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Creating value for consumers

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For your business to survive, you must position yourself in terms of your competition. You have to have a suitable and original message for your customers to convince them come into your shop. You will realise that betting on chocolate innovations or on  alternative activities will become an absolute necessity when you launch your product!

You value proposition will involve innovation, because it will be a success factor for your company. This includes offering sustainable and healthy food which meets everyone's nutritional needs while integrating technology (known as “FoodTech”).

Chocolate isn’t immune to this trend!  Many technological advances are beginning to disrupt the chocolate business. You will either have to change your production methods or expand your professional horizons.

Here are the six innovations/trends presented in the video below:

  • 3D printing
  • Chocolate without cocoa
  • Chocolate that doesn’t melt
  • Pink chocolate
  • Raw chocolate
  • Healthy and ethical chocolate

Alternative activities

As you can see, it’s important to position yourself against your competitors as well as to diversify. Chocolatiers are unanimous: companies can no longer be static. You have to create emotion and diversify your business. You have to give people a reason to come into your shop which goes beyond simply selling chocolate.

The alternative activities can take a number of different and varied shapes. However, there are three clear trends:

Organise workshop visits

More and more shops are providing tours of their production facilities. The visits enable consumers to discover the different steps of manual chocolate production (roasting, grinding, ganache preparation, coating, etc.), while learning more about the history of cocoa and about the life of the beans.

Benefits:

  • This provides the chocolatier with a perfect opportunity to display their experience and know-how
  • It meets the consumers’ need for transparency
  • This activity requires few additional “major” expenses

Among the chocolatiers we met with1, here are the ones that offer tours:
Mike & Becky, Corné Dynastie, Vanessa Renard, Frédéric Blondeel, and Jean-Philippe Darcis

Provide a tasting room

Some sector professionals provide a tasting area in their shop. This enables consumers to take a break and enjoy the artisan’s products in a peaceful setting.

Benefits:

  • Helps to counter the effects of seasonality by offering cool drinks or ice cream in the summertime
  • Positions the business as a contributor to the life of the neighbourhood
  • Consumers can taste/test the products then buy larger quantities if they like them.
  • Consumers will also be tempted to buy them for themselves and not just as a gift for others.

Among the chocolatiers we met with1, here are the ones that have a tasting room:
Laurent Gerbaud, Frédéric Blondeel, Jean-Philippe Darcis, and Vanessa Goossens (Neuhaus)

Offer discovery workshops

Some chocolatiers have taken the decision to offer chocolate discovery workshops. They provide an opportunity for chocolate lovers to put on an apron and try their skill at making pralines or other chocolate products.

Benefits:

  • In line with the Do It Yourself philosophy, which is increasingly popular with consumers
  • Makes participants want to buy products after the workshop ends

Among the chocolatiers we met with1, here are the ones that provide workshops:
Laurent Gerbaud, Jean-Phillippe Darcis, and Vanessa Renard

1information from December 2018

Innovate and be daring

There are many other, more specific, ideas to create increasingly innovative and daring products. Here are a few:

  • Organise events in unusual locations. For example: join forces with “Sofar sounds” to organise a secret, intimate concert on your premises or at a different location with a dual objective: to enjoy a concert in an unusual setting while tasting your chocolate products
  • Organise an amateur competition
  • Organise blind tastings
  • Make chocolate sculptures with a 3D printer
  • ....

It’s important for some consumers to break with the ultra-touristy world of chocolate. Chocolatiers have to move out of their comfort zone by taking advantage of the opening created by Pierre Marcolini. In fact, you have to break the codes and create synergies between the new players.

Lastly, the keyword is transparency. Consumers want more transparency about the provenance of the cocoa beans, the production process and the ingredients used.

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