For decades, KitKat was one of the UK’s most familiar chocolate bars—reliable, recognisable, and refreshingly uncomplicated. But in recent years, something surprising has happened. The classic bar has undergone a dramatic transformation in the minds of younger consumers. According to new research from Beano Brain, KitKat has entered the top ten “coolest brands” among seven- to fourteen-year-olds for the first time in its history.
For business students, the KitKat story isn’t just a fun case of “kids like funky flavours.” It is a blueprint for understanding how legacy brands can reinvent themselves for a new generation—without abandoning their identity. More importantly, it reveals how Gen Alpha, the youngest consumer cohort, is shaping product development, marketing, and innovation strategies across industries.
How a Heritage Brand Found New Life
When KitKat launched in 1935 as Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp, its purpose was simple: a convenient, mess-free snack. For decades, the brand barely changed. But around the year 2000, things took a bold turn. Nestlé began experimenting with creative flavours—at first in Japan, a global leader in novelty confectionery. Matcha green tea, soy sauce, purple sweet potato, melon, strawberry cheesecake, and wasabi KitKats gained cult international status.
This experimentation eventually spread globally. Today, more than 300 flavours exist, ranging from Lotus Biscoff and milk tea to strawberry and cotton candy. What began as a local Japanese trend has evolved into a global strategy that has elevated KitKat into the consciousness of Gen Alpha.
According to Helenor Gilmour from Beano Brain, KitKat’s cool factor comes from three ingredients:
- Constant flavour innovation
- Shareability and viral appeal
- The sensory power of the iconic “snap”
Tweens surveyed repeatedly cited the ASMR-like satisfaction of breaking a KitKat, along with the excitement of limited-edition flavours. In a generation accustomed to algorithm-driven discovery—food hacks, taste tests, and unboxings—texture and sound matter as much as taste.
The Power of Playful Innovation
What’s most remarkable about KitKat’s resurgence is what it teaches about innovation in mature markets. Confectionery is crowded, commoditised, and subject to slow growth. Yet KitKat has accomplished something many legacy brands fail to do: create new reasons to be noticed.
This isn’t just about taste variety—it’s about cultural adaptability:
- Matcha flavours appeal to global wellness trends.
- Cotton candy taps into carnival-core nostalgia.
- Limited editions create artificial scarcity and hype.
In other words, KitKat has borrowed the innovation mindset from tech—constant upgrades, new releases, and seasonal drops—and applied it to chocolate.
The Domino’s and Sprite Effect: Flavour as a Branding Tool
KitKat isn’t alone. The Beano Brain research shows that flavour experimentation is becoming a mainstream branding strategy.
- Domino’s climbed eight places in the coolness rankings after launching themed toppings like carbonara and Korean BBQ chicken—and even a Valentine’s Day pepperoni pizza fragrance.
- Sprite jumped to 25th thanks to TikTok-driven products like Sprite + Tea and the cherry-lime-inspired Sprite Chill.
Across categories, flavour innovation has shifted from “new product development” to “identity building.” For digital-native youth, uniqueness = viral potential. And viral potential = cool.
This marks an important shift for business students:
Brand differentiation is increasingly sensory, emotional, and experience-led—not purely functional.
Gen Alpha: The Curiosity-Driven Consumer
Understanding Gen Alpha is crucial. Born after 2010, this cohort lives in a world where:
- new iPhones,
- new cosmetics shades,
- new game skins,
- new streaming content
…drop constantly.
Innovation isn’t exciting to them - it’s expected.
Their food choices mirror this mindset. Global flavours like Korean, Japanese, Filipino, and Mexican cuisine are already normalized among pre-teens thanks to TikTok, YouTube, and cross-cultural media. Limited-edition snacks become collectible objects, not just treats.
The Rise of Tween Aesthetics and Collecting Behaviour
The Beano Brain survey also reveals a wider behavioural shift: tweens are curating products, not just consuming them. Beauty brands like Sephora and Sol de Janeiro have entered the top 100 coolest brands—a controversial development given their adult target markets.
However, tweens aren’t using these products in traditional adult ways. They are collecting, organising, displaying, and arranging them in a manner similar to toys. The ritual matters as much as the product.
This has major implications for business students:
Products can function as identity signals even without practical use.
- “Aesthetic” value is now key to brand design.
- Generations blend playfulness and sophistication in unexpected ways.
- Lessons for Future Business Leaders
KitKat’s success with tweens highlights several takeaways:
- Legacy brands can become cool again—if they innovate boldly.
- Global flavour trends travel quickly thanks to social media.
- Limited editions create hype, even in low-cost categories.
- Gen Alpha values variety, shareability, and sensory appeal.
- Youth culture is now global, digital, and curiosity-driven.
- Brands should treat flavour, texture and sound as brand assets.
In short, to stay relevant to younger generations, brands must treat innovation as continuous - not occasional. KitKat’s success proves that even the simplest product can reinvent itself for the next wave of consumers.
