FritoLay Japan introduced its "twisted" Doritos snacks in Japan three or four years ago. Season by season we've seen the company release new flavors, including sour cream & onion, cheese, barbecue, and seafood & garlic—but the brand stayed consistent by keeping to savory tastes.
Not any more.
Say hello to "Honey Butter" Doritos, a new product that's decidely sweet (click for enlarged view). This is an interesting turn, since although FritoLay Japan often launches rather unusual products, I can't recall a sweet-tasting Doritos in either the chips or twist format.
While anybody can see the advantage of leveraging the Doritos name in logical line extensions, it's a little harder to see why they might dabble in sweet varieties. FritoLay Japan isn't afraid of coming up with new brands—so why not launch sweet tastes under a different moniker? This also goes for the twist format. Why launch them as Doritos? In other markets, Frito Lay twists fall under the Fritos brand.
As far as packaging twists as Doritos rather than Fritos—this comes down to local conditions. Simply put, Fritos have never caught on in Japan (although I'm fairly sure they've been launched more than once). The company's leading corn snack in Japan is Doritos, so someone probably decided that it made sense to introduce twists as part of the Doritos family.
Regarding sweet vs. savory, I'm only guessing here, but the brand is probably trying to reach out to female Japanese consumers, who may be more apt to go for non-savory varieties. While it would feel unnatural to produce a sweetened Doritos in the US—where the brand has had a long and very successful run as a savory-only brand—the idea of introducing both sweet and savory flavors under the same brand is nothing new in Japan. Japanese consumers are used to getting mixed signals from brands, and manufacturers are less stringent in maintaining consistent brand identities.
So if Doritos is expanding to include both sweet and savory flavors in Japan, what's next for the brand? Chocolate-tipped Doritos twists?
Don't laugh. It could happen.
