the future of chocolate retailing
DESCRIPTION
Here’s our thoughts on the future of Chocolate retailing (published in Retail Focus magazine, March 2012)TRANSCRIPT
34
opinion
The news last summer that Thorntons was planning to close up
to 180 stores (nearly half its store portfolio) came at a poignant
time in the retailer’s history - it was announced in the year that the
company celebrated its centenary. Things have not
improved for the retailer, which recently announced that half year
profits had slumped by a whopping 92 per cent in the six months
to Christmas.
Although the retail market, in general, is facing tough
times given the difficult and uncertain economic landscape,
the chocolate sector has its own unique problems and set of
challenges. One of the most noticeable developments has
been the marked polarisation between mid market retailers and
specialist chocolatier-type boutique offers.
Thorntons has been a clear victim of this trend in polarisation.
Over the years, its sales through supermarkets grew and grew,
making it more difficult for its standalone stores to compete and
develop a proper narrative, and having a rather bland in-store
experience only served to exacerbate the situation, making the
retailer less relevant and receptive to changing consumer trends.
In contrast, these new boutique-type offers are brimming with
innovation, not just in terms of product development, but with their
store environments and marketing approach, and are creating
a much more immersive, interactive and personalised customer
experience and conversation.
We are now witnessing some of the big ‘corporate’ chocolate
brands creating niche offers to target the growing trend towards
personalisation and luxury. Nestle has developed Maison Cailler
- a new luxury brand that offers a unique profiling system that
consumers can use to discover their ‘chocolate personality’ and
share the result with their friends online. Within 48 hours of using
the service, customers are sent a box of Maison Cailler chocolates
that have been carefully selected to match their individual
preferences. This means that the brand can retain an ongoing
relationship with the consumer.
In addition to its online activity, Maison Cailler ‘profiling
stations’ will be set up in a variety of luxurious locations around
Switzerland, such as five star hotels. The temporary booths will
give people the opportunity to take the chocolate personality
tests with a friend in relaxed and comfortable surroundings. A
new flagship store will open outside the existing Maison Cailler
chocolate museum in Broc, where visitors will also be able to
discover their chocolate personality.
This is a clear example of a brand tapping into key consumer
trends of personalisation, new luxury (quality, individualism and
craft) and authenticity.
At the other end of the Nestle brand spectrum, the company is
turning to ‘crowd sourcing’ as a means to engage with consumers
as well as allowing them to be co-participants in deciding a
new flavour for their range of chunky Kit Kat bars. This was
also accompanied by an AR (Augmented Reality) marker on
packaging, enabling consumers to vote for their favourite flavour.
Meanwhile, over in the States, the co-founder of Wired
magazine has launched Tcho, a new chocolate ‘start up’ in San
Francisco. Tcho combines many elements of classic Silicon Valley
innovation: its approach to working with farmers, the re-thinking of
the chocolate lexicon, and its approach to raising money.
Its 50-gram dark chocolate ‘beta’ (prototype) bars, which are
co-created by customers, are sold only locally at first to those who
have signed up on the Tcho website, and only to those willing to
go and pick up the chocolate at Tcho’s headquarters - so not
your typical retailer approach! It now operates a nationwide mail
order service and has a retail outlet at its 1,395 sq m converted
warehouse on the San Francisco waterfront.
However, contrary to popular belief, innovation is not just
restricted to the online/digital world, new store formats and retail
offers are emerging and taking the chocolate experience to new
levels. The most notable of these being Hotel Chocolat - originally
launched as a catalogue retailer, then a web-based business, it
now has around 65 stores in the UK as well as 35 concessions in
John Lewis stores and two outlets in the U.S. Its boutique hotel on
its plantation estate in St Lucia also has a retail element.
Selling and living the ‘full cocoa experience’ right from the
company-owned plantation to its store environments, Hotel
Chocolat has brought a gourmet experience to buying chocolate.
As well as having a high quality product and store environment,
the retailer has developed and grown customer loyalty, passion
and engagement through its Tasting Club subscription service.
More than 100,000 members pay a monthly fee to receive a new
selection of chocolates and are invited to give their feedback.
Other Hotel Chocolat activities include a cacao cuisine street
food café in London’s Borough Market, which serves authentic
cocoa tea, savoury and sweet cacao wraps and a range of Rabot
The future of chocolate retailing:
As Easter approaches, Liz McShane of Portland Design delves into the world of chocolate retail and considers the key ingredients to a sweet, successful future for the sector.
More sweetthan bitter
www.retail-focus.co.uk
35
opinion
Estate small batch chocolates.
At the brand’s cocoa estate in Saint Lucia, they have opened
Boucan - a full dining experience centred around an innovative,
light and healthy cacao cuisine menu - and this has been
complemented by the opening of their plantation chic hotel
last December.
The company’s latest venture, Roast & Conch - the ‘coffee
vs cocoa bar’ concept in London’s Covent Garden - links cocoa
growing, chocolate making and tasting in one location, and is a
first for London. Hotel Chocolat has teamed up with Monmouth
Coffee to offer a drinks menu written in familiar coffee language -
the twist being that customers can decide whether they would like
their latte, flat white or cappuccino prepared with cocoa freshly
roasted on the premises or with traditional coffee beans.
Cocoa lovers can also try out Roast & Conch’s bespoke
‘cacao cuisine’ menu, offering a range of warm cocoa wraps and
open salad sandwiches, as well as a unique chocolate and wine
dining experience.
So, applying and adapting some of the techniques of coffee
brands has allowed brands to create a whole new product and
service culture around chocolate.
In addition to Hotel Chocolat, a number of smaller,
haute-couture chocolate retail brands have continued to
re-define the art of chocolate retailing; these include L’Artisan du
Chocolat and Cocomaya.
L’Artisan du Chocolat has developed the whole chocolate
experience from a daytime into an evening activity with its cocoa-
based cocktails, and has also developed some chocolate-based
beauty products aligning itself with the sophisticated adult world
of beauty and fashion.
Reinforcing the connection between fashion and the new
generation of chocolatiers, Cocomaya Fine Chocolatier & Artisan
Baker is the brainchild of two highly influential players in the
fashion industry. Sharing a love of fine chocolate and authentic
artisan baking, they have created a very paired down space in
which to enjoy afternoon tea and some of the finest chocolates.
So, these are just more examples to prove that chocolate can
be a sophisticated, grown up experience while at the same time
being playful and fun.
Exciting times lie ahead for the chocolate sector as a new
generation of retailers and brands invent a new language and
approach. The key ingredients for future success will be to have
intimate knowledge of your customers - this will be more important
then ever in our permanently connected world - and brands will
need to build strong relationships with customers and encourage
bonding around their products. Allowing feedback, dialogue and
co-creation will be key in attracting, retaining and stimulating
customer interest and repeat purchase. The future doesn’t have to
be bitter, it can be sweet.
www.portland-design.com
Hotel Chocolat is selling and living ‘the full cocoa experience’, from
the company-owned plantation to its store environments.
www.retail-focus.co.uk