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persuasion notebook

To celebrate its new marketing partnership with Google Inc., Kit Kat is breaking off a piece of the tech companies' marketing style.

Nestlé SA's chocolate bar brand has revamped its website to mimic Google's marketing for its Android devices, one day after the two companies announced that the latest Android operating system will be named Kit Kat and will be co-marketed with specially branded candy bars.

The site spoofs the hyperbole not just of Google, but of most tech companies touting their latest product launches. Describing a simple candy bar as "Kit Kat 4.4," it points to "78 years of precision confectionery engineering," "diamond-sharp bevels," and a "tri-core, wafer thin CPU with full chocolate coverage."

The design by ad agency JWT London also includes humorous tech specs including "universal compatibility" and "unlimited standby time." The agency also included a spot-on promotional video with beautiful shots of the chocolate bar against a white background, and a nod at Apple with the line, "there's a Kit Kat for that."

Google has a tradition of naming each new Android operating system in alphabetical order, and each one after a sweet food, starting with Cupcake in 2009 and including Jellybean and Ice Cream Sandwich in subsequent versions. However, this is the first brand tie-in the company has done, and is a new approach for naming an operating system.

The partnership, announced Tuesday, was initiated by Google. Kit Kat is a popular snack among the engineering team, and so the company asked Nestlé to lend the name to its K operating system, said spokesperson Wendy Bairos. There was no money exchanged, she said.

To advertise the launch, more than 50-million co-branded Kit Kat bars will be sold in 19 countries, including Canada, directing people to the Android website to receive credits in Google's online store and compete for prizes.

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