If You Like Piña Coladas: Coffee Mate Collaborates with The White Lotus
This critical incident details a collaboration between Nestlé’s Coffee Mate, a non-dairy coffee creamer, and The White Lotus, a popular television series. The White Lotus was a fictional series that depicted dysfunctional, often wealthy, tourists vacationing at luxury resorts. To celebrate Season 3 of The White Lotus, which was set at a resort in Thailand, Coffee Mate collaborated with the show to launch two limited-edition flavors, including Piña Colada. Coffee Mate was unaware that poisoned piña coladas would be used in an attempted murder in the show. Coffee Mate was able to react quickly to the negative depiction of piña coladas in the show by using a social media “war room,” and turning a potentially harmful situation for the brand into a positive one. This critical incident examines collaborations between brands and entertainment properties and considers a brand’s reaction when the entertainment property’s story may not align with the brand’s optimal depiction.
In completing this assignment, students should be able to:
1. Identify the benefits and risks associated with brand collaborations, particularly those involving a brand and an entertainment property.
2. Apply branding frameworks (e.g., Aaker’s Brand Equity Model) to brand collaborations and illustrate the role of each component in the framework.
3. Assess the effectiveness of agile marketing strategies in social media marketing.
4. Evaluate a brand’s response to a potentially harmful depiction of its product.
5. Propose a collaboration between a brand and an entertainment property.
6. Evaluate brand collaborations on their potential for success.