Not seeing Wonka's Kazoozles on store shelves lately? Could be because Kazoozles have fallen victim to a widespread re-branding of the Wonka line by Nestle. This rebranding extends to include such popular candies as Shockers, which have been re-named SweeTart Chewy Sours. Nestle seems to be trying to capitalize on SweeTarts, one of their best selling brands, by renaming products under that umbrella. But honestly, what name has the better potential to grab attention on a crowded candy aisle shelf--Shockers or SweeTarts Chewy Sours? And when considering that Shockers have ten years of name recognition behind them, this rebranding effort feels even more strange. But using this same SweeTarts rebranding effort, Kazoozles have been renamed Sweetarts Soft & Chewy Ropes.
In the 5+ years since we opened, we've seen this type of fiddling with packaging, formulas, and branding before, usually with disastrous results. The most devastating rebranding we've seen so far was when the New England Candy Company, bowing to healthier food trends, changed their flavoring and coloring to all natural in their most famous product, NECCO Wafers. After a few months of tanking sales, NECCO got the message that people were buying their products specifically for the flavors and colors they grew up with and changed everything back to the original formulas. You see, sometimes with candy, the power of nostalgia overshadows everything else and changing packaging or formulas to meet current trends or design norms can kill the single most powerful marketing tool candy makers have. In a similar effort, Mars banked on the power of the Snickers name in the United States and began packaging the Snickers Almond in 2010, which is essentially a Mars Bar rebranded. Five years later, a real problem remains that many lovers of Mars Bars still haven't realized that a Snickers Almond is simply their beloved Mars Bar under a new name. The expansion of the powerful SweeTarts line to encompass some previous stand alone Wonka products is a dicey one, and we'll have to wait and see what the long-term impact will be.
Now, on to our take on SweeTarts Soft & Chewy Ropes, a.k.a. Kazoozles . . .
Tom: SweeTarts Soft & Chewy ropes are pencil-thick, red tubes that are filled with a creamy white, sugary filling. The outer part, or the tube, is red licorice that tastes like cherry, but the glaze that's on the outside to keep them from being sticky tastes a little like rubbing alcohol smells. The inner white sugar is punch flavored and that's the best part. It's fantastic. The whole product is gimmicky, though, because you only get four ropes that are fairly small in the package. Overall, the product is decent, and I would buy them again.
Stephanie: Tom's right about this product being gimmicky. The ropes are basically a filled cherry licorice that used to have a silly name, Kazoozles, to fit into the Wonka mythos, but really had nothing to do with what the product was. With the name change, you do actually understand better what the candy is, but it's an overly descriptive and cumbersome change. The name change doesn't lend itself to the type of iconic branding that flows off the tongue that something like Twizzlers has. The tubes have a slightly artificial, almost plasticky texture and appearance, which does also carry over into the flavor. At first taste, the tubes are just not very good, but upon chewing, when the filling mixes with the outer licorice, it does become much better. The overall taste is that of drinking fruit punch flavored Kool-aid that has way too high a powder to water ratio and hasn't been mixed up properly. It's not terrible, but it's just not that good, either.
Our take on SweeTarts Soft and Chewy Ropes? Although we may eat them again at some point, they certainly wouldn't be in our top 75 candy choices. Heck, they probably wouldn't be in our top 150 candy choices, if we're honest. With so many tasty sweets to choose from, perhaps Nestle should've done a little more to tweak this candy than just change it's name.
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