Let me first assure you that I haven`t been hired by Nestle, so no personal interest in making a commercial for them...KitKat is just a good example for how different the Japanese consumer market is and since it is a globally available product you can directly compare.
KitKat is a relatively boring product in Switzerland although a well established brand with a very well-known commercial slogan (see title). But there is little variety in the product. I`ve seen the same KitKat in more or less the same wrapping for years. Maybe that`s what the Swiss customer is looking for, knowing what to expect and having the same stuff over and over again.
Here KitKat is way more dynamic. It`s sold in different sizes, shapes and tastes and there are special seasonal editions as well. There are small size KitKat that correspond to about a third of a regular one for a quick sweet bite. They are wrapped in the same poly-something type of material as ours at home. The standard size as we know it comes in a more stable packaging and contains two individually wrapped servings (yes, you may ask the environmental aspect question). There are also other shapes of KitKat like the KitKat bites that are little balls (see pic on the right).
There are the craziest tastes available and they seem to change all the time
. Right now there are Azuki bean, Tiramisu, Green Tea or Oat Meal flavor or there was seasonal stuff like Wine Grape flavor. It`s funny, I discover new tastes all the time. Same goes for crisps and other products, it`s such a fast-moving consumer market, it`s not surprising that a lot of Trend Scouting is done here for technology, food, fashion, etc.
One of the later trends are products designed by the target groups. called "Crowd-Sourcing". Consumer goods producers either post a prize contest for the best recipe for a product (e.g. Ramen noodles) or a survey on the most desired ingredients/flavors for a product (e.g. chocolate) on a popular web portal such as Yahoo or Mixi (Japan`s equivalent of Facebook) and let the consumers create their own new product.
Read here for an example: http://www.cscoutjapan.com/en/index.php/tag/crowdsourcing/
KitKat is a relatively boring product in Switzerland although a well established brand with a very well-known commercial slogan (see title). But there is little variety in the product. I`ve seen the same KitKat in more or less the same wrapping for years. Maybe that`s what the Swiss customer is looking for, knowing what to expect and having the same stuff over and over again.
Here KitKat is way more dynamic. It`s sold in different sizes, shapes and tastes and there are special seasonal editions as well. There are small size KitKat that correspond to about a third of a regular one for a quick sweet bite. They are wrapped in the same poly-something type of material as ours at home. The standard size as we know it comes in a more stable packaging and contains two individually wrapped servings (yes, you may ask the environmental aspect question). There are also other shapes of KitKat like the KitKat bites that are little balls (see pic on the right).
There are the craziest tastes available and they seem to change all the time
. Right now there are Azuki bean, Tiramisu, Green Tea or Oat Meal flavor or there was seasonal stuff like Wine Grape flavor. It`s funny, I discover new tastes all the time. Same goes for crisps and other products, it`s such a fast-moving consumer market, it`s not surprising that a lot of Trend Scouting is done here for technology, food, fashion, etc.One of the later trends are products designed by the target groups. called "Crowd-Sourcing". Consumer goods producers either post a prize contest for the best recipe for a product (e.g. Ramen noodles) or a survey on the most desired ingredients/flavors for a product (e.g. chocolate) on a popular web portal such as Yahoo or Mixi (Japan`s equivalent of Facebook) and let the consumers create their own new product.
Read here for an example: http://www.cscoutjapan.com/en/index.php/tag/crowdsourcing/
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