Nestlé to use humanoid robots to sell Nescafé in Japan
nestle.com
nestle.com
They aggressively target office ladies with the following pitch: instead of having your company provide a coffee machine that you have to operate, we'll give you a machine for free which any of the lazy bums at the office can operate (and they'll love you for it), and all you have to do is collect $50 a month or so (which we'll provide guidance on if it is difficult), upon which we'll come to your door, hand you more coffee goodness, and collect the money.
In addition to offices being high-volume coffee consumption locations for the obvious reason, the office ladies are given copious pamphlets in case any of the salarymen want to have one at home, too.
Oh, and if you're helpful to Nestle with regard to your office, you get a free machine for home, as much coffee as you can drink, and various other compensatory benefits.
And that page you linked is so well done in styling it for the Japanese female audience.
doesn't it amount to offering kickbacks?
From one of Patio11's old comments on the Japanese toilet industry:
Toto's primary sales channel is "If you build a house or office in Japan and don't specifically talk to your architect/contractor about your post-bowel movement preferences we will take the liberty of using the most current model Toto has available and then invoice you cost plus labor plus 50%." Toto does not have that relationship with the person responsible for picking your toilet. Why does Toto have that relationship with the guy who picked my toilet? They've got a sales rep in Ogaki. His most important job is making sure they know of every business start for a construction company and that every time it happens the company gets a wreath (that's considered auspicious and is socially mandatory to buy when someone close to you starts a shop) and the principals get invited out drinking. Toto is, naturally, buying. The sales guy will not be so gauche as to mention "Say, apropos of nothing, do you do cost-plus projects? We have a proposition for you which will put $100 extra in your pocket for every bathroom you build."
They appear to be targeting roughly $20 compensation for a referral ( http://nestle.jp/amb/mgm/ ), which strikes me as well within acceptable bounds here. (And, for that matter, the US.)
Actually, we have two coffee machines (and one lying idle) in an office of seven people, and only four people drink coffee. There are also four coffee shops within a block of us. Overkill!
But, here in Chile, I have heard that hotels have trouble earning repeat business if they do not serve nescafe (even if they serve other, arguably better coffee). As is said, there's no accounting for taste.