I was re-reading Jonah Berger’s book Contagious on the weekend and stopped at one of my favorite marketing stories.

It’s about how KitKat dramatically increased sales by connecting the popular chocolate bar to coffee.

“Have a break, have a KitKat” was already a successful slogan. But the brand was looking for more growth.

So they did something smart: creating an association between KitKat bars and coffee.

They didn’t invent this pairing. Some people were already sometimes enjoying the two together. But KitKat recognized an opportunity to cement this connection in MANY consumers’ minds.

Through strategic advertising showing the two together, they transformed their chocolate-covered wafer bar from an occasional treat into a coffee companion.

The results were pretty remarkable. Sales increased by 33% after the campaign launched.

Why did this work so well?

Because KitKat hitched its wagon to an existing daily ritual. Coffee is a deeply ingrained daily habit for millions.

By positioning their product alongside something people already do daily, KitKat created what marketers call a “trigger” — a reliable environmental cue that brings their product to mind.

I call it “ritualization” when you successfully adhere your product to an established habit or routine to increase usage frequency.

In I Need That, I wrote about how products that integrate into existing routines face much less adoption friction than those requiring entirely new behaviors. The dog brain loves habits and resists change, so piggybacking on established routines puts a double-whammy on that resistance.

This strategy works across all kinds of categories:

Budweiser linked beer to baseball’s seventh-inning stretch. 

Oreo positioned its cookies as the perfect companion to milk before bed. (In combination with its own “Twist, Lick & Dunk” ritual, that is.)

Pepto-Bismol made its liquid pink antacid synonymous with Thanksgiving overindulgence. 

Scope created the whole concept of “morning breath” as “the worst breath of the day” to create a daily trigger.

Nivea created its “shower, shave, Nivea Men” campaign to insert their moisturizer into men’s morning routines.

Even Spotify built its entire “Spotify Wrapped” campaign around the year-end reflection ritual that naturally happens to us humans in December, creating an annual sharing phenomenon.

Product Payoff: Liquid I.V. hydration powder went from startup to $500 million Unilever acquisition by connecting its product to two strong existing habits: morning coffee consumption and post-workout recovery. By positioning their packets as “counterbalancing your coffee’s dehydrating effects” and “the first thing after your workout,” they created powerful usage triggers. (How about coffee, KitKat, a workout … AND Liquid I.V.?)

Action for today: Identify ONE existing daily ritual your target customers already practice religiously. How might you naturally position your product as part of THAT routine? Brainstorm a simple statement that connects your product to this trigger moment. Then test this association with a small segment of customers to gauge the resonance and adoption impact. If it fits, ritualize it!

What daily ritual did you find for your product to connect with?

What products have hijacked your own ritual?

Tap that reply arrow and tell me!

Or reach out anytime to my amazing team of product marketing strategists at Graphos Product.