KitKat's History & Communication Brief

History

Kit KaT Original
A Kit Kat is a confection which that was first created by Rowntree's of York, England. However, now it is produced worldwide by Nestle, which acquired Rowntree in 1988. Yet, in the United States it is licensed by The Hershey Company.

The origin of Kit Kat’s name:
This bar was developed after a worker at the Rowntree's factory in York put a suggestion in the suggestion box for a snack that a 'man could have in his lunch box for work. It was created in 1936.Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp was renamed Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp in 1937 and later it was just called Kit Kat. The name is believed to have come from the Kit-Cat Club, an eighteenth-century political club for artists.

Kit Kat the Original:
The original four-finger version consists of three layers of crème-filled wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped and eaten individually to insure a longer period of enjoyment. Each bar measures approximately 1 cm by 9 cm.

Packaging:
Kit Kat chocolate is famous for its red and white color. Yet, this was not its first package;Kit Kat was blue in1945 but was withdrawn in 1947.

Kit Kat Chunky
Kit Kat Chunky was a new product that was introduced due to the fact that the Nestle felt that they were not reaching the new generation. The created a new product that successfully met their expectations.

Description:
Instead of having four thin bars, Kit Kat Chunky is one giant bar only that is about 2.5 cm in width. It has Kit Kat’s ingredients but maximized; much more wafer and a richer layer of chocolate.

Chunky Sizes:
Kit Kat Chunky comes in different sizes such as Mini-size, Snack-size and King-Size.

Chunky history:
Although Kit Kat continued throughout time to be one of the most successful chocolate brands, some problems began to rise by the late 1990s. Nestle They faced a decrease in sales. They realized that Kit Kat was popular only among a certain segment of the population which consisted of the 25-40 year old and not of the young generation. This realization prompted Nestle to take action. They wanted a new product that would bring excitement and life to the product but still delivers the same magical taste and formula of the original Kit Kat.

Project Tyson:
As a result, Project Tyson was created in 1999. It was an international project that helped introduce the “Kit Kat Chunky” on a global level. It was presented on the basis that the young generation seeks novelty and excitement when consuming chocolate bars.

Kit Kat Chunky made a huge success. It was even considered to have brought the highest rates of brand success at that time for

Kit Kat Chunky’s development:
As a result of Kit Kat Chunky’s popularity, many new flavors appeared globally to satisfy the different tastes that people have in different countries. In 2006 the first new flavored chunky was introduced in the market as Kit Kat Black, referring to using Dark Chocolate instead of chocolate. It was first used in Turkey. Two years after Australia released a new flavor that was Kit Kat Cookies and Cream. In the mean time in countries like: Canada. U.S., UK, Japan, Australia and Germany many flavors of Kit Kat Chunky are available as: Caramel, Golden Caramel, Cookie Dough, Hazelnut Cream, Honeycomb, Peanut butter, Tiramisu and Cinnamon.

Communication Brief

The Problem:
As mentioned previously, Nestle created Kit Kat Chunky to overcome the problem that the young generation did not or no longer relate to the original four-fingered Kit Kat. Therefore, our advertisement will try to solve this problem and encourage consumers from all ages specially teenagers to buy Kit Kat Chunky. As our product is already credible we don’t need to establish credibility for it.

Target Audience:
Kit Kat (original): Consumers between 25-40 years old.
Kit Kat Chunky: Consumers between 12-20 years old we will concentrate on this group because we are trying to relate to this specific segment of the population.

Consumer Insights:
The fact that Marketers have flooded store shelves with more products than consumers could handle has always caused a problem. Due to that, Nestle established factors that attracted consumers towards Kit Kat Chunky. The four basic motivators that influenced Kit Kat Chunky consumers, and brought success to their market are: convenience, willingness, gratification and safety. These four were presented through the original One-finger version of this chocolate-covered biscuit bar which resulted in a huge success in the global market. The element of enjoyment that the company integrated throughout its campaigns and ads was a major key in driving consumers and triggering their willingness to try it more than once and to enjoy every bit of it. The availability and of the product locally and globally made it easier and convenient for the consumers to find it anywhere. The following point is safety, which has been carried out through the quality and production experience Nestle established since its first product. By establishing quality, great taste, enjoyment, availability and safety gratification is simultaneously established. By fulfilling these four keys, consumer’s minds will recall this brand and their awareness towards Kit Kat Chunky was and will still remain.

Brand Imperatives:
The important feature of Kit Kat is that it has a different recognizable shape that every consumer can recognize without even reading the name of the brand. The competitive advantage of it is that it has no competitors with the same quality and idea of its product. As seen in the market the competitors of Kit Kat are bounty, Mars, Galaxy, etc… but each one of them has its own recipe.
The brand image of Kit Kat is the red cover with white name that can be easily recognized and memorized by consumers.


Communication Objectives:
The objective of the Kit Kat Chunky new launch was to insist on the idea that Kit Kat should be people’s natural choice for their breaks.
It also aimed at increasing the number of consumers by introducing a new brand that would appeal to a new segment of the population that was neglected in the past. It aims at encouraging the young generation to consume the new Kit Kat not as a routine but as a desire for novelty and innovation.
Nestle’s desire was to introduce a brand that symbolizes novelty, innovation and creativity. They wanted the target audience not only to recognize the brand but to look for at and ask for it whenever they need a break. They wanted to earn people’s interest long enough and to certain extent that they would eventually become brand loyal.

The proposition or selling idea:
After talking about how Nestle would manage its product’s life-cycle, which predicts that sales will decline as the market becomes saturated and consumer taste changes, the selling idea as what Nestle believed should be through the enhanced quality its products represent, causing a growing provocative loyalty with their customers. This would lead to a developed integrated message using multiple communication tools, attracting a bigger number of buyers. This method will sure leave a consistent association in the buyer’s mind. So the selling idea basically states that better quality leads to better health, better health establishes loyal consumers. For K Kit Kat it Kat Chunky, better quality is established through better representation of new target audience.

Support:
The reason to trust our brand is that it is a credible brand which was established since 1936 that has many loyal consumers. We believe that every food has a role to play in achieving a balanced diet. This is why we produce and market a wide range of foods and beverages which satisfy many consumer needs – nutrient content, variety, pleasure and convenience – which all contribute to achieving a balanced diet and overall well-being.
Associations:
Kit Kat Chunky is a brand that speaks to the young generations. So the associations connected with eating Kit Kat chunky are a combination of enjoyment, youth and excitement. The brand has its uniqueness between other brands which are their competitors as Kit Kat is a chocolate with layers of biscuit in it and this is the unique part of it as all of its competitors don’t have this ingredient in their products.

Co-Branding:
There are two types of co-branding that Kit Kat is involved in:
1.Co-Branding Loyalty programs : Although loyalty programs are created between different brands but Nestle made a new arrangement. It is sharing the cost of the loyalty programs between its own brands.
2.Reaching out: in it, the brand looks for another partner that would strengthen its position in the market by highlighting its attributes and widening its target market. Thus both brands help each other out.
Kit Kat co-branded with McDonald when McDonald introduced McFlurry with Kit Kat falvour.

Creative direction:
Believing in the impact “Chunky” would create is the basic standard to generate a creative direction. There are some tactics Nestle should follow:
1. Start giving out promotions when people start consuming the product:
This includes two types of rewards. The basic reward is that the good or service works as expected. Then, there is the secondary reward, which offers the customer something extra for their efforts. For example, Buy one Kit Kat Chunky and get one for free.
2. Punishing customers when they do things wrong with the product:
What is meant by that is to punish when they mistreat the products to make them value it more. For instance, Charge an amount of money for cancelling requested packages from the company. This policy has been working effectively, and it’s used in several places like banks where they fine customers when they bounce a check, how restaurants charge fees for no-shows, …. Etc

Media Imperatives:
A Kitkat ad is best done in an environment were teenagers live. For example: in our commercial we chose the American University of Sharjah as a common place where students live and study. As in our ad we are targeting mainly teenagers we chose this place as it speaks to them.

Media Strategy:
In order to target young generation we are going to film a commercial using humor as an appealing factor to our audience due to the fact that teenagers are newly exposed to the idea of the relationships. Thus, we believe that our commercial will address the segment of the population.

Media Selection :
This will be done by filming a video commercial( medium) in order to target the audience we want and hopefully achieve the coverage we want.

Vehicle selection:
Our ad is going to be presented on television especially between sport shows, romantic movies and kids’ shows.