Annabel's View: European Confectionery Brands- My Sugary Inspiration

The 'Face of Kinder' campaign.

Recently, Kinder launched the new campaign, 'The new face of Kinder' and I've seen it everywhere. The ads use naive and whimsical pencil-drawn-style illustrations and type. It's a great way to get kids and parents actively involved in the brand.

Having had a couple of holidays in Germany, I know how important their confectionery is to them, how the aisles and aisles of chocolate and gummy bears running down the Galeria Kaufhof food hall (large German department store) are much-loved by residents and visitors too.

For inspiration for children's brands and confectionery brands, I often think to those long aisles of colourful packaging and soft sweet scents, and the light-hearted adverts that make us smile.

Haribo and Maoam

One of the most popular German brands is Haribo. I bet we all know their strapline by now. To get some childlike inspiration and a smile on your face, watch the Haribo and Maoam (sub-brand) ads here:



Maoam ads: www.maoam.de/lang/enGB/index.html

Ferrero and Kinder

And for more inspiration watch the Ferrero and Kinder ads here: www.ferrero.co.uk/?IDpagina=1776

To see the New Face of Kinder campaign, with its lovely typography and illustration style, and to enter your little'un: www.faceofkinder.com

Ferrero is currently running two competitions: to design and win your own bike helmet, and to win a family cycling holiday at Centreparks, with its other sub-brand Nutella. The brand is very much about family involvement, which is smart; it's the parents who buy the product.

Ever noticed that the Nutella and the Kinder logos use a similar style? That's brand continuity, the subtlety that lets you know the two brands are connected.

Milka

Another great European brand, founded in Switzerland, is Milka (now owned by Kraft, together with Cadbury's and Oreo), who took their purple cow from the packaging and made it into a purple chocolate icon:

Ritter Sport

And for the adults, who love their continental chocolate, take a look at the clean, fresh and colourful Ritter Sport packaging.

Ritter Sport, founded in 1912, was the first chocolate company to use yoghurt in 1970 – an innovative move, and brave for a small family-owned company; the packaging very much reflects the business.

It's also great of Ritter Sport to put their packaging evolution on the website so we can see how they have evolved over the years:

From my research I gather the museum and factory in Waldenbuch, Germany, or the museum in Berlin, Germany, are very much worth a visit:

Ritter Sport shop at the Waldenbuch factory, credit: www.joetheexplorer.com/

Ritter Sport Museum, Berlin

The chocolatiers can create your own bespoke Ritter Sport bar to take home …or consume on the spot.

Are you hungry yet?

York's Affair with Chocolate

Some of the lovely Choc Affair products

Now, we know it’s the New Year, and you’re all probably trying not to think about the abundance of chocolate you have scoffed over the past few weeks, but we’d like to draw your attention back to that yummy goodness. In particular, York’s chocolate..

We have the pleasure of working with Choc Affair, a wonderful Fair Trade chocolate company based in our lovely city. They hand make and amazing array of chocolate products that definitely get our mouth’s watering. And this got us thinking, how and when did York’s affair with chocolate actually begin?
 
Sweet Beginnings

The blue Kit Kat (1942)

York’s first fling began as far back as 1725 with a lady called Mary Tuke, whose grocery shop was sold to the Rowntree family in 1862. Since then the company has been responsible for household names such as KitKat, (a studio favourite!), Smarties and Polos. Part of the success of the brand was down to a man called George Harris, who used then ‘American’ promotional methods: product development, advertising and branding, to bring those household names to life. Amazing how something that we now practise everyday was such a new concept less than 100 years ago!

Although Nestlé bought Rowntree’s in 1988, the name ‘Rowntree’ still means a lot to the city of York. Rowntree Park provides a beautiful green space for residents and tourists alike, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation helps the UK’s poverty stricken, homeless, and aging populations.

The lesser known Chocolate Lemon and Chocolate Apple

Another chocolate-fuelled romance was budding in 1823 when Joseph Terry entered the York scene. His son, Joseph Terry Jnr was responsible for the ever-popular Chocolate Orange and the somewhat lesser known Chocolate Apple and Chocolate Lemon! Kraft took over Terry’s in 1993, but the brands that the nation still love live on, and will always be mine, not Terry’s, (let us know if you remember those adverts!








The present and the future

Nowadays chocolate is much a part of York as it was back then. Although Terry’s has left, Nestlé remains in the original Rowntree’s Factory and still employs around 1800 people and produces approximated 1 billion Kit Kats a year!

Although York still seduces some of the big brands, it’s the independent, artisan chocolatiers that really give York its title as the ‘home of chocolate’, and keeps the sweet stuff firmly in our hearts. York Cocoa House combines a shop, café and school run by Sophie, a lifelong chocolate lover, who wants to share her passion with the world. Also, Monk Bar Chocolatiers, a family run company, has been making high quality handmade chocolates within the walls since 1999.

Want to learn more about York’s cocoa dusted past? All of the city’s flirtations with various chocolate companies can now be found in York’s very own chocolate museum: York’s Chocolate Story. It even has a ‘chocolate bar’ where you can really indulge; cakes, choctails, and hot chocolate are just a few of the treats they have on offer.

So there you have it, we think it’s fair to say that York has a very chocolaty past, present, and probably future. All that talk of chocolate made you hungry? Go on, have a break, have a Kit Kat, you know you want to!


Information and images from:
http://www.choc-affair.com/
http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/victorian/rowntree-co-chocolate-manufacturers
http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/victorian/joseph-terry-sons-chocolate-manufacturers
http://www.scribd.com/doc/78692048/TERRYS-Timeline-of-Brand-Milestones
http://www.bq-magazine.co.uk/success-story/york/y13-ss2/
http://www.yorkcocoahouse.co.uk/
http://www.monkbar.com/
http://www.yorkschocolatestory.com/