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Just when and why did Kitkat have to become so complicated?
You know what it’s like at 4 o’clock and you need a sugar rush to get you through the day. I know that I should be eating 70 per cent cocoa solid chocolate but I need the drug that Kitkat can supply in the form of a regular old-fashioned block.
But can you find one? No.
All that is available is sickly muck in the form of Big Fingers or these bloody new-fangled temptations – oval units of chocolate-like gunk fused together into a crinkle-cut big finger.
I tried the honeycomb and the café latte and felt quite sick afterwards. Thankfully, the chocolate eclair, hazelnut praline and caramel fudge versions weren’t available to tip me over the edge.
Now I give Kitkat the big finger back.
Reminder to self: avoid.
Popularity: 7% [?]
March 21st, 2007 at 10:18 am
Ugh, those chunky kitkats are horrible!
why is it that we get different flavours in the dodgy chunky versions only? in Japan and even in the US, you can get really cool unusual flavours in the small snack sized fingers. this only increases delivery costs for me…grrr….
March 22nd, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Its the same thing when they try to tinker around with tim tams. likewise when the good people of arnott’s experiment with different flavours to try to beat the hexagonal-shaped perfection that is the bbq shape. must admit though i didn’t mind too much the jaffa flavoured kitkats when they were around. i know! its sacriligious!!
March 26th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Put simply, it’s all about market share. Brand extensions, as these items are known as in marketing, are usually seasonally introduced, short term offerings that may eat temporarily into your competitor’s market share and boost your profits with a spike in a typically quiet season.
On a smaller scale, competitions and promotions do likewise, making your figures look more impressive when reporting up to head office - aka as hanging on to your job when local offices are shrinking in Aus and more positions head to China.
Cadbury use this method too. For example, they annually introduce a range of Freddo’s outside the traditional plain, mint, strawberry and caramel lines. In the past ranges have included jelly filled and biscuit studded Freddos.
The upsizing of your favourite chocolate items is a world trend. With a bigger offering you spend more and the product is able to be marketed as a snack rather than a treat.
Distribution of the vasrious flavoured Kit Kats is dependent on local producers facilities. Because our market is tiny compared to UK, US and Japan, local production becomes too expensive, so increasingly the production of most of Australia’s supermarket goods are also moving off shore to China and the selection of items coming this way becomes fewer. Companies therefore are leaning towards selling lines of items that have better profit margins here.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
You’ll be happy(?) to hear that two of these icky varieties (though alas not the two you chose) are currently under ‘voluntary recall’.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1886081.htm