Chunky KitKat craziness

There are theories about the psychology of marketing; whole books have been written about the subject.  Marketing has been likened to propaganda, and people are wary of advertisers playing mind games and tricking them into making purchases.  But here is an example of a simple marketing campaign that seems to have worked, and worked well, and the ‘tricks’ are all there for us to see.

At the start of this year KitKat launched their “Choose a Chunky Champion” promotion: a competition between four variants of their Chunky product: white chocolate, peanut butter, double chocolate and orange.  The Facebook-based campaign, supported by ads and videos, called upon Chunky KitKat fans to vote for their favourite flavour.  Each flavour was championed by a different character (played by comic actors from various TV shows) who ‘campaigned’ for their flavour to succeed... and only one could ultimately win.  The winning variant, the one with the most votes, will be added to the KitKat line-up permanently; the others, presumably, will cease to be produced and disappear into our memories.  Voters were also entered into a draw to win a cash prize, as if we needed convincing...

I was amazed to watch as, not only have people been voting, and arguing, on Facebook for their favourite, but all the flavours have been selling like crazy in the shops, with the peanut butter variety especially selling out in most places.  A friend of mine put out a heartfelt appeal on Facebook, asking her friends to look out for the peanut butter version for her.  You could even buy them on eBay at inflated prices: I saw a trade box at a price that worked out as over £1 per bar, compared to the RSP of 60p.

The funny thing, is, the peanut butter version has been around for ages (since 2006 in the UK), but since the contest, it has been in greater demand.  People really have been clamouring for it.  I wonder: did KitKat reduce the amount they distributed to shops, to help create the sense of need?  Did they release equal numbers of each variety?

The winner, by the way, was Peanut Butter, with 47% of the Facebook fans’ votes.  And 100% of mine.

No question that this social-media based marketing campaign has increased awareness and purchasing of KitKat over this period.  Well done Nestle.