Kiwi gives Kit Kat slogan a break

By SELWYN PARKER

When confectionery giant Nestle Rowntree hired New Zealander Chris White as its new managing director last December, he had one main brief: to revive the fortunes of Kit Kat, for more than 50 years Britain's best-selling chocolate bar.

Kit Kat was in trouble, White said. Its marketing was "in crisis".

And, presumably as a result, sales of the confection with the 47-year-old slogan, "Have a break, have a Kit Kat", were slipping.

But nobody expected the New Zealander to take the extreme measure of dropping the slogan.

Born in Mt Roskill, White worked at advertising agency Bates in Auckland, before taking up marketing roles overseas with companies including Coca-Cola and Movenpick.

White, 42, inherited a worrying situation at Nestle Rowntree.

Last year sales fell by 5.4 per cent. Worse, Kit Kat's share of the fiercely competitive British market was declining.

Kat Kat's performance, which is a key contributor of York-based Nestle Rowntree's annual sales of US$2.2 billion ($3.35 billion), was one reason the firm slipped from first to third in total sales in Britain's US$11 billion-a-year confectionery market.

Clearly, the new managing director had to do something to restore Nestle Rowntree to the No 1 position.

First, White talked of introducing Britain to lemon cheesecake-flavoured Kit Kats, which were selling well in Japan and Germany.

Second, he outlined plans to revamp the firm's marketing, which had included sponsorship of Pop Idol on the ITV network last year.

"[The sponsorship] didn't sell more products as it didn't give consumers another reason to buy," he told Marketing magazine.

"People are already aware of our brands ... Our challenge is to make advertising that will get more people to buy more product at a higher price, to make more money for ourselves and our retail customers."

Third, in early August, Nestle Rowntree announced plans to launch two new flavours, white chocolate and lime, to go with a low-carb version and, even more boldly, a Kit Kat-flavoured Christmas pudding.

But White's fourth move was a thunderbolt.

Also in early August, he announced plans to drop the slogan, one of the oldest in British retailing. "Have a break, have a Kit Kat" had been running since 1957.

The bar was launched in 1935 as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp and became Kit Kat in 1937.

Winston Churchill's war-time Government endorsed the bar as a healthy and cheap food.

But the line's long pedigree did not impress White. "It doesn't work any more," he said.

According to White, British workers were already good at taking breaks and the line was, therefore, superfluous.

It was essential to re-establish the relevance of the brand by marketing Kit Kat as a way of enhancing one's time-out.

The answer was a new line: "Make the most of your break."

Although the marketing industry agrees in general that something had to be done for Kit Kat, the jury is still out.

Marketing gurus were, for instance, not exactly enthralled by the replacement line.

"This slogan is far too similar to the old one," senior brand consultant Nigel Markwick said.

"The words just seem to have been changed around."

The slogan, it must be said, also seems cautious and bland.

And nor are some chocolate-loving sections of the press impressed with a New Zealander playing fast and loose with a heritage line.

"I have a slogan for Nestle," stormed a diarist in the Guardian of August 9.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

"I would like to orchestrate a countrywide protest against this interloper, this further mindless chipping away of our confectionery heritage ... "

However, White is pushing on undeterred.

Nestle Rowntree's rivals - Cadbury with its Dairy Milk range of confectioneries and Masterfoods with its equally iconic Mars Bar - will capitalise on any slips.

But there's no doubt about the enduring appeal of a Kit Kat.

Apparently 47 are consumed in Britain every second, and a day's production would stretch around the London Underground.

The pressure's certainly on the Kiwi.