How KitKat caught its break

Everyone knows that KitKat stands for breaks. It’s just a natural fit, isn’t it? An idea that just had to happen? In fact, there’s a really surprising marketing and advertising agency story to how KitKat arrived here at all.

Rowntree’s as rank amateurs

Back in the early 20th century Rowntree’s of York (England) were being roundly and routinely outmanoeuvred by Cadbury’s of Bournville, Birmingham (England). Cadbury had launched its Dairy Milk product in 1905 redefining expectations in chocolate, and old-school Rowntree’s were floundering, without any obvious answer.

The story of what would become today’s KitKat begins during this period when some of the board of the Rowntree company, in 1911, decided to register the Kit Cat and Kit Kat names with no real idea what to do with them.

When one these names was first used by Rowntree’s, it was for an entirely different product entirely, and it was the Kit Cat spelling. At some point in the 1920s to around the mid-1930s the Kit-Cat ‘brand’ adorned a boxed chocolate collection.

It didn’t prove especially successful and didn’t last.

New blood at Rowntree's and a new advertising agency

Enter George Harris, who joined the Rowntree hierarchy through marriage in 1923 to Frieda Rowntree.

On a visit to the United States he saw how American businesses used careful consumer research and targeted advertising to build demand and create distinct product identities. Harris was convinced that Rowntree’s survival depended on adopting these methods back home, so he enlisted US agency, J. Walter Thompson, via their London office, to help him sort out the mess using these techniques.

Given Cadbury's dominance in milk chocolate with its Dairy Milk bar, Rowntree's and JWT looked for success through innovation and non-obvious opportunities. A boxed product, "Black Magic", and the uniquely textured "Aero" soon arrived. Both were successful.

The third play, in 1935, was what would become today’s, KitKat.

The origin and launch of a new chocolate idea

As part of its push for new ideas, Rowntree’s had a company ‘Suggestions Box.’ At some point, someone dropped in a note, though we don’t know who or when. The exact wording is unclear, but the idea was simple: a chocolate bar that was easier to eat at work.

The product created to this brief was recognisably like today’s.

It had four “biscuits” or “wafers”, wrapped in a milk chocolate, that could be separated lengthwise with ease. It came in a red pack.

It was not, however, called KitKat, or even Kit Kat. It was called Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp.

The bar was definitely launched in 1935, though there’s only an unsourced claim that it was well received in London, which appears to have been its sole launch region. Unfortunately, no concrete wider marketing materials from that year seem to survive, but the trail becomes clearer in 1936.

The “missing link” to KitKat's positioning

The first advertising for Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp focused on it being “The biggest little meal in London”.

To see why they went here with a chocolate at work brief, we need to consider what London work was like. This was 1930s London: a city shaped by manual labour, bustling docks, and factories where breaks weren’t about leisure but about quick, functional refuelling. For the average worker, “snack-breaks” weren’t a chance to relax or socialise; they were brief, practical pauses taken to restore energy during long, gruelling shifts.

Rowntree's were playing in a convenient, slightly luxurious, refuel snack territory.

‘Regional’ work followed rapidly.

Different demographics and occupations appeared.

They even managed to squeeze in tactical social activity for George VI and Elizabeth’s Coronation.

In late 1937, Kit Kat was added as a ‘nickname’

The new name / nickname also led to some tweaks to the advertising approach.

Around the introduction of the Kit Kat name, at the end of 1937 a boxed / tinned pack was also available with what look like single, separate fingers.

The advertising for this, focused on home store cupboard, took a more treat focused angle, emphasising the chocolate credentials of Rowntree to seek to displace the tea-time staple of biscuits. It's a category entry play.

Now the main four finger bar advertising morphs into a different, lifestyle approach, and focuses much more on women as the audience.

The body copy of those reads:

2 hours' steady nourishment for 2d

FOUR big wafer biscuits, oven-crisp and crunchy; a lacing of the finest butter and creamy milk chocolate in between, and a thick coating of milk chocolate all round! Isn’t that the most amazing 2d. worth you ever heard of? And, you know, this particular type of chocolate block produces a slower rise of blood-sugar, which gives you longer endurance and staying power. That’s why we call Chocolate Crisp the biggest little meal in Britain. It gives you energy to make a good job of whatever you’re doing.

THE BIGGEST LITTLE MEAL IN BRITAIN 2d

So we are seeing what's still a refuel, even here overt 'energy' complete with the science bit, play, as the communicated benefit, and it's still in that 1930s context of a pause simply being a moment to enable you to do even more of a good job.

What about that 'break'?

For those who don't know, 'traditional' (this pattern formed around the 19th century) British cultural breaks were at 11 in the morning - 'elevenses' - and at 4 in the afternoon - 'tea-time'.

From 1937 at least, we begin to see more functional references to these occasions in the communications. They are also very clearly linked to the product experience itself - the 'break' of the actual bar.

As we saw above, these executions which additionally (not shown in images) carried "The Biggest Little Meal" messaging were not the main focus of this period, but they are there.

But then, the world broke

The disruption of Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp is, needless to say, very far down near the bottom of the list of the harms caused by the second World War.

However, in the interest of brand history, it did create what may be a unique, but is certainly a highly unusual, situation.

First, the recipe needed to change. Milk in bulk was needed for more important things than this product and so Rowntree’s substituted dark chocolate, changed the packaging to blue, issued advertising notifications of a name change to remove “Chocolate Crisp”, and even communicated this on the new packaging.

It is remarkable that the debut of Kit Kat as a solo brand name, which would in 2020 become the global leading consumer retailed confectionery, was in the form of it being merely a substitute and ‘best obtainable at the present time’ product.

The return of milk chocolate as Kit Kat

As food shortages and rationing eased towards the late 1940s, Rowntree’s were able to manufacture a milk chocolate version again.

When the product was relaunched in 1949, it returned to its red packaging, remained four fingers as standard, but now there was no longer a reference to Chocolate Crisp. Kit Kat was the name that stuck.

The advertising became somewhat odd in this period.

Into the film era and the emergence of “Have a Break”.

The Yorkshire Film Archive preserves a really fascinating series of films beginning in 1955 but mostly from 1957 and 1958.

https://www.yfanefa.com/record/_GOFXreCNF1FeFGF0Fg

Since the brand itself says it didn’t run TV advertising until 1958, we must be looking at, at least some, test films, although I'm not fully certain that none aired. Regardless, the films were shot and give good clues as to the direction of travel.

The opening line of the 1955 film is revealing: a housewife who has been busy washing dishes states “Well, that’s half the morning’s work done. This is where mum takes a few minutes off to enjoy herself.”

In other words, it’s a morning break.

But there is now no overt reference at all to energy or the more functional refuel of the 1930s. The monologue delivered to camera speaks of “my secret treasure”, “something nice to eat”, “surprise” and so on. We are in confectionery treat land.

We then find a full series from 1957 to 1958 and I’d encourage you to view them all – it’s really interesting to see the rapid development of the “Have a break, have a KitKat” thought from very functional, through slightly playful, and into the campaign that is rightly famous where the snap of the finger / biscuit / wafer pauses unwelcome disturbances.

It was Donald Gilles at J Walter Thompson who created the line “Have a break, have a KitKat” early in 1957, and whatever actually aired, or was tested, in whatever order, is of interest only for where and how the brand edged closer and closer to its promised land.

How KitKat caught its break

The idea that emerged in 1958 is in most ways unrecognisable from the earlier, 1930s, advertising. We now find charm, humour, an understanding that the audience will implicitly recognise that KitKat is a ‘break’ product, the corresponding ability to move beyond fixed and predictable breaks and take the leap to when you simply want or need to have one.

And, of course, we now have the wordplay and the cute integration of the brand as product and product experience that comes from snapping the bar itself. It’s almost like they anticipated Ehrenberg Bass and Jenni Romaniuk’s argument for Distinctive Brand Assets and showed the world how to put all you could ever need in one short film. Thankfully, they forgot about the cat.

Yet though it’s creatively so far removed, there is a clear strategic and positioning link back to where Rowntree’s began with its Chocolate Crisp in 1935.

And there’s loads of strategic marketing smarts – even genius - in the early days of what became KitKat. To realise that Rowntree’s had to out-innovate Cadbury and basically market to niches as a challenger against the dominant player took smarts. To interrogate what people of the time really wanted and to act on a suggestion in a “Suggestion Box” took smarts. In many ways, though I can’t pretend the work is desperately appealing, and I’m not sure that’s only with the passage of time, the campaign development is pretty smart.

Above all, it’s pretty clear that the genesis of KitKat’s current positioning is not in fact the 1958 work, though that is what made the brand famous. The KitKat story, and its break positioning, goes right back to the beginning.

KitKat’s story, from a practical workplace snack to a global symbol of breaks, reflects the power of strategic thinking and innovation. Its journey highlights how a brand can evolve while staying true to its core idea—something Rowntree’s understood from the start and Nestle, thankfully, seem to be continuing.

And there wasn’t an account planner in sight.