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 Growth through Experiences
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CASE 10: ANTHON BERG
The modern connoisseur leads the way for Danish chocolate giant
INTERVIEW WITH STINE KJÆR LOMHOLT, BRAND MANAGER
For Anthon Berg, experiences like self-indulgence, identity formation and orchestration have been the focal point of the relaunch of the business initiated in 2007. Anthon Berg’s new strategy uses experiences not only as marketing but, together with enhanced chocolate quality, as the company’s guiding light in the struggle to win new market shares and create a product associated with quality, innovation and daring.
The Challenge
Demand for quality chocolate is rising in Europe, Asia and the US. The perception of chocolate has changed, and many consumers talk about and taste chocolate as they’ve never done before. According to the international chocolate industry, Japanese consumers in particular are prepared to pay, even dearly, for exclusive chocolate.
Even so, Anthon Berg has been losing market share for many years because of the business’s rather staid image. Especially because younger quality-conscious target groups have deserted Anthon Berg’s products. In this light, Anthon Berg’s vision was to change its image from a slightly staid chocolate company into an internationally renowned quality brand. The aim is to increase turnover by DKK 600 million to more than DKK 2 billion in 2012.
Applying Experiences
To achieve this, Anthon Berg has changed its strategy and built up a new brand and a better image based on quality and experiences. The strategy is driven by the fact that consumers are prepared to pay more for chocolate.
The business has realised that in order to win new market shares, the staid image needs to be revitalised, and Anthon Berg has to be refashioned into a strong, modern brand – based on a good story and finer, better-tasting chocolates in exclusive boxes and packaging. The company intends to create chocolate products that appeal to and directly target the customers who are willing to pay for out-of-the-ordinary chocolate experiences.
On the basis of focus groups, ethnographic studies and data gathered by major opinion and media agencies, Anthon Berg has identified a new target group they call “the modern connoisseur”. This segment is made up of people who are brand-conscious, discerning, inquisitive, interested in aesthetics and design, reads lifestyle magazines and are acutely aware of the products and brands they surround themselves with. At the same time, they are good at orchestrating their own life.
“When a modern connoisseur buys chocolate, the chocolate has to be an experience. An example of this is when buying chocolate for a dinner for two. Perhaps the hostess has cooked the food and the host chooses the chocolate for coffee. Similar to the process of carefully selecting a wine. For this reason it is important for a story to be included with the chocolate. People want to know which country the cocoa beans come from.”
– Stine Kjær Lomholdt, Brand Manager, Anthon Berg.
Based on Anthon Berg’s new-found knowledge about their customers, the company has launched a product that inhabits the zone where wellness and enjoyment of chocolate converge. It is a soft, high-quality chocolate that you can spread over your body like a cream. The chocolate contains extracts of other natural products like ginseng, green tea, Chinese “schisandra berries” and guava, or extracts of South American “yerba mate” tea and papaya. The packaging experience should also be unique. It should be completely in keeping with the expectations of a modern connoisseur. Anthon Berg wants to enlarge the assortment to include chocolate that is different and more luxurious in terms of both quality and aesthetics than the chocolate it sells today.
These chocolate products cut to the very core of the growing wellness culture, which the modern connoisseur is also part of – both in Denmark and in the rest of the Western world.
For Anthon Berg, experiences have become a competitive factor because they provide access to a discerning segment, but also one with great buying power. The wellness chocolate enables the company to differentiate its products from those of the competition and at the same time represents a response to the modern connoisseur’s demand for new experiences.
“Coffee is not just a cup of coffee any more, and a beer is not just a beer. Today, chocolate has to tell a story, provide an experience that goes beyond just eating a few processed cocoa beans, because chocolate isn’t just chocolate any longer.”
– Stine Kjær Lomholdt, Brand Manager, Anthon Berg.
In efforts to create chocolate that contains something extra, the company developed a product comprising a large solid bar of chocolate, weighing 220 grams, which comes with a sort of awl that is used for chipping the bar into pieces. This breaks the chocolate into uneven pieces and provides a totally different serving experience. It also becomes an event similar to cutting a roast or opening a bottle of champagne.
The Benefits
The extra experience provided by the chocolate enables the products to attract a far higher price but puts a limit on the volume at the same time. In return, the business can charge a totally different price per kilo.
The relaunch has enabled Anthon Berg to make a breakthrough in international markets, and its products are now included in the assortments of department stores in New York City and the trend-setting delicatessen section of Takashimay. Anthon Berg is a subsidiary of the chocolate manufacturer Toms Gruppen A/S. In 2007, the Group generated a profit after tax of DKK 75.4 million.
“…[I]t’s a question of having a ’blue ocean’ strategy, where we seek to leave the ’red ocean’ and turn things around for our benefit. Fortunately, reactions have been very favourable whenever we tell our story abroad. But it wasn’t until recently that we discovered how to actually make use of Anthon Berg’s long, proud history steeped in tradition.”
– Stine Kjær Lomholdt, Brand Manager, Anthon Berg.
Much of the success is attributed to the relaunch of Anthon Berg as an international experience-based brand, as the Anthon Berg products showed a 14% increase in turnover compared to the year before.
