世論 What Japan Thinks

For snacks in particular in Japan, bringing out new flavours regularly is all-but-mandatory, it seems. Another related favoured marketing technique is local flavours only offered for sale in that particular region, which formed the basis of this survey from goo Ranking, what local edition Kit-Kats people would like to try.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 20th of October 2011 1,092 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 11.2% in their teens, 16.2% in their twenties, 25.7% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.5% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Note that it is all but impossible to find a boring old red-packaged Kit Kat here; the standard currently seems to be an “Adult Kit Kat” in a black wrapper, made less sweet and with bitter chocolate, which is rather nice, but I want my plain ones!

I’ve had ordinary melon Kit Kats before, and they were horrendously sweet, but blueberry cheese cake sounds nice. I keep meaning to try the Kobe Purin, but as it’s for tourists, they only sell them in largish multi-packs. I don’t know what to make of the savoury flavours towards the end of the list – has anyone tried them?

Here’s a blog about Japanese Kit Kats, and here’s a video from a successful Greenpeace campaign to get Nestle to stop using palm oil in Kit Kats and other products:

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