A Shocking Move That Nobody Saw Coming
Coffee lovers across America are doing double-takes in the grocery store these days. Maxwell House announced it is rebranding and changing its name to Maxwell Apartment for one year to reflect rising prices of coffee and housing. This isn’t just any ordinary marketing stunt – we’re talking about a brand that has kept the same name since 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, which was its first major customer.
The timing couldn’t be more perfect. The brand is offering consumers even more value with a 12-month “lease” of Maxwell Apartment, designed to stock up coffee lovers nationwide, starting on Sept. 29, National Coffee Day.
The Economics Behind the Name Change
This rebrand isn’t just clever wordplay – it’s addressing a real economic crisis hitting American households. In a time where value matters now more than ever, Americans seek value in areas of their everyday, including where they live with nearly a third opting to rent versus purchase a home. The housing market has become absolutely brutal, with home prices reached a new all-time high in early 2024 despite persistently elevated interest rates, rising at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in February. With these gains, the US home price index is now a whopping 47 percent higher than since early 2020.
Maxwell House sees the connection between housing and coffee costs. Two-thirds of American adults drink coffee every day, which can add up quickly, especially these days. Maxwell House believes no one should have to go without great tasting coffee and Maxwell Apartment delivers the same delicious taste people know and love, at a value that celebrates all our fans are doing to make smart choices in their lives.
Coffee Prices Are Through the Roof
The coffee industry is experiencing unprecedented price increases that make this rebrand even more timely. Roasted coffee prices rose 20.9% in August from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s not a typo – we’re talking about a jump of more than twenty percent in just one year.
The numbers get even more staggering when you look at the bigger picture. The cost of wholesale arabica beans – the most popular on the planet – surpassed $4 a pound for the first time this month and have doubled over the past year, running up from less than two bucks a pound in January 2024 to a record $4.30 a pound on February 13, 2025. The retail price of ground coffee hit an all-time high of $7 a pound in January, up 75% from $4 in January 2020, government data shows.
The Real Deal on Savings
Maxwell Apartment isn’t just changing its name for publicity – there’s actual money to be saved. It’s selling a year’s supply of its specially packaged coffee for just $40 on Amazon – or what it’s calling a 12-month “lease.” It’s the same exact coffee – only cheaper, at about 10 cents less per ounce. The brand cites statistics that coffee drinkers could save more than $1,000 a year with the offer, in comparison with daily café runs.
That thousand dollar savings claim might sound exaggerated, but it’s not when you consider today’s coffee prices. The median nationwide cost of a regular cup of coffee hit $3.52 this past August, Toast says, up 2.9% from the same time last year. Median cold brew costs hit $5.47, up 4.6% for the period. The brand further noted that daily cafe runs, which many of us are opting for as part of “sweet treat” culture, can add up to $90 monthly or more. According to the press release, the “one year lease” of Maxwell Apartment coffee would save customers $1000 a year.
The Marketing Genius Behind It All
This campaign represents a masterclass in reading the cultural moment. Maxwell House is having some fun with its name and the grim statistics around the possibility of younger generations owning a home in its latest campaign. The first-time homebuyer market share hit a historic low (24%), while home buyers’ ages hit an all-time high (56 years) in 2024, per data from the National Association of Realtors. The brand spotted an opportunity hiding in plain sight.
“We saw something fun hiding in plain sight – our brand has the word ‘house’ in it. But at a time when daily life has become more expensive, a lot of people are living that apartment life,” said Zachary Bautista, partner and group creative director at Rethink. The campaign, with strategy and production led by agency Rethink, includes paid media across Meta and TikTok, a creator partnership and paid social content.
Not Just a Stunt – It’s Following a Trend
Maxwell House isn’t the first brand to pull a name-changing stunt recently. Most recently, in January, Starbucks changed its name on its website and app to “The Starbucks Coffee Company,” though its legal name remains the Starbucks Corporation. Coors Light announced earlier that month that it was temporarily changing its name to “Mondays Light” in support of people who went too hard on Super Bowl Sunday.
In October 2024, Goldfish briefly changed its name to “Chilean Sea Bass” in a cheeky ploy to appeal to adults. And in September 2024, The Campbell Soup Company permanently dropped the “soup” from its name, rebranding as The Campbell’s Company after more than 100 years. The difference? Maxwell House’s change actually addresses a real economic problem their customers are facing.
The Historic Hotel That Started It All
To understand why this name change matters, you need to know the fascinating origin story. In 1892, Cheek approached the food buyer for the Maxwell House Hotel and gave him 20 pounds of his special blend for free. After a few days, the coffee was gone, and the hotel returned to using its usual brand. But after hearing complaints from patrons and others who liked Cheek’s coffee better, the hotel bought Cheek’s blend exclusively.
The Maxwell House was Nashville’s largest hotel, with five stories and 240 rooms. It advertised steam heat, gas lighting, and a bath on every floor. The hotel became famous for its Christmas dinner, which featured such delicacies as Calf’s Head, Leg of Cumberland Black Bear, and Tennessee Opossum. Seven presidents stayed at the Maxwell House Hotel, including Theodore Roosevelt. The hotel was destroyed by fire on Christmas Night 1961.
What’s Actually In the New Package
Maxwell House says the limited-time rebrand to Maxwell Apartment is in name only and the product inside is the same in “taste, aroma, quality and ingredients”. The rebranded Apartment coffee, Kraft Heinz says, will retain the same “Good to the Last Drop” taste and aroma as the original Maxwell House coffee. The slogan “Good to the Last Drop” is familiar to some longtime Hobokenites and historians because of the massive sign that used to sit atop the Maxwell building.
The limited-run branded canisters will go on sale Monday, September 29, which also happens to be National Coffee Day, and will include four 27.5-ounce canisters for just $40. That’s actually a pretty decent deal when you consider that the average price for a pound of coffee was $8.872 in August, compared to $8.414 in July, for a 5.4% increase, according to data released September 11, 2025 by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Climate Change Is Driving Coffee Costs Sky High
The timing of this rebrand coincides with some of the worst weather conditions coffee growers have faced in decades. Getting caffeinated is likely to become an ever-costlier proposition because of rising temperatures, droughts and excessive rains striking Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s two biggest producers. The 2024 coffee growing season saw a drought followed by August frost in Brazil, and flooding in October came in the wake of a drought in Vietnam.
In December 2024, Arabica, the higher quality coffee favoured in the roast and ground coffee market, was selling at 58 percent up on a year ago, while Robusta, used mainly for instant coffee and blending, saw a price surge of 70 percent in real terms. Key factors behind the recent price increase include limited export quantities from Viet Nam, reduced output in Indonesia, and adverse weather impacting coffee production in Brazil.
Corporate Shake-Ups at Kraft Heinz
This rebrand comes during a period of major corporate restructuring for Maxwell House’s parent company. Maxwell House’s parent company, Kraft Heinz, saw net sales of about $26 billion in 2024. However, it announced this month that it will be splitting into two publicly traded companies next year, a little more than a decade after merging in 2015.
Parent company Kraft Heinz this month announced plans to split into two companies, reversing much of the work of a $46 billion merger in 2015. One company will house sauces, spreads, seasonings and shelf-stable meals while the second will focus on grocery brands including Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. Maxwell House will be part of the grocery-focused division that seems positioned to compete more aggressively on value pricing.