I am a chocolate addict, and I need to eat chocolates every day. I eat not one or two, but three or more bars (not just small pieces) every day. The only times I lay off chocolates are the couple of weeks before my glucose tests during my pregnancies.
So of course, when one of my favorite chocolate brands launches a new product, I am all ears. Godiva has recently launched a new product called Godiva Chocoiste
http://www.godiva.com/chocoiste and lessons can be learned on how they launch this new product and work towards branding it.
The first step into launching a new product is first defining what this new product will be and how it will be different from all the existing products in the market today. Ask the question: why will people want and buy this new product?
With this new Godiva chocolates, the product concept is “Decadence Goes Mobile” and the product’s tagline is:
“A tantalizing new assortment of supreme chocolate pleasures, absolutely sinful enough to satisfy anytime … Instant gratification will never be the same.”
The idea behind this new chocolate product is that Chocoiste is a casual, portable, chocolate treat that you can indulge while you’re on the go. For me, it’s the perfect chocolate to take while I am walking to the subway or during a bus ride. I actually go to the Godiva store just to buy a bar that I can sneak in when no one’s looking in the subway (you’re not supposed to eat in the Washington DC subway system). So I am a perfect target market of this new product!
To increase awareness and market the new product, Godiva is undertaking a combination of merchandising PR, in-store promotions, web site promotions and sampling initiatives (or what they call experiential marketing). Specifically, the company embarked on the following strategies:
- Hired a double decker bus in New York from April 16 to 20 to act as Godiva Chocoiste Convoy that takes passengers from the Godiva store at the World Financial Center to Times Square, all the while handing out the chocolates to the passengers
- Sent samplings and VIP pass for the convoy to media (talk about sweetening the media!)
- Hired people to give out samples of the chocolate at the Central Park in NY
- Created a chocolate personality quiz in a new website http://www.areyouachocoiste.com/ after which the user can redeem a free gift certificate for free chocolates (alas, redeemable only in NY/NJ area)
To measure the success of the campaign, Godiva plans to monitor PR and media/broadcast coverage of the convoy as well as the product itself. They will look at NY sales, website hits of their specifically designed website, and click throughs from the Godiva.com homepage to the new product section.
Not many small businesses can spend money to hire a double decker bus to act as convoy for target market and the media. However, product sampling is something that small businesses can employ. Maybe not send 5,000 samples to media and people in the park, but on a much smaller and intimate scale. It can help the small businesses get the needed feedback from its target audience. Sending some product samples to the media (and even bloggers) can be a very effective tool to market the new product as well.
But starting with the right product concept and how this concept can be packaged into a tagline that will resonate with the target market is very important. This will shape the copy that will be placed on your website. Website marketing is something that small businesses can do. But I urge you to study how Godiva is handling their online campaigns:
- Having a special site created to engage the target audience through the clever use of a survey — the visitor gets a free sample, and the company gets more information about their target audience
- Putting a button of this new product on the homepage of their main Godiva.com website
- Using lush photography to showcase the products
- Providing option to see larger image of the product
- Cross selling of the products with their Other Options Available in each product presentation page
Like Godiva, it is important to have measures of success to determine how the new product is faring in the market, how people are reacting to it, and what is the most effective way of reaching the target audience.
Wow! I love your information on how a simple chocolate business could have such great insights and branding…
By the way, I love Chocolate and am attracting to have it everyday and not putting on the weighs and putting my health on the line…
I guess with the latest discovery of this product that I bought, giving me great results on how I attract more money, peak health and lots of love and success… more chocolate is fine with me too now…