Chocolate: Good v Bad Marketing
Content is modern-day window shopping at scale.
It can draw people into the store (your profile) and keep them around.
The chocolate industry is hyper-saturated. Chocolate is chocolate.
Good content is what made modern chocolate brands like Tony's Chocolonely and Mid-Day Squares emerge as major players in the market, even with heritage brands like Godiva as competitors.
Good Content Educates People On Your Brand Mission And Vision
"We say we're an impact brand that sells chocolate, not the other way around." - Tony's Chocolonely
Tony's Chocolonely has dedicated its efforts to raising awareness about inequality in the chocolate industry since day one.
Even as they've grown to become the largest chocolate brand in the Netherlands, their commitment to ending the exploitation of cocoa is the driving force behind their marketing content.
Whether it’s a social media post, a meme, or a wrapping paper, the mission is always clearly communicated.
Their customers know exactly what the brand stands for because they're consistently reminded of it. Unwavering and authentic brand values lead to lifelong fans.
On the other hand, Godiva's marketing rarely mentions their rich history. Looking at their content, you wouldn't know they have a century of history behind them.
Good Content Finds Ways To Make Your Customers Hear And See You
"The team at Mid-Day Squares is willing to be unapologetically themselves on camera to thousands of people. " - Kiva Dickinson, Investor of Mid-Day Squares
Being heard and seen is everything in a crowded space.
Mid-Day Squares selected their name so people understand they are perfect for a middle-of-the-day treat/snack.
Say you're just another chocolate? Likely won't stick.
They built a reality show to get eyeballs on the brand to stand out on social media.
There’s a backstory taking the audience behind the scenes around why their chocolate tastes so great.
They even have a scripted story supporting their chocolate creation process and a mini-documentary on the journey of their product flavors.
They even made a music video clapping back at Hershey's threatening to sue them, bringing awareness to the issue, and getting the community behind them.
Why all of this?
Because a beautifully photoshopped photo like Godiva’s won’t get the same attention and impact…
Good Content Pushes A Consistent Narrative That Fuels The Brand's Story
"Kraft was started by a human, and that human was similar to us. But now it's a big conglomerate, and you don't know who runs Kraft. We never want Mid-Day Squares to feel like that, even when we become a conglomerate, we want you to know us at every stage.” — Midday Squares
Mid-Day Squares has differentiated itself from legacy brands by embracing full transparency.
Their entire marketing content strategy revolves around amplifying and solidifying this narrative to strengthen their brand story.
The focus is on showing customers the raw, unfiltered reality of building a business.
Legal battles, production failures, business mistakes, warehouse break-ins - nothing is off-limits.
The three founders take turns, along with a videographer, documenting the ups and downs of their entrepreneurial journey on social media, presented as a reality series. This narrative is so integral to their content strategy that only 5-10% of their posts are product-focused.
All of this is to make consumers part of the business, build personal connections with the consumers, and make them feel like they are buying from friends/family/neighbors they can trust, not a faceless brand.
This approach is in contrast to Godiva's content, which focuses solely on the chocolate itself. There's no consistent narrative around the brand or the brand story that engages and resonates with the audience on an emotional level.
We have a whole video on the changes we made. We have nothing to hide.
To put this into practice, let's analyze another chocolate brand through the lens of this content diagram and identify where their good content resides.
Consider Foreverland, a chocolate-alternative brand.
Mission-Driven Content: Through content on both its site and social page, the brand excels at creating content that educates people about its brand mission of providing a more sustainable chocolate alternative.
Content with consistent narrative: Foreverland’s content lacks this consistent narrative thread. The content is spread across different topics, feels disjointed, and lacks a cohesive brand story that resonates with its audience.
Content that the audience wants to engage with: You can see Foreverland is testing out different content formats to identify what resonates most with their target audience, from behind-the-scenes stories and educational content to real-life events, they are exploring different approaches to engage their audience.
However, Foreverland has yet to find a content format that they can consistently commit to and build upon.
