Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Enough is enough.

I have many times complained about the 27 different kinds of Oreos. I believe this sort of market expansion is intended to claim vast expanses of shelf space and create "super brands" that are more appealing to monolithic retailers like Wally World. What's on aisle 7? Oreos.

Kit Kat was a big seller in Britain and has been for some time. They brought the 27 different kinds of Kit Kats across the Big Pond, and the Brits snubbed them. In fact, Kit Kat sales as a whole went down.

The experiments flopped. In just two years, KitKat's overall sales in the U.K. dropped 18 percent, to $253 million for the 52 weeks ending in April. Nestle recently abandoned virtually all of its exotic flavors. The executive in charge of the gambit has been replaced. And Nestle's experience has become a lesson in the perils of trying to push new versions of much-loved brands too hard. "You could call it hyperventilation," Peter Brabeck, Nestle's chief executive recently told reporters.
So Nestle is retreating back to the basics. Thank God somebody has enough sense to realize that more flavors are not the answer. Who'd have thought it would be the Brits? Go figger.

5 comments:

TheGirard said...

Says the chief designer on Jedi Knights.

Kindralas said...

Burn.

Major Rakal said...

I could live with one flavor of Oreos (traditional chocolate cookie with vanilla creme filling), but I want it to be Double Stuff. The classic Oreo is too skimpy on the filling.

DEATH_BY_MONKEYS said...

Hey. Jedi knights was a good flavor. LMAO.

I like the double stuffed oreos and the regular. No more no less. Those peanut butter ones can go to hell. Esspecially when you didn't expect them to be different and take a bite.

Anonymous said...

They should rename the Double Stuf Oreo as simply "Oreo", and call the originals "Diet Oreo".

Har.