Japanese Candy Boxes

I stopped by Man Lee's yesterday, which is an Asian food store at Terminal Park (there's another one by the woodgrove area). It carries a lot of interesting candies and I thought I'd compare these two that I bought to some of our better known candy :) I think one of the most interesting differences is flavor and variety. In Canada, things like Kit-Kat have flavors like dark, crunchy, white... and I think thats about it. In Japan, Kit-Kat could get a world record for flavors, some of the ones I've had include ramune, rose, green tea, apple, royal milk tea, sakura, sakura green tea, melon, gingerale etc. (http://inventorspot.com/articles/japan_kit_kat_chocolate_bars_5324) (http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/03/18/japans-strangest-kit-kat-flavors/) Besides Kit-Kat, many Japanese candies or chocolate bars come out with different flavors depending on the season and change by the year. If you miss one, you may never try it. This, in itself, is one of the best advertising schemes sadly underused in our culture.



For those who were unsure, this is PUMPKIN pocky. I had never tried it before, and who knows if I will again, but it was actually really good, surprisingly. About the package, I thought it definitely did the concept of pumpkin pocky justice. By using bold orange and green colors and the small pumpkins nestled by the corner of the label, it made it obvious what the flavor was. Pocky itself has a very distinctive logo, the baseline of the text following a subtle curve. I think it's important to note the inside wrapping of the pocky package. Unlike Canadian candy, the Japanese put a lot of effort on the appeal of the entire product and by not making the inside package silver it actually increases the experience. Floating pumpkins on a yellow ground really makes one think of autumn :) The little character of course appeals to the Japanese demographic specifically and probably would not be as effective in our culture.












This candy is called "Gummy Choco" (グミチョコ). It is small gummies encased in chocolate and, of course, you can get different flavors. The one pictured here is peach. The cases look fairly similar even if the flavor is changed. Obviously the fruits in the gummy changes along with the colour scheme, but that's usually it. If you buy strawberry however, the case can have Hello Kitty images. The cases themselves are cute and convenient (easy to open). Again, the little characters probably say more about the Japanese culture than ours ;) I especially like the little bit of squiggly writing to the right of the title (translation: From inside the chocolate comes punyo punyo gummies!). I think it adds to the fun of the design. Even the little character to the right of this saying is well placed, as it looks like he/she said it. The package overall is clear enough that there is no doubt left in a consumers mind as to what it is.