AID17528: Chocberry
has undergone a major transformation over time. It has evolved from being a
confectionery business into an international business with significant
interests in confectionery and entertainment for kids worldwide. Growth through
acquisition had enabled the group to build up a large portfolio of well-known
brands. However, slowly it started becoming clear that not all of its products
were contributing equally well to its overall profitability. This case study
looks at how Chocberry adopted a business philosophy of selling chocolate
products to children either directly or through their parents.
Revitalizing brands
Chocberry’s famous
brands include Chocberry’s Milky Way, Nutty Buddy, and SilkyChoc. Good brands
are valuable assets, but still, need support especially when children are the
main consumers and parents the main buyers. There is also a time lag challenge.
Children, who stop being consumers of their parents’ chocolate purchases when
aged 12 or 13, have to be encouraged back to the product as buyers of it when
they become parents, perhaps 15 years later. Chocberry decided that it’s
chocolate products aimed at children were most in need of a new approach. But
how best to achieve it?
Advertising dilemmas
Since different
chocolate-based products appeal to different age groups, Chocberry needs to
offer a wide product range. Each product needs promotion, which implies an
advertising budget for each product line, which is very expensive. One approach
is to promote the firm as a whole, that is, raise awareness of Chocberry’s, in
the hope that this in itself will boost sales across Chocberry’s product range.
However, a catch-all approach can be rather hit or miss and may produce a poor
return. Another way around this is to promote chocolate consumption in general.
This approach would require co-operation between competitive producers and
implies some loss of control for Chocberry’s. In line with its adding-value
approach, the challenge to Chocberry was to promote its child-orientated
products cost-effectively.
From within Chocberry
came an interesting, attractive proposal based on some solid propositions:
For children,
consumption is linked to having fun. Any consumption that children regard as
fun will also appeal to their parents, who do the spending.
Other companies
manage to associate consumption with children having fun. For example, Disney
offers Disneyland, where, in the course of having a good time, children meet
loveable characters whom they link with the purchases that parents make on
their behalf, such as cinema tickets, videos, cuddly toys.
On somewhat
similar lines, the company Chocberry also has ‘a place where chocolate is
made’. This place is an asset that can be further developed into a Chocolate
World. Chances are, that it shall prove to be a huge attraction to thousands of
visitors each year.
Out of this line of
thinking came a new Chocberry creation – Chocberry LAND – a chocolate world,
chocolate factory of its kind. Chocberry already has separate chocolate lines
aimed principally at children: Chocberry Shots, Stars, Perky. What was needed
was a new ‘umbrella’ that gave them some togetherness whilst preserving their
separate identities.
The concept of
Chocberry LAND had to be suitable for promotion through the various media forms
and flexible to survive the addition and subtraction of brands.
Chocberry LAND will
capitalize on children’s love of likable characters placed in a world of their
own. A character shall be attached to each brand. The character’s persona will
reflect the brand. For instance, Buttons will be ‘a bit dizzy and will giggle a
lot’, Wildlife will be ‘an eccentric old buffer’ and Fudge will be ‘a bit of a
loony’. In Chocberry LAND, each character will contribute in an endearing way
to the making of ‘their’ product. A child consumer and his chocolate-related
adventures will offer the route by which the visitors shall enter and enjoy
Chocberry LAND. Children will feel comfortable with all this because they are
already familiar with the brands. The experience of seeing their favorite
chocolates being made – a tempting world of chocolates – will be a one of its
kind.
The challenge before
the marketers will be to build brand equity for Chocberry LAND.
a. Who should be the
key target consumer (s) for Chocberry LAND and what should be the positioning
to reach out to them?
b. What are the
various communication tools which can help in building the brand equity of
Chocberry LAND?