Kit Kats in Japan
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There have been more than 300 limited-edition seasonal and regional flavors of
Kit Kat Kit Kat (stylised as KitKat in various countries) is a chocolate-covered wafer bar confection created by Rowntree's of York, United Kingdom, and is now produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988), except in the United Stat ...
chocolate bar A chocolate bar (Commonwealth English) or candy bar (some dialects of American English) is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily brea ...
s produced in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
since 2000, many exclusive to the country and not produced elsewhere.
Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
, which operates the Kit Kat brand in Japan, reports that the brand overtook Meiji Chocolate as the top-selling confection in Japan from 2012 to 2014. The company's marketing campaign, which partnered with
Japan Post was a Japanese statutory corporation that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, Retail banking, banking services, and life insurance. It's the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and run ...
to sell the bar in 20,000 post offices, won an award in 2010. The campaign encouraged associations of the product's name with the coincidental cognate , translated as "You will surely win", and could be mailed as a
good luck charm In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...
for students ahead of university exams.


History

Kit Kats were introduced to Japan in
1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
when British confectioner
Rowntree's Rowntree's is a British confectionery brand and former business based in York, England. Rowntree developed the Kit Kat (introduced in 1935), Aero (introduced in 1935), Fruit Pastilles (introduced in 1881), Smarties (introduced in 1937) brands, ...
made an agreement with Japanese confectioner and restaurant owner . In 2014, they were the top-selling confection in the country. The Kit Kat brand took the number one sales position from Meiji chocolate in 2012, though Meiji remains the leading confection company in Japan overall. In 2004, the green tea flavor was introduced. Since then, the product has been sold in more than 300 seasonal and regional flavors. The top-selling flavor of the candy bar in 2010 was
soy sauce Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and '' Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''Asp ...
. Nestlé attributes the success of the flavor varieties to the tradition of , in which regional specialties are brought back for family and co-workers from trips away. The company believes the limited-edition seasonal models create a "scarcity and rarity of value" for customers. The business model was created to solve a problem the company found in Japanese
convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
s, which frequently rotated items and flavors off of shelves. By producing smaller runs of flavors, the company was better able to control its production costs. It was also economically viable in Japan because there is no initial product fee for listing new products in Japanese convenience stores. Kit Kats in Japan are produced at Nestlé-owned factories in and . The milk chocolate used for Kit Kats is made from whole-milk powder and Nestlé buys most of its cacao beans from West Africa.


Marketing

Marketing for Kit Kats in Japan is believed to have benefited from the coincidental
false cognate False cognates are pairs of words that seem to be cognates because of similar sounds and meaning, but have different etymologies; they can be within the same language or from different languages, even within the same family. For example, the Engli ...
with , a phrase meaning "You will surely win" in Japanese. Some market research has shown that the brand is strongly correlated to good luck charms, particularly among students ahead of exams. Kit Kat's "Lucky Charm" advertising campaign in Japan won the Asian Brand Marketing Effectiveness Award in 2005. Nestlé and the Japan Post launched a campaign in 2009, allowing people to write messages and mail the chocolate bars from 20,000 post offices. The special packages included a space to write a message of encouragement and affix a stamp. The promotional packages were sold out within a month. The campaign won the Media Grand Prix in 2010's
Cannes Lions The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...
International Advertising Festival.


Varieties

The Kit Kat Chocolatory, with recipes designed by chef , opened in 2014, and had expanded to seven branches by 2015. The company claims it has served more than 1 million customers and earned more than 2 billion yen. These shops sell high-end Kit Kat products such as raspberry-infused dark chocolate, orange-chocolate rum,
cherry blossom A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...
and
green tea Green tea is a type of tea that is made from '' Camellia sinensis'' leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since the ...
. A variety of 's flavors have been introduced as seasonal products, including flavors such as plum, passion fruit, chilli, ginger and kinako soybean powder. In 2016, Nestlé introduced a Kit Kat, which combines powder with white chocolate. Some varieties are restricted to a specific region associated with that particular bar. Others are limited-run varieties, with excess supply saved for year-end " happy bag" specials. In 2015, 500 single-finger bitter chocolate bars were sold with
gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...
wrapping for about $16 in high-end retail shops. Notable varieties include (red bean), (purple sweet potato), brown sugar syrup, (green tea), and soy sauce. The cafe shop Pronto has introduced
croissant A croissant is a buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered wi ...
s incorporating Kit Kats. Pizza chains Napoli and Strawberry Cones introduced dessert pizzas with bakeable Kit Kat toppings in March 2014. In October 2018, Nestle opened a Kit Kat store at
Namba Station is a name shared by two railway stations in the Namba district of Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. One is owned by Nankai Electric Railway, while the other is by the Osaka Metro. The names of both stations are written in ''hiragana'' on signage within t ...
in
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
.


Additional varieties


See also

*
Omiyage A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...
*
Meibutsu is a term most often applied to regional specialties (also known as ). can also be applied to specialized areas of interest, such as , where it refers to famous tea utensils, or Japanese swords, where it refers to specific named famous blades. ...


References


External links

* * {{Nestlé Japanese brand foods Food and drink in Japan Japanese desserts and sweets Japanese confectionery Chocolate bars Nestlé brands