• Brandchannel, Friday, November 20, 2009 10:40 AM

Working the street beat yesterday, Brandchannel blogger Peter Feld spotted two Nescafé worker bees setting up a sampling station for a taste test between "an unbranded, but clearly Starbucks-looking paper cup of instant [coffee] ... with a ceramic mug featuring the updated Nescafé logo above a Taster's Choice package."

The copy on a banner reads: "A lot of hype. OR a lot of flavor," as a picture Feld took illustrates. Shouldn't there be question marks there? I mean, how can you conduct a legitimate taste test between Via and Taster's Choice when you've predetermined the answers? What is marketing research coming to? Where are the copy editors?

Getting back to tactics, "Nescafé stands as a reminder and a warning: you can always take your brand down and compete on the low end," Feld writes. "But don't expect your new competitors to take it lying down.

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