Nestle is the world's largest food products company with factories in 69 countries and a truly global marketing strategy. During 1994, Europe accounted for 46 percent of the company's revenues, North and South America for 36 percent, and other countries for 18 percent ("Osem," 1995, p. 7). In addition to chocolate (for which the company is probably best known in the United States), Nestle participates in pet foods (including Alpo), food products, beverages (such as Perrier) and cosmetics/pharmaceuticals (including Alcon and L'Oreal). At one time, the company owned Stouffer's Hotels, but it completed divestiture of that company in the early 1990s. The Swiss-based company has adopted an international marketing program in part because its domestic market is too small to accommodate its plans, but this program has not been without problems. A boycott begun in the 1980s against the company's infant formula marketing in developing countries has continued, sporadically, to today, and the company has faced problems with its growth through acquisition strategy. This research examines the company's international marketing strategy, with a particular emphasis on the strategies Nestle has adopted in Europe.
The current configuration of the Nestle company came together in the early 1900s when a company owned by Americans based in Switzerland and a Swiss company merged. The American company had been using canning technology for canning milk while the Swiss company had been using technology for successfully marketing infant formula. The company took the Swiss name and began a series of acquisitions and international expansion. The first expansions, including to the United States, occurred during World War I. Although Nestle was largely untouched by the war (in large part because of Switzerland's neutrality), its primary markets and milk sources were devastated. This moved the company's owners to search for diversification which would en...