According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Nestle’s strategy of diversifying it’s KitKat brand has fallen flat on its face, to the tune of an 18% drop in overall sales. Nestle, who released 12 different KitKat varieties in the UK, has canceled all but 2, Tiramisu and Caramel, which were the 2 best performing of the 12.
The company blames brand dilution and over saturation, and the executive in charge of the varieties has been fired. Nestle also set up a consumer hotline to field calls and hear what consumers thought of the new flavors, where most responded with “It was nice to try them once, but I’m not sure I’ll buy them again.” Which I often find myself saying when trying some obscure limited edition flavor of a long established brand. They said that they will continue to make minor changes in the brand, but nothing drastic as releasing 12 different flavors. They have since launched a Peanut Butter Chunky Kat bar.
Also, in the article is a line where they mention that the Caramel KitKat will be coming out in America sometime this year…so keep you eyes peeled for that - it sounds great!
We have reviewed a number of wacky KitKat varieties here at Candy Addict - here are reviews of Coffee, Extra Creamy, Noir, Wine, Strawberry, Maple Syrup, and Milkshake KitKats.
- WSJ article in the Post-Gazette
- WSJ article in MoneyWeb
- More KitKat coverage at Candy Addict
- KitKats at Wikipedia
More candy articles about: candy, sweets, kitkat, kit kat, limited edition, uk, foreign, nestle, nestle’s, british, great britain, caramel, wine, coffee
Will this have direct implications on what varieties of Kit Kats we see in Canada? Canadian Kit Kats are also owned by Nestle.
RESPONSE: I don’t know for sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say yes.
July 17th, 2006 at 2:14 pm–Brian
oh that’s too bad, i really enjoyed all of the wacky varieties (even when they tasted awful!) but i suppose that’s the point– you try them once for the sake of novelty and then never again.
July 17th, 2006 at 11:40 pm