Chocolate Bar Wrappers

Chocolate is a part of everyday life, we go into a shop and all the chocolate bars imaginable are there, all in their fancy wrappers. Chocolate wrappers come In all shapes and sizes. Therefore contemporary wrappers will have several differences and old wrappers could be different all together.

For this critical activity I picked three different contemporary wrappers to describe. All chocolate bar wrappers have a list of ingredients, which by law, the manufacturer has to include on their packaging. The wrapper also includes the manufacturer’s company name. This is quite important for the producer as if the consumer enjoys this product, they will want to check out other products by the same company. The wrapper also includes weight of the produce however more important is the date of consumption, or better known as the best before date. Before this date the chocolate bar is at it’s best.

The first wrapper I am describing is the KitKat Chunky, made by Nestle. I believe that the name of the bar is more important than the manufacturer’s name as the lettering of the name of the bar is much larger than the creator’s name.

The main ingredients contain nothing unusual, the bar is milk chocolate, with wheat, flour, sugar etc. The KitKat Chunky bar is 55g and the size is standard for a KitKat chunky(which is still pretty big.) The wrapper is crimped at the ends to allow easier access. The wrapper itself is slightly shiny when the sun hits it. The wrapper has a special opening instruction. On the side of the packet you are told to ‘break here’, to open the packet. Having ‘break here’ is a first-rate marketing ploy because KitKat’s expression is ‘Have a break, have a KitKat.’ This is a subtle reminder that it is a KitKat. KitKat is the best selling chocolate bar. You break the parts of the KitKat apart and you are having a ‘break’ from your work. The main colours of the bar is red and white accompanied by blue. The nestle logo is typically in red and white however red is traditionally the main KitKat colour. Red and white go well together and the blue gives a nice change from the red. The lettering for the KitKat Chunky is exceedingly large and bold, and I suppose chunky. I believe the lettering is important being chucky as the lettering is also saying that this bar is massive. The main KitKat lettering has slight tints, the lettering is displayed as three dimensional.

The name of the bar, KitKat, was the name of a posh club many years ago. Not many people know that, so I doubt this is help the bar sell. KitKat has been around for many years, however the Chunky is quite a new invention. It has only been around for about 10 years or less.

The target audience for the KitKat Chunky is large people, particularly men who want a big bite and a break. The writing is particularly bulky, this would encourage men to buy this as the lettering hints this bar is massive. KitKat may have brought out the Chunky after being impressed by the success of the Yorkie bar. However I’d recommend not have too many of these bars as they aren’t very healthy and ten of them a day, will probably kill you.

In comparison to the KitKat Chunky, I’ve decided to study the KitKat original, the two finger milk chocolate milk. In many ways both KitKats are very similar however there are a few crucial differences. The Kitkat original has the same ingredients as the chunky one, but obviously with the chunky being a bigger bar, the wrapper is much bigger. This KitKat wrapper is in the form of a paper sleeve around a silver foil. The wrapper doesn’t have any special opening instructions however it has a clear separating point, where the wrapper overlaps itself. Due to Nestle bragging that the KitKat has only 107 calories which is clearly stated on the wrapper. I believe that they are promoting it as healthy The target audience is more likely women as it is small, can go with a cuppa and has few calories.

Now I’m comparing a KitKat two finger milk chocolate orange flavoured bar wrapper to the two finger milk chocolate original. The main KitKat logo uses the same colours, red and white however the background is orange. Nowhere on the wrapper does it state there is orange flavouring in the bar nonetheless the orange background more or less tells you there is orange flavouring present. On this wrapper the main Kitkat lettering is much bigger and slightly lopsided compared to the two finger milk chocolate original. A bit of the main lettering is cut off at the top. Also the position of ‘Nestle’ has moved from the top left far away on the right, where it is vertical. Personally I can’t see any significance to why the main lettering is bigger on the KitKat orange compared to the milk original. Still it makes you look at it twice as it was a change from the lettering used before.

The KitKat was first developed as a four-finger wafer crisp, first released in London and the South-East of England in 1935. Then it was named ‘Rowntree’s chocolate crisp’ however two years later it was re-named as KitKat chocolate crisp. It became known as KitKat after the second world war. The term KiKat is a mystery, as no one is sure why KitKat became the name of the chocolate bar however a famous club was something to do with it. Within two years of being released, KitKat became Rowntree’s leading product, a position that it has kept ever since. During the war, KitKat was portrayed as a valuable wartime food and advertising described the bar as ‘‘What active people needed’’.

For most of it’s life, KitKat has appeared in it’s red and white wrapper. It did however, change to a blue wrapper in 1945, when it became dark chocolate due too a shortage of milk after the war. The blue design became unused in 1947 as the milk chocolate bar was brought back. The modern dark chocolate KitKat hasn’t got blue wrappers but brown wrappers, everything else is very similar to the milk chocolate version.

When chocolate bars were first introduced, chocolate was considered a great treat and sometimes depicted as healthy. Chocolate bars were sold in big cardboard boxes, with the only decoration on the inside of the lid. Not terribly hygienic but in those days people were not so hygiene conscious. Chocolate bars were not individually packed like today. For some first hand experience, I asked my Granddad about his experiences of olden days chocolate. He told me that chocolate was considered a very big treat. Chocolate sat in big brown boxes while kids would just stare at it, however due to rationing, the children had to wait, seemingly forever.

Chocolate was considered a girly thing and men thought they could woo women with special chocolate boxes. These had detailed decorations on their outside and these decorations were such that they appealed to women, such as butterflies and flowers. The chocolate themselves sat in frilly paper giving them a girly feel.

Personally I don’t believe that wrappers alone, attract me to buy chocolate bars. Also posters and other advertising ploys do not particularly grab me. Myself I just read the label to see if I like the contents. No matter if the wrapper is the best design ever, if I don’t like the insides, I seriously doubt I will buy the product. The wrapper may attract me over to look at the bar, but I will not buy just on the wrapper. For instance I like caramel so I would always look for golden colours.

Everywhere you go, there is advertising. Telling you to buy this chocolate, buy that chocolate bar etc. If a bright wrapper is sitting in between several dull wrappers, the bright wrapper will instantly stand out.

Chocolate bar advertisement posters are situated in several places. A popular display point is the most boring and time-consuming plane of waiting; bus stops. There you need something to look at and what better than chocolate. These posters inspire you to buy the chocolate bar later as they stick in your mind. Cadburys recently brought out two new flavours of chocolate bar, cranberry and granola and apricot crumble crunch. These two new bars were advertised a great deal so people knew they existed. Posters were up in bus stops and other marketing ploys were used to great extent.