions. Retirements. Breakups. Farewells. Housewarmings.

Why?

Because someone made us associate “cake = celebration.”

It’s not culture.
It’s conditioning.

Coffee wasn’t Japanese.
Cake wasn’t Indian.
But now both are emotional defaults.

And it didn’t happen by accident.

It was designed.

The mind of a child isn’t a sponge. It’s a canvas.

Be careful who gets to paint on it.

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