Google announced that the next version of the popular Android operating system will be called “KitKat”. The same name has a chocolate bar produced by Nestle.
For the first time, a mobile platform gets another name. Discussion of the transaction between the technology giant and the largest food manufacturer took time. According to the BBC news agency, Android International Cooperation Director John Lagerling turned to Nestle on this issue in November 2012. And in February of this year, within the framework of the Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona, the companies agreed to share brands. According to the executive vice president of Nestle, the final decision was made within an hour.
Google assures that none of the parties made any settlements. The deal should be considered as an advertising campaign: 50 million KitKat chocolate bars in 19 countries of the world will be marked with Android and will offer customers the chance to win the Nexus 7 tablet and Google Play gift cards. Production of new wrappers began two months ago. But even Google employees didn't know about this and the new name of the operating system. Inside the company, the version of Android 4.4 is still everyone called Key Lime Pie.
To mark the partnership, Nestle has released 500 KitKat chocolate bars, made in the shape of the Android logo. The production of sweets was conducted in a secret place in Europe.
It is worth noting that in the US - a key market for Google and Android - KitKat brand is assigned to the company Hershey. According to the source, Google settled this moment. American KitKat will also be wrapped in an Android logo wrapper.
Why KitKat? As Google’s spokesman told The Verge, KitKat bars are the favorite sweetness of Hiroshi Lockheimer, Android’s chief engineer. For a long time, the manager used the KitKat icon as an “avatar” for his Gmail account. In 2010, Lockheimer's colleagues decorated KitKat wrappers with a door to Lockheimer's office.
However, some critics point to the pitfalls of such a deal.
If you connect your brand with another, you will inevitably begin to associate with the second brand. It’s naive to think that the reputation of one brand will not affect the reputation of another, warns branding specialist Simon Myers of the consulting company Prophet.
In the past, Nestle was heavily criticized for promoting milk powder for baby food in developing countries. There have also been cases of salmonella detection in Nesquik cocoa and dog food produced at Nestle factories.
There are also discussions around Google. Recently, the US government noted that Android is becoming an increasingly attractive operating system in terms of spreading malicious software than any other mobile platform. This summer, the world's most sophisticated Android Trojan was discovered.
The article is based on materials .
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