July 7, 2020
Sydney’s first KitKat Chocolatory officially has been opened to the public on 6th July 2020, bringing an air of elegance to the classic chocolate bar that enchanted consumers for almost 85 years.
The boutique outlet emphases primarily on customization to bring unique products to the visitors, while showcasing local as well as global flavour innovations to broaden the customer’s spectrum of choices.
Nestlé’s general manager of confectionery Chris O’Donnell told mediathat the goal was to “WOW” the customers.
“The intention was to create a concept that really brought to life the creativity of KitKat and to bring something that was next level for the brand, but also really immersive for the consumer,” he said.
Back in 2015 in Sydney, the Chocolatory concept was based on a pop-up KitKat Studio which opened for four weeks, O’Donnell explained. The first KitKat Chocolatory then opened in Melbourne and through that process the Chocolatory team recognized the type of experience that customers were looking for.
“As we started to look to Sydney, we really looked at how we could take that to the next level what could we bring to Sydney that would create a concept that would really wow consumers,” he added.
“We brought new ideas, new experiences, that bring to life not only that creativity but gives people a much more personal experience that you can’t get anywhere else in the world.”
The feast for the eyes involves an extreme euphoria for the senses, with flowing chocolate, a wallboard of unusual and exotic flavours from around the world, a Chocolate Train with a rotation of unique flavours in single finger form, and a cafe serving up hot and cold chocolate and cookies serving the tastebuds and eye-sights to a level beyond.
O’Donnell told media that creating a “next level” experience is essential to connect with today’s consumers. Here at KitKat Chocolatory one can “Create Your Break” allows visitors to make their own KitKat of eight finger up till 30,000 possible combinations. These combinations are to be created there and then by in-store chocolatiers, while the KitKat Tasting Table presents a selection of premium desserts that experts the classic bar in a various ways.
“Connecting with consumers is becoming increasingly difficult, the marketing mix is changing, and for brands to really connect with consumers, they need to create a connection that’s more based on experience than it is based on you know the historical telling of advertising,” O’Donnell informed.
“For me, this was a critical part of the journey that KitKat has been on, which is about offering much more personalized, much more experience-based content, and bringing something to consumers that you just can’t get anywhere else.”
KitKat Chocolatory, Sydney
Appending and assisting the boutique store, is KitKat’s e-commerce site which offers the same products and customization to consumers online. O’Donnell said the online store has experienced “phenomenal growth” in recently.
“There’s nothing like experiencing it firsthand yet, but for those who can’t come to the store that’s what online is there for. Our e-commerce platform over the last three to four months has experienced phenomenal growth, of up to 400 per cent. So if consumers are not in Sydney or Melbourne or can’t get into the store then that obviously gives the brand much more reach across Australia to provide people with personalization and customization at home,” he said.
“We can use this as an innovation incubator, we can trial new things relatively quickly. In retail, to develop a new product it might take six to 12 months, we can do it here in six to 12 hours. That allows us to test something and get an instant reaction from the consumer. That gives us really good insights on what could work in retail,” he said.
“We have some ideas coming out next year that we’ve tested in here. We’ll use this on an ongoing basis to help drive our pipeline of innovation.”
Working towards refurbishment, the Chocolatory has also allowed the brand to connect with younger shoppers that are not yet consumers of the brand, and has helped it reconnect with those consumers that have drifted away from the brand over the years.
“What we learned through the Chocolatory in Melbourne is that we had somewhere between 30-40 per cent of people coming into the store that hadn’t tried KitKat before, or weren’t regular consumers of KitKat. We then learned that those people who then experienced KitKat through the Chocolatory began buying back in retail, so it helped build our base business as well. There’s a circular economy of people who come in here, that then get the brand experience and then really start to engage with the brand,” he said.