Marketing in its purest sense extends to all aspects in which a consumer encounters a brand or product. This includes the box, wrapper or packet the product in which a product is sold.
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Packaging innovations have recently become more a significant aspect of many food brand product extensions, particularly in the snack category, where size has become an important differentiating feature amongst the crowded chocolate bar market. But as Wispa bars become packaged in pairs and Lion bars get longer – no single brand has seen quite as much innovation in the product and packaging as Kit Kat. Yes, in the UK we might have a few flavours, the odd limited edition variant and of course, the estimable Kit-Kat Chunky – but that plethora of choice pales in comparison to the Japanese Kit-Kat proposition.
Wild product variations aside – and there are at the moment at least 19 different regional flavours of Kit-Kat in Japan but that kind of product variation is the subject of another column – Kit-Kat Japan is possibly the benchmark against which the potential of packaging innovation should be judged.
Like in many developed countries, the Japanese chocolate bar market is highly competitive, with many brands competing for little shelf space. To improve its performance, Kit-Kat (which in Japanese, loosely translates into an encouraging good luck message) repackaged itself as a “good luck” card.
Customers could send Kit-Kat mail complete with a handwritten message on the back of the packet, to a friend or loved one that might be sitting an exam or a driving test. The concept proved incredibly popular, with the end result of Kit-Kat postcards achieving point-of-sale space in the national post office counter network. Kit-Kat is now the top seller in its category in Japan.
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By GlobalDataThis is perhaps an extreme example, but it demonstrates that significant traction can be achieved through packaging development, and that a wrapper has the potential to be more than just a protective covering.
Mars in the Netherlands would attempt something similar to Kit-Kat, by releasing Mars bars in plain black wrappers, with a selection of adhesive letters that consumers could stick their own message on the front of the Mars bar.
From the sublime to the, er – brave, some packaging innovations seem completely barmy. Just when you think that nobody could ever improve on the tried and tested sandwich packet, along comes the Candwich. Yes it’s a sandwich, and yes it’s in a can. I’d like to think that consumers will shun this gruesome sounding creature, but you can never be entirely sure.
We do, after all live in a world where you can buy a microwaveable burger in a bun.
