As part of its "Happy New School Year" campaign, Nestle is cobranding a mobile and online organizational tool for families to build an emotional connection with them.

Cozi is a free service available on mobile and online that helps busy families organize and simplify their daily lives. The service is now available at http://www.nestlefamily.com and is a branding tool for Nestlé.

"Our goal in aligning ourselves with Cozi is that we want to be a partner to families outside of just the kitchen and dining room," said Becky Chao, director of moms with kids insights for Nestlé, Glendale, CA. "We want to help them throughout their entire day.

"By providing this sort of convenience to consumers we hope to build an emotional connection between the Nestlé brand and families," she said.

Cozi is a free Web and mobile service that helps families manage crazy schedules, track shopping and to-do lists, organize household chores, stay in communication and share memories -- all in one place.

The company is fanatically family focused, as the tool helps families balance their busy schedules and create more harmony at home.

"The best part is you don't have to be tech-savvy to use it," Ms. Chao said. "It is really very simple."

Since the back-to-school season is the busiest time of year for families with kids that are in school, Nestlé felt that this was the ideal time to partner with Cozi. Nestlé is promoting the Cozi on its Nestlé Family site.

"There are new school schedules and activities, fall sports, back-to-school shopping and the return to a regular routine for everyone," Ms. Chao said. "Cozi helps busy families make the transition from summer to fall as they coordinate schedules, organize back-to-school shopping, plan meals and capture and share school year adventures with friends and relatives."

Nestlé was most impressed with the fact that families can access Cozi from anywhere -- home, work, or on the go -- with any computer or mobile phone.

With Cozi, consumer don't have to worry about making a shopping list and leaving it on the kitchen counter, Cozi can get the information whenever and wherever consumers need it.

Consumers can sign up for Cozi by going to http://m.cozi.com. They upload their shopping lists and to-do lists and then when they need the lists they can call Cozi toll-free from any mobile phone to have the schedule or grocery list read or texted to them.

Families can easily collaborate on things by sending a grocery, shopping, or to-do list, or even the day's appointments, to themselves and other members of the family via mobile.

Users get can get appointment reminders by text and email. Consumers can even sync their calendar with Microsoft Outlook.

"Families are really busy these days, especially when both parents work," Ms. Chao said. "The fact that Cozi is accessible on the mobile phone means that we can be with them wherever they are.

"Also let's face it people are texting these days," she said.

Nestlé has done mobile in the past.

Nestlé's coffee brand Nespresso launched Nespresso Mobile, a multimedia coffee experience that was one of the first Flash Lite 3.1 mobile applications available for download (see story).

Nestlé's Arrowhead water used a mobile sweepstakes to build awareness around its association with Universal Studios' The Mummy and to build a database of consumers to remarket to.
Nestlé tapped mobile marketing firm HipCricket to power the campaign (see story).

But the Nestlé-branded Cozi is the most recent mobile initiative.

"We think about delivering a simple solution for families," said Carl Weinstein, chief marketing officer of Cozi, Seattle. "Design decisions are different from products for individuals and businesses.

"It really is just a nice tool for families," he said.