diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/KafkaLog4jAppender.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/KafkaLog4jAppender.scala
index 652dfb8..3ad62a7 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/KafkaLog4jAppender.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/KafkaLog4jAppender.scala
@@ -70,15 +70,15 @@ class KafkaLog4jAppender extends AppenderSkeleton with Logging {
   override def append(event: LoggingEvent)  {
     val message = subAppend(event)
     LogLog.debug("[" + new Date(event.getTimeStamp).toString + "]" + message)
-    val response = producer.send(new ProducerRecord[Array[Byte],Array[Byte]](topic, message.getBytes()))
+    val response = producer.send(new ProducerRecord[Array[Byte],Array[Byte]](topic, message))
     if (syncSend) response.get
   }
 
-  def subAppend(event: LoggingEvent): String = {
+  def subAppend(event: LoggingEvent): Array[Byte] = {
     if(this.layout == null)
-      event.getRenderedMessage
+      event.getRenderedMessage().getBytes
     else
-      this.layout.format(event)
+      this.layout.format(event).getBytes
   }
 
   override def close() {