In a new push by Hershey’s, the TAKE5 candy bar, a grassroots favorite, has been reinvented and taken under the wing of the highly popular Reese’s brand to attract a whole new generation of candy-hungry consumers. The TAKE5 Bar is five layers of sweet and salty goodness that incorporates crunchy pretzels, smooth peanut butter, salty peanuts, and sweet caramel into a decadent, milk chocolate covered candy bar, and its new look matches its highly desired taste.
Born in 2004, this remix of five classic flavors became popular immediately and drove Hershey’s organic growth up by 8% in the fourth quarter of that year. However, due to challenges with marketing strategies, the company halted all advertising efforts by 2011. This lack of publicity didn’t deter the grassroots fans of this perfect combination of sweet and salty, crunchy and chewy deliciousness, and they continued to ask for their new go-to chocolate bar.
Hershey heard the call to action by TAKE5’s following and in 2016, set out on a mission to reinvent the look and social reach of this undervalued but wildly favored hand-held snack. In 2016, after partnering with a panel of “diverse millennial-aged students,” Hershey’s redesigned the packaging of the TAKE5 bar to appeal to a new generation of consumers, and set into motion an innovative ad campaign through Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram which included a series of live engagements, social media campaigns, and brand ambassador partnerships. The new design featured a black background with ringed gray stripes and a fresh new lime green logo, with a radical vibe highly attractive to the millennial crowd.
The new design and subsequent marketing strategies were now all under the umbrella of Hershey’s extremely lucrative brand, Reese’s. With the iconic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups one of the most popular candy “bars” at Candy Warehouse and Reese’s itself holding the top spot as the largest confection brand in the country, it makes financial sense that Hershey’s reintroduced the TAKE 5 candy bar under this well known and never ignored logo.
For fans of the Take 5, this rejuvenation of the chocolate covered remix of five fabulous flavors they love couldn’t have come at a better time. Now widely available, anyone with a craving for the satisfying crunch of pretzels, the smoothness of peanut butter, the salted goodness of peanuts, the lusciousness of sweet caramel and the Zen of chocolate bliss can have it all in the Take 5.
