@KitKat and @Android: Where Co-Exist Marketing Has Successful Blind Date

Fun and Unexpected 

The tech giant, which is known for nicknaming its Android mobile operating systems for smartphones and tablets after desserts, has for the first time chosen a brand-name candy for version 4.4 that’s expected to launch this fall: Kit Kat, the chocolate candy bar. Kit Kat packaging will show Android’s green robot mascot breaking a Kit Kat bar.

As reported by BBC, Google is calling the next version of its mobile operating system Android KitKat.

The news comes as a surprise as the firm had previously indicated version 4.4 of the OS would be Key Lime Pie.

The decision to brand the software with the name of Nestle’s chocolate bar is likely to be seen as a marketing coup for the Swiss food and beverage maker.

However, Google told the BBC that it had come up with the idea and that neither side was paying the other.

“This is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal,” John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, told the BBC. Instead, he said, the idea was to do something “fun and unexpected”.

However, one branding expert warned there were potential pitfalls to such a deal.

“If your brand is hooked up with another, you inevitably become associated with that other brand, for good or ill,” said Simon Myers, a partner at the consultancy Prophet.

“If that brand or business has some reputational issues that emerge, it would be naive to think as a brand owner that your good name, your brand equity, would not be affected.”

Co-Exist Marketing

What is Co-Exist? Refer to The Free Dictionary :

co·ex·ist (kg-zst)
intr.v. co·ex·ist·ed, co·ex·ist·ing, co·ex·ists
1. To exist together, at the same time, or in the same place.
2. To live in peace with another or others despite differences, especially as a matter of policy

So, Co-Exist Marketing means:

Is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling the products or services. It is a critical business function for attracting customers which  exist together, at the same time, or in the same place regardless of the form or category of products or services are marketed

Smart Move

Here, KitKat and Android, has strong “fun and unexpected” move for their marketing following Following one conference call with Nestle back in end of November, the deal was sealed just 24 hours later. And after finalising the details secretly at MWC (Mobile World Congress), the chocolate snack is now doing a joint promotion with Google to give away some Nexus 7s and Google Play credit in the US and the UK. The BBC reports that there will be more than 50 million Kit Kats promoting the Android mascot in 19 markets (including Brazil, India, Japan and Russia), but it’s not clear whether the giveaway promotion will make its way to those countries as well.

Trademark issues? Not to worry, as Google got Nestle’s blessing to use the “Kit Kat” trademark (albeit without the space), but with a twist. Again, John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, explained to the BBC that “this is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal,” but instead, they wanted do something “fun and unexpected.”