NAME: TOLUWALOPE OLAYINKA SAWYERR

STUDENT NUMBER: M00560729

CASE STUDY: GREEN AND BLACK’S ORGANIC CHOCOLATE POSITIONING

MIDDLESEX EMAIL ADDRESS: TS785@live.mdx.ac.uk

MODULE NAME: INTEGRATED BRAND COMMUNICATION

PROFESSOR’S NAME: DR. VIJAY PUJARI

IS GREEN & BLACK’S ORGANIC THE NEW CHOCOLATE

CONTENTS Introduction Tactical Elements Used to build its

Brand Narratives Impact of Green and Black

chocolate over other related Brand Green and Black’s chocolate Brand

Narrative

QUESTIONS What tactical positioning elements allowed Green

and Black’s organic to build its brand narrative in order to differentiate from the existing UK manufacturers.

What long term impact will not paying the fair trade Association for more than one brand have on Green & Black’s positioning.

Do you think consumers are more interested in the tactics like product and packaging of the Green &Black’s products or are these dependent upon the long-term brand narrative

INTRODUCTIONGreen and Black’s chocolate Limited is the leading organic chocolate brand in UK between the 2002 and 2005 with sales rising up to £29million within the space of four years. One of its success is due to its positioning in the market of intense darker chocolate which was adopted and communicated by all its stakeholders. Originally launched in 1991 by macrobiotic restaurateur and produced its first

chocolate(Maya Gold)in 1994 which carried the “Fair-trade” mark. The brand narrative of this chocolate(organic)differentiates it from its

competitors as seen37% almond with milk chocolate55% dark chocolate with orange, nutmeg, vanilla and cinnamon70% dark chocolate34% milk chocolate60% dark chocolate with fruits and nut70% dark chocolate with mint fondantIts continuous story arc shapes its product life cycle and provides longevity

TACTICAL POSITIONING ELEMENT USED TO BUILD ITS BRAND NARRATIVES Brand name : Green and Black “Green” is the strict organic principal adopted to depict

healthy and ecofriendly chocolate while the “black” depicts the intensity of the chocolate and its iconic style.

Slogan : depicting its organic trademark (about thirteen different chocolate types) underlying tone and theme throughout its campaign promotes its prestige as not being viewed as just chocolate but a healthy way of life.

Advertising opportunity :entering an extremely competitive market, continuous increase brand awareness through its straight factual message

Imagery: The use of consistent logos, colors, themes help build its strong brand narrative

Its replication of cultural meaning maps out how the brand’s positioned in the minds of its target market. Based on Market Analysis for UK chocolate which was stated that UK is considered the 2nd largest amongst the Europe with chocolate consumption between 4kg-10kg market share per head. It is seen that organic market is trending for consumers.Cadbury and Kraft has a market share 40%, Mars market share is 15% , Nestle KitKat market share is 20.4% and Green and Black’s market share is 5% in conventional and 90% market share in organic Source: www.marketingsociety.com

Long term impact of Green and Black’s positioning

Mark Palmer, the Marketing Director of the company says that the Green and Black’s chocolate has successfully achieved the domination of Gourmet luxury and the healthy organic chocolate (Burrell,2006). On the other hand, its ethics and mission on creating its brand and competing in its own right(organic)has brought a far promising success on the brand, its brand equity is more promising on its organic story as seen from previous illustration.From a company who has 15 strong portfolio of its product and paying 2% of every sale made on 1bar out of 15 should not affect its long term positioning in the market. A famous brand has all the features but void without a brand narrative. As discussed by Craig Sam in his interview on You tube informed that Maya Gold has given real satisfaction to customers but the ethical side of the brand goes beyond just satisfying customers but has a strong background that affects the lives of people and not just satisfying. This has given the brand a more promising niche, every successful brand who has gained a strong brand equity is due to its strategies implemented to generate a brand name which in turn generates more money, recognition, image and personality, awareness ,preference, and a level of association.

Target audience experience is importance in marketing communication and dependent on upon the relationship between between a source and its receiver McQuail(2000,p,377).Narrative is inseparably persistent body that links together human beings ,activities and communication into a story (Elliot, 2000). Consumers of Green and Black’s chocolate are more interested the brand based on the perception its quality, origin, self expressive nature of the brand, its strength of heritage and amongst all its perceived differentiation from the competition of its ethical state.