Meiji Melty Kiss rotating winter chocolates

Written by: Rebecca Milner on November 11, 2008 at 3:14 am | In MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

In a country where FMGC are already ultra-seasonal, Meiji’s Melty Kiss chocolates don’t just arrive with the cooler weather, they actually announce it. Like the changing of vending machine canned coffee from cold to hot, the presence of Melty Kiss on the convenience store shelves is an indicator that sweater season has officially arrived.

You see, Melty Kiss just wouldn’t work in the summer, because the melt-in-your-mouth soft chocolates would become a melty mess in the hotter months. Each year Meiji issues exactly three flavors, rotating old favorites and introducing new ones. This time around will include Creamy Chocolate, Fruity Strawberry, and Dark Rum.

Though the product, which debuted in1993, is enjoyed by adults and kids alike, the Dark Rum flavor is meant to appeal to grown up tastes. Case in point, the commercial features popular Classy magazine model Sayo Aizawa (who has actually starred in previous ones as well) and would probably gross kids out.

Tags: celebrity, chocolate, Convenience Stores, FMGC, Meiji, Seasonal goods
Category: MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

DecoChoco customized chocolates from the net to your door

Written by: Michael Keferl on February 24, 2008 at 9:26 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS | 1 Comment

Chocolate maker Tirol may be expanding into drinks, but that doesn’t mean they’ve neglected expanding on their core business of tiny chocolates next to cash registers. This time they’ve mixed the classic schoolgirl hobby of purikura with their ubiquitous chocolates by allowing online customization and ordering with a simple interface provided by MacStyle.

The website DecoCho (Decoration Chocolate) allows users to upload up to three pictures, customize them in a digital purikura-esque fashion, and then have the results printed up on Tirol chocolate wrappers to be be delivered within 2-3 weeks.

The user-friendly interface makes creating the pictures a snap with drag-and-drop, and at about $20 for the entire process the chocolates are reasonably priced. Easy digital customization of items is a big emerging trend in Japan, starting with mobile phones and moving toward cars and even everyday objects.

Tags: chocolate, Customization, FMCG
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Japan still Kit Kat krazy with the regionalized “Exotic Series”

Written by: Michael Keferl on April 4, 2007 at 1:14 am | In MARKETING IDEAS | 1 Comment

Back in our countryside days in beautiful Ise-shi, one of our close female friends bought us some Kit Kats as a “good luck” present. Why? Well, she explained that because we were about to take the Japanese proficiency test we needed some luck, and “Kit Kat” closely resembles the phrase “kitto katsu”, meaning “I hope you win”. Students say this to each other before the big entrance examinations, and, thanks to a clever marketing campaign, mothers started buying them for their kids before the exam. Heck, they already eat tonkatsu (breaded and fried pork) for the same reason, so that’s one lucky meal!

These days, Kit Kats are absolutely HUGE in Japan, with a variety of flavors that ranges from “wine” to “green tea” to the latest “brandy and orange”. Now, Kit Kat has taken a page from the Hello Kitty playbook and has started to create custom regionalized chocolate bars!

To understand this phenomenon, it’s necessary to understand the way Japanese people regionalize everything edible. There are certain foods that are known for being from each area, and most people know it well. Hiroshima has okonomiyaki, Osaka has takoyaki, our old town Ise is famous for akafuku, and it goes on. In fact, EVERY area, no matter how small, is “famous” for something, most likely food-related. In the Ise area alone there’s akafuku (rice cakes and sweet beans), Ise-ebi (shrimp), Ise udon (noodles), and Matsusaka beef (from beer-drinking cows!), all known throughout Japan.

Hello Kitty took this mindset and ran with it, creating charms, towels, and other trinkets that are branded with each place’s name and a design reflecting the area specialties and attractions. Nestle has done a similar thing with the latest “exotic” Kit Kat series, created by celebrity chef Takagi, of Le Patissier Takagi.

“Exotic Tokyo” combines bitter chocolate and raspberries, “Exotic Kansai” (Osaka area) has sweet chocolate with a sour mix of orange, lemon, and passion fruit accented with ginger, “Exotic Hokkaido” is creamy white chocolate (because it snows a lot there!) with blueberries, and “Exotic Kyushu” features caramel, orange, and mango with white chocolate. All of these flavors are designed to reflect the feeling and spirit of the area rather than culture, and actually do a decent job of it. “Exotic Kansai” is said to reflect the “energy” of the people there, and the others are branded on similar lines. Each one also has its own “Sakura edition” for springtime to celebrate the annual cherry blossoms.

Small sets go for ¥840 ($7), and large ones are ¥1575 ($13), so they aren’t cheap. Of course, for us, these are the equivalent of “Exotic Berlin” or “Exotic Cincinnati” (Now with crack!), but for the Japanese it’s just another way to define where they come from. Oh…and clever marketing. Can’t forget that.

Pictures from Nestle Japan

Tags: chocolate, FMCG, Localization, Regionalism
Category: MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS