The Senseo coffee maker was introduced on the Dutch market in 2001. At the time the coffee market was saturated, mature, locked-up. Even a small gain in market share was considered a success. Enter the Senseo. A coffee machine that makes one or two cups of coffee within 30 seconds, with espresso-like foam on top, made from coffee pads in varying tastes. In the first four years, fifteen million of these devices were sold worldwide. By 2007 one-third of the coffee in the Netherlands came from pads (Volkskrant, in Dutch only). Somewhat of an achievement in the once locked-up coffee market.

Due to its ease of use, the Senseo coffee maker is also one of the poster boys for the Philips slogan Sense & Simplicity. It was prominently featured when the Dutch electronics giant introduced its new slogan. The Dutch wikipedia page about the Senseo mentions that Douwe Egberts and Philips developed the Senseo in 'close cooperation'. The usually well-informed Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant describes Philips as a driving force behind the Senseo (Philips reinvented itself, in Dutch only). However, the Senseo was conceived and for the most part developed by Douwe Egberts (a Dutch Subsidiary of SaraLee) with the help of external consultants.

Below is a short overview of the development of the Senseo, primarily based on an article in the July 2001 edition of Dutch product development magazine Product, and a lecture I once attended by Philips marketeers.

The first spark to lead to the Senseo was in the spring of 1996. SaraLee/Douwe Egberts wanted to innovate, and started the department Innovation & Quality. One of its first projects was what was then called the 'Coffee Solo'. The concept for the new product was based on four developments (I guess at present they would be labelled 'insights') that Douwe Egberts had identified in the market:

1. Individualization: coffee drinking was no longer a family moment, so people brew cups rather than pots of coffee
2. Personalization: people want control over the taste of their cup of coffee
3. Ease of use: making the coffee had to be easy and fast (within 30 seconds)
4. Appearance of espresso: people love the feeling of luxury of the foam on top of espresso

In 1997 the design agency Waacs creates the characteristic slightly forward-leaning design. The choice to make the device blue seems controversial. When the Senseo had just been introduced I heard a food and brand expert explaining that the Senseo would never be a success, because blue was simply not a 'coffee colour'. Well, so much for experts. What I think the blue color did for the Senseo was to make it clear that this was not a regular coffee maker. But that may be too easy a conclusion, in hindsight.

Now that the design was somewhat mature Douwe Egberts figures it is time to approach Philips to join the project, because it has a big home appliances division that also produces lots of coffee makers. No such luck. Philips is interested, but cannot join the project because of 'other obligations' in the coffee market. Other attempts at finding partners fail as well. And now Douwe Egberts does something remarkable. The coffee maker decides to become a product developer and to move forward with the project anyway, with the help of consultancies. It gives Well Design the assignment to take the working prototype and WAAC's design and develop into a production-ready design. By the time that finally ten working prototypes have been made, all of a sudden Philips reappears on stage. Why the Senseo regained Philips interest, no one really knows. It is speculated that CEOs met each-other.

Anyway, Philips steps in and takes over the role of Well Design. And maybe at the right moment, because the prototype at that time was nowhere close to being production-ready. But getting things from a prototype into production just happened to be one of Philip's core strengths, and with the help of German engineering agency Hoffmann & Hoffmann, the design is thoroughly optimized. A second advantage of Philips joining the project is the company's expertise in the marketing and distribution of consumer electronics. And thus in February 2001 the Philips/DE Senseo Crema entered the market, leading to somewhat of a hype and being sold out in most stores the Netherlands just half a year later.

[Illustration: Product magazine]