Nestlé's Marketing Strategy Shifts to Growth Platforms

Nestlé has released its 2025 annual review, approved at its 159th Annual General Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on 16 April. The review reveals how the world's largest food and beverage company is repositioning its marketing approach across more than 2,000 brands operating in 187 countries.

The company's strategy centres on three core business areas: coffee, pet care and nutrition and health science. These priorities signal a shift in how Nestlé allocates its marketing resources and builds brand equity in competitive markets.

Nestlé's powdered and liquid beverages account for 28.1% of sales, making it the largest section of the company's portfolio. PetCare brands represent 20.6% of sales, whilst nutrition and health science products contribute 16%.

Brand building in coffee

Coffee represents Nestlé's largest business, anchored by three brands: Nescafé, Nespresso and Starbucks. The company is increasing its capacity for faster regional distribution to meet growing demand for cold coffee in Asia, a category that appeals particularly to younger consumers.

This regional expansion approach suggests Nestlé is adapting its supply chain to support marketing opportunities in emerging cold coffee markets.

Pablo Isla, Chairman of the Board at Nestlé, says: "Strong corporate governance is the foundation of our company and its future success. Our goal is to continuously strengthen our effectiveness by regularly appointing new independent directors with diverse areas of expertise.

"Our focus is on driving real internal growth, fostering a performance culture and transforming the company to make it more efficient and digitally empowered.

"We are acting with a new sense of urgency and, through our efforts, are generating savings for reinvestment."

Influencer and B2B marketing

In pet care, Nestlé's Purina brand leads the North American market. The company is building veterinary partnerships to promote pet health products, using its R&D capabilities to position specialised nutrition for conditions including obesity and diabetes. This B2B partnership model extends Purina's credibility through healthcare professional endorsements.

Nestlé's Health Science division provides medical nutrition for patients who cannot consume food orally. In 2025, sales of its Compleat real food tube-feeding solutions rose by approximately one-third. According to the review, this growth came from optimised marketing, use of influencers, communications with healthcare professionals and campaigns in the medical community.

The company is expanding its nutrition portfolio across vitamins, minerals and supplements, active nutrition and medical nutrition categories.

Data-driven product innovation

Nestlé is using data-driven consumer insights to build innovation pipelines aligned with consumer preferences. The company aims to respond to emerging trends including modern cooking, new flavours and textures, frequent small meals and nutrition goals across life stages.

According to the review, Nestlé launched Milo Pro in response to growing popularity of high-protein foods and beverages. The product contains three times more protein than traditional Milo drinks and targets teenagers and young adults through ready-to-drink and powder formats.

The company is also pursuing brand partnerships to grow its cultural presence. In 2025, Nestlé made KitKat the Official Chocolate Bar of Formula 1, providing access to a fan base of more than 825 million people across global markets. This partnership positions KitKat with a younger and more diverse audience.

Stefan Palzer, Chief Technology Officer at Nestlé, says: "We are leveraging our expertise across categories to develop a global approach to recipe and material specification.

"By complementing this with digital tools, we are becoming more efficient, while ensuring safety, compliance and preference."

Nestlé plans to expand the scope of its growth platforms from 10% to 30% of sales by the end of 2027, expected to deliver high single-digit growth. The company is building multi-year innovation pipelines based on consumer insights that extend beyond individual products to entire product ranges.

The strategy includes scaling innovations in coffee to align with growing interest in cold coffee products from younger generations.

On sustainability, Nestlé achieved a 24.5% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions against its 2018 baseline in 2025. The company aims to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 en route to net zero.

Philipp Navratil, CEO of Nestlé, says: "In 2025, we laid a strong foundation for long-term success. As we look ahead, accelerating our progress will be essential to achieving our ambitious financial and sustainability goals.

"The next few years at Nestlé will be marked by change, and our future is promising. I am confident that with our people, capabilities and brands, we are well-positioned to succeed.