Swiss confectionery giant Nestlé International Travel
Retail celebrated 150 years of success during the 2016 TFWA World Exhibition with a decidedly modern and
fresh approach to travel retail. The new strategy aims to target the important
millennial traveller – the group that wants everything on demand, and fast. Oh,
and make it fun as well.
The company’s fresh approach also seeks to attract the all-important emerging Chinese middle class. This group certainly has money to spend, but they’re not in the same league as the Chinese mega-spending traveller of a few years ago. They are aspirational, impressed by brand heritage, and hanker after the latest thing. So what’s Nestlé’s solution? Well, according to the brand’s Perfect Store initiative, it’s all about uniqueness, exclusivity and experiences.
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| KitKat travel retail exclusive sharing bags with travel-inspired themes |
Multi-sensorial experience for millennial travellers
For the famous, red-hot KitKat brand, innovation and millennial
engagement are the two major goals. The company’s 'However you break, SHARE IT' airport store activation made its debut earlier
this year, urging shoppers to take a break and share it with their friends on
social media using different themes. For 2017, a new Live Your Break promotion
will be unveiled, centred on different millennial travel experiences. It will
be accompanied by the launch of the second edition of the Celebrate the
Breakers travel retail exclusive sharing bag. These packs target different
profiles of millennial traveller: the Urban Breaker for the city-exploring
breakers, the Festival Breaker for the live music-loving breakers and the
Adventure Breaker for those who like a burst of adrenaline.
A second KitKat multi-sensorial experience has been developed that really signals the premiumisation of the brand. The KitKat Chocolatory chocolate lab enables
airport passengers to create their own packaging. First, they play on a
computer screen to choose their own ingredients – flavours include popcorn,
caramel and cranberry – and then add their own visuals to the resulting
chocolate box sleeve. The amazing thing is that the whole packaging personalisation
process takes around 90 seconds, using a special – magic!
– printing machine. I think even the most distracted millennial would wait less
than a couple of minutes for this to be done.
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| Festive: Cailler Winter Selection |
Cailler delivers a heritage experience
And now onto Nestlé’s Cailler heritage chocolate brand.
Dating back to 1819, Cailler is said to be the oldest Swiss chocolate brand
still in existence and is positioned in the super-premium segment. Targeting
the aspirational Chinese traveller, the packaging evokes history and heritage,
aiming to deliver firstly the finest ingredients, in milk and dark chocolate
versions, and secondly, an all-important experience. For the latter, a local
Swiss artist worked on the outer packaging, which features traditional Swiss
paper with detailed embossing.
The airport activation will feature a virtual reality
headset that takes consumers directly to the Cailler factory near Gruyères,
Switzerland. Product-wise, a new premium Winter Selection box is being launched
from November 2016 with festive flavours such as spicy gingerbread.
For Chinese New Year 2017, the Year of the Rooster, Cailler
is unveiling a special-edition traditional Swiss paper chocolate box containing
a black decoupage-style card inlay for family members, playing on a similar
Chinese tradition. The intricate card design was created thanks to a
collaboration between renowned Chinese artist Mrs Wang and Swiss artisan
Marianne Dubuis.
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| Smarties Art Tube gift pack |
Smarties unveils fun formats
Last but not least, Smarties is being relaunched in fun,
fresh formats following the cessation in January 2017 of Nestlé’s agreement
with Disney. Designed to be entertaining and colourful, the new products
include a range of cute, reversible plush finger puppets, sitting atop a tube
of Smarties, and a format containing three crayons and a colouring-in leaflet.
These two formats are gender-neutral. Then there are two Smarties gifts aimed
at both boys and girls. For girls, there’s a Princess theme, and for boys, a
Rocket. (MJ Rabbit will take the Rocket. We have lift-off.)
In addition, gift-seeking parents and grandparents can
choose from a real telescope Smarties format and an Art Tube, containing
coloured pencils and drawing tools.
With this collection of playful presentations, Nestlé seems
to have it all covered.
