Marketing Organic Chocolate Bars the

Marketing Organic Chocolate Bars The selected new product for development is a line of organic chocolate candy bars which will be branded under the name Everyday. The organic chocolate market currently totals $70.8 million, just a small fraction of the overall chocolate market which is about $6 billion in the United States alone (Organic chocolate booming in U.S.). Given that sales of organic foods will increase by 71% from 2006 to 2011 (Knudson, 2007), the growth prospects for organic chocolate should be equally promising.

Rather than establishing a high-end brand like other organic candy companies such as Dagoba, Green & Black, Lake Champlain, Chocolove and Newman's Own, this organic chocolate product line will try to serve as a similar product to popular non-organic candy bars. Therefore, Everyday candy bar types will mimic America's leading selling candy bars, Snickers, Hershey's Chocolate, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and M&M's, (Beirne, 2006).

Our company will position the product line as a healthier alternative to popular candy bars, offering the same favorite flavors and providing more affordability and channel ubiquity than current organic substitutes. The overall goal is to increase the number of consumers who embrace organic chocolates and to also increase the frequency of purchases of organic chocolates. With its lower price than high-end organic brands and similarity to popular candy bars, Everyday should command share similar to the larger chocolate market than the present niche market for organic chocolate.

Everyday's mission is to ensure that all foods, including widely consumed candy bars, are healthy, nutritious, desirable and affordable. As such, Everyday will provide organic candy bars made entirely of natural ingredients that are free of artificial fertilizes and pesticides, and that offer the same types of options as leading non-organic candy bars for only a slightly greater price. Our strategy to achieve Everyday's mission and objectives is to focus on product, price, place and promotion. Product: Like our organic competitors, all products will be made with natural ingredients.

However, unlike the competition, candy bar types will mimic America's leading selling candy bars, Snickers, Hershey's Chocolate, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and M&M's, (Beirne, 2006). Price: To increase affordability, price will be $1.75, a point midway between non-organic candy bars which sell for approximately $.75 and high-end organic candy bars which sell from between $2.50 to $4.00. Place: Given lower margins, greater distribution will be key to the product's success. This new product line will embrace the high-end and specialty food stores that organic chocolate companies currently focus on.

However, unlike other organic chocolate products, Everyday will also seek out ubiquity in supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandisers such as Wal-Mart to acknowledge that buyers of organic food products are price conscious (Knudson, 2007). Promotion: Promotion will focus heavily on retail channels that are key to the product's success. A large presence in these channels is required to compensate for lower margins than other organic chocolate competitors.

Competitive Advantage: In most organic food categories, organic foods are similar to non-organic foods with the exception of all natural ingredients and growth techniques. We feel that competitors such as Dagoba, Green & Black, Lake Champlain, Chocolove and Newman's Own have really missed the boat by developing entirely new designer flavors. While organic foods are priced higher than non-organic foods, organic candy bar makers have tripled or quadrupled the price of a regular candy bar, making the price out of reach for many consumers.

Thus, Everyday is about duplicating existing non-organic options at a more reasonable price point. Integrated Marketing Communications is a term used to describe a holistic approach to marketing and considers the relevance of advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, publicity/public relations and personal selling to ensure consistent and effective messages to the consumer. Advertising is the paid communication through which relevant information about the product is conveyed to potential consumers via print, online, radio, or television mediums.

Neff (2009) reveals many interesting research results about the effectiveness of advertising and specific mediums. Although expensive and there is increasing clutter, 22% of word-of-mouth conversations are generated directly by advertising. These 22% are much more likely to include brand recommendations than the remaining.