Divine Chocolate Fair Trade Marketing Communication Plan

Introduction: Divine Chocolate Limited

This paper presents a market communication plan for Divine Chocolate, a company that produces chocolates in support of cocoa farmers in Ghana and promotes Fair Trade. The paper includes an analysis of the company's business environment as well as a set of recommended strategies it can use to beat the competition and effectively communicate its marketing messages to the most promising target customers.

Divine Chocolate is one of the leading Fair Trade chocolate manufacturers in the United Kingdom and United States. In addition to producing high-quality chocolates, Divine Chocolate also aims to promote fair trade within the global community. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the company's current business and marketing strategies and proposes a market communication plan to help it better understand its target market, run more effective advertising and promotional campaigns, and compete against brands backed by lesser-known certification organizations.

The major focus of the paper is on identifying problems in the current marketing communication system and business strategies of the company, and then recommending a full-fledged market communication plan informed by the DAGMAR approach and relevant marketing strategies. The paper begins with a brief introduction to the company — its ownership history, former campaigns, products, packaging, and distribution strategies — and proceeds by highlighting its brand image, equity, market position, competition, and other aspects of its business environment. The DAGMAR approach is then used to recommend how Divine Chocolate can attract, convince, and ultimately guide consumers to purchase its products and support Fair Trade.

History, Ownership, and Former Campaigns

Divine Chocolate Limited is a leading Fair Trade chocolate manufacturer in the United Kingdom and United States. It was established in 1998 under a partnership agreement between Twin Trading and the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farmers' co-operative. Major investment in the formation of Divine Chocolate Limited came from Comic Relief, Christian Aid, and The Body Shop. Current ownership of Divine Chocolate rests with Kuapa Kokoo, Twin Trading, and Oikocredit. Divine Chocolate Limited is recognized as one of the pioneers in corporate social responsibility at the global level (Divine Chocolate 2013). The objective behind establishing the organization was to provide a regular and reliable Fair Trade income to the cocoa farmers of Ghana — one of the leading producers of cocoa in the world (Fair Trade Foundation 2006).

The concept of a regular Fair Trade income for farmers was drawn from the vision of Kuapa Kokoo, which was established as a farmers' collective association to encourage small farmers and women to participate in Fair Trade activities, improve cocoa cultivation practices, and contribute to the economic development of Ghana, which now exports the second-largest quantity of cocoa in world markets. The major stake in Divine Chocolate Limited is held by the cocoa farmers of the country, who are therefore major participants in the company's strategic plans and decision-making processes (Divine Chocolate 2013).

Products, Flavors, and Packaging

Divine Chocolate Limited manufactures dark and milk chocolates in a variety of flavor variations, including orange, ginger, vanilla, spicy, raspberry, strawberry, creamy, wafer, fruits and nuts, coffee milk chocolate, and white chocolate. In addition, it offers cocoa powder, baking bars, honeycomb chocolate, drinking chocolate, desserts, cakes, tea, and truffles. As part of its promotional offerings during special occasions such as Easter, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Hanukkah, Divine Chocolate manufactures specially flavored chocolates in multiple packaging styles and designs (Divine Chocolate 2013).

Distribution

Divine Chocolate products are available in all major supermarkets, department and retail stores, natural food stores, gift shops, Wild Oats markets, and other consumer goods outlets throughout the United Kingdom and United States (Divine Chocolate 2013). The company also promotes and sells its products online through its own website and SERRV International. In all its marketing and promotional efforts, Divine Chocolate uses pull strategies to actively engage its supply chain members in the promotion of its Fair Trade products (Reynolds 2010). It has also entered into collaborative arrangements with international distributors, retailers, and co-op supermarket chains. Starbucks is one of its major business partners, promoting and selling Divine Chocolate products throughout the United Kingdom and European countries (Batsell 2004).

Fair Trade Certification

Every product manufactured by Divine Chocolate Limited is certified under the Fair Trade system, which requires the company to manufacture its products in accordance with strict sustainability, environmental, labor, and ethical standards (Divine Chocolate 2013). Through these standards and auditing procedures, Fair Trade International maintains regular oversight of the manufacturing operations and capabilities of its associated business entities (Fair Trade Foundation 2006).

Brand Image

Divine Chocolate is a well-recognized brand in the confectionery industry of the United Kingdom and United States. Beyond producing high-quality chocolates and confectionery products, the company places equal emphasis on providing financial support and promoting the social well-being of the cocoa farmers of Ghana. Due to its popularity and Fair Trade International certification, Divine Chocolate products are recognized by their Fair Trade association — for example, Divine Fair Trade milk chocolate and Divine Fair Trade honeycomb chocolate. The company has developed its brand image in the global confectionery industry as a farmer-owned Fair Trade chocolate (Divine Chocolate 2013).

Brand Equity

The brand equity of Divine Chocolate is based on three major principles: fairness, quality, and social well-being. By obtaining Fair Trade certification and producing the highest quality confectionery items, Divine Chocolate aims to attract potential customers from its target markets in the most productive, competitive, and efficient way. It seeks to reach market leadership by winning the trust of its customers and the support of its owners — the cocoa farmers of Ghana. In addition to running its core business operations, Divine Chocolate holds and sponsors community-based events and campaigns at a national level (Reynolds 2010). One of its most recent events featured Dubble Agents in a campaign called Mission Possible — a large-scale initiative aimed at raising public awareness about Fair Trade products and their strategic benefits for the community and economy as a whole (Divine Chocolate 2013).

Relative Position in the Market Sector

Divine Chocolate manufactures some of the best-selling chocolates under Fair Trade certification. It is a global award-winning firm that equally emphasizes product quality and sustainability in order to keep its customers and stakeholders satisfied. At present, Divine Chocolate is the market leader in Fair Trade confectionery in the United Kingdom and United States. However, it faces direct competition from other industry participants due to the presence of various lesser-known standard and quality credentialing organizations.

These organizations grant credentials under relaxed standards, enabling unrecognized and lower-quality brands to obtain accreditations at reduced expense and without maintaining genuine quality standards. By providing rival certifications to these lower-quality brands as alternatives to Fair Trade certification, such organizations represent a significant threat to Divine Chocolate's identity as a truly socially, ethically, and environmentally conscious corporation (Ferrell & Hartline 2011).