Have a break, Have a Kit Kat!

Overview

Kit Kat, one of the leading brands of Nestle,S.A  is a chocolate-covered wafer biscuit bar confection that was created by Rowntree's of York, England, and is now produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree in 1988). Each bar consists of fingers composed of three layers of wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Kit Kat bars are produced in 16 countries by Nestlé: Brazil, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Bulgaria.

Brand Positioning

“Broad in appeal, young in feel, big in stature”  the quote encompasses the brand positioning of Kit Kat in a whole. The positioning can be described as ‘positioning by creating values and beliefs’.

Target Market:

Kit Kat’s target market is men and women of all ages. The brand is youthful in nature, and focuses on the consumer segment who love chocolate, and are willing to indulge themselves with chocolaty snacks. What draws consumers to this brand is its association with “breaks” due to its tag line “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat”. It’s low prices, constant over the past 100 years, allows it to target the mass consumer market.

Competitor Analysis:

 Despite the decrease in Nestlé’s company shares in  confectionary market since 2007, the brand share of Kit Kat has increased from 2007, from 3.2% to 3.7%, it still lags behind competitors such as Ferrero Rocher, Ricola, Fisherman’s Friend and Mentos in the confectionary market. However, through filtering out of products such as Ricola, Fisherman’s Friend and Mentos, which are not chocolate brands, it can be seen that Kit Kat is second behind Ferrero Rocher.

How Kit Kat Differentiates Itself?

Points of Parity (POP):

1. Affordability: In comparison to other major brands, Kit kat being lower in price is affordable to a wide range of customers.  

2. Milk / Dark / White Chocolate: Kit Kat’s use of milk, dark and white chocolate variances in its products is a POP for the brand as it is one of the features which helps Kit Kat target a range of different consumers.

3. Lucrative packaging and variations: Kit Kat’s two-stick and four-stick versions come in varying package sizes and types. For the last couple of years, Nestle has been producing numerous limited editions for Kit Kat, such as Kit Kat Chunky Peanut Butter and Kit Kat Green Tea Chocolate.

Points of Difference (POD):

1. Wafer stick: Kit Kat team feels that the fact that wafer stick is one of the key PODs for the brand among it’s chief competitors. Though M&M and fererro-rocher  have versions that incorporate wafer, they feel that being a chocolate wafer stick is a unique attribute for Kit Kat. 

2.  Associated with snacks: Kit Kat is often associated with the word “snack”, as opposed to others which are primarily associated with being chocolates. Kit Kat was able to achieve the “snack” status as a result of its highly recognized tagline “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat”.

 
3. Uniqueness of taste : The main difference between Kit Kat and other competitors lies in the taste it holds, the reason why Kit Kat is successfully holding a wide portion of the market worldwide for ages.

4. Ice-cream production: Unlike any other chocolate brands, Kit Kat produces Ice-creams keeping up with the same great taste and satisfying ice-cream lovers as well.

5. Association with Android: Android 4.4 Kit Kat is an android operating system launched in collaboration with android without any trade of cash. This is the first ever chocolate brand labeled for an android operating system.

Equity

 

Unique Selling Point 

Kit Kat’s unique selling points are implemented through the following global brand strategies:

     -    Different Varieties & Limited Editions – flavour, forms, and shapes

     -    Making it widely available along with affordability factor

     -    Well known tagline: ‘Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat’

These combined generates a strong brand image and association of customers for Kit Kat. With such tagline Kit Kat means a lot more than a chocolate to it’s customers making them sense it as a refreshment. Strong brand loyalty can also be observed in case of Kit Kat customers, owing to it’s uniqueness of taste in the tongue.

Improvements

 

Kit Kat is undoubtedly a successful brand, but it still lags behind the competitors for a couple of reasons which should be improved. The packaging of Kit Kat is not very user friendly and often irritates it’s customers during consumption compared to other brands customers which may affect brand loyalty. Too much of variations of a product may be harmful for a brand, which may affect brand image to the customers. Same goes for Kit Kat. In addition, the taste of Kit Kat varies according to the countries produced which affects their POD and inconsistency in the global market. With improvement of such lacking, I believe Kit Kat will hold an even better position in the future.  

REFERENCES:

1.Wikipedia

2.Kitkat/ weebly

3.Lecture

4.Google