After
20 years of cultivation, Hershey’s Kisses had become a household name in China.
Somewhat late to the party, Hershey’s (mainly the chocolate bars) was
introduced in China as a stand-alone brand but never achieved the same popularity
as Kisses. In 2016, with the market cooling down and Hershey’s subpar
performance, the brand owner concluded that it could no longer afford
supporting two brands at the same time. Illuminera was called in to create a
megabrand that could effectively cover both brands under its wings.
The
challenges
Once
engaged in the project, Illuminera quickly realized that the challenges for the
brand owner went beyond the financial viability. With both brands sharing the
Hershey’s name, it had created difficulties to differentiate Hershey’s Kisses
and Hershey’s. While Kisses had built a fun and playful image in consumers’
minds, Hershey’s had difficulty in making a name for itself. In fact, this
inability was probably half blessing: had Hershey’s made a big splash, it
probably would have eroded Kisses’ fun image.
Without
substantial investment in sight, a new megabrand to cover both brands seemed to
be the right solution. But this megabrand would have some big hurdles to
overcome in order to be successful. For one, the megabrand must be able to
unite and support very different product lines from the “fun” Kisses to “serious”
bars to some other unique product lines, existing or upcoming. In addition, the
megabrand must distinguish itself from its main competitors which have occupied
some of the most precious real estate in consumer’s mind.
With
this tall order in hand, the Illuminera team deployed our proprietary
Disciplined Creativity© framework, commissioned thorough insight works, combed
through existing strategy documents, and organized ideation and strategy
workshops.
Formulate
a powerful megabrand strategy
Guided
by Disciplined Creativity©, our consultants mapped out a Consumer Needs Atlas
for the chocolate category, plotted competitors’ propositions and Hershey’s
brand assets. Then the team brainstormed various competing ideas and identified
several competing positioning platforms for the megabrand. In the end, after
thorough internal scrutinization with brand owner and rigorous consumer
research, the platform Happiness was confirmed to be the brand essence for the
new megabrand.
Subsequently,
the team built a brand architecture, defined the brand personality, designed a
brand mood board, and mapped out a forward-looking brand portfolio.
The
result
The megabrand strategy exerted profound influence on Hershey’s: resource allocation, packaging renovation, product pipeline management, and most importantly, a brand new communication direction. With its new TV commercial promoting “a rich taste of happiness” on air now, we look forward to witnessing the megabrand’s outstanding performance in the near future.
