TSS1
Sam@98&
Task1Scenario.docxThe Scenario
Maria Garcia was born in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica, where she worked on her family’s cacao farm. Maria worked on all aspects of the farm, from planting trees and harvesting the cacao pods by hand to managing the tempering process and, eventually, the overall business. Maria and her family believe that the Garcia Cacao Farm is a wonder of nature. The cacao trees nurture the surrounding environment providing shelter to the howler monkeys, sloths, and a variety of animals and nature, not to mention creating a thriving community. On this farm, Maria learned the value of hard work and the importance of treating families who work on the farm and the land with care and respect.
After attending business school in the United States and serving an apprenticeship with a chocolatier in France, Maria decided that it was time to take her family's wonderous cacao and make her own artisan chocolate. With the support of her family, Maria opened Octava Maravilla Company (OMC), which translates to mean eighth wonder chocolate, in Costa Rica and the United States. Like the farm Maria grew up on, the vision for OMC is to help people find joy in unexpected ways.
In the first year, OMC focused on developing signature chocolate bars: ChocoLuxe Dark and ChocoLuxe Milk. In keeping with its appreciation of nature, OMC collects cacao bean shells and fallen leaves to make the paper for its bars. The packaging is made of paper which is 80% cacao products.
After seven successful years of growing OMC year over year, the business currently sells its chocolate bars online, in its flagship shops in Miami, Florida, and Escazu, Costa Rica, and in small artisan shops both in Costa Rica and the United States, using the packaging and promotional activities that were established when the business first began. OMC is pleased with its brand guidelines and believes that following the parameters in the brand guide should help OMC realize two important goals: building awareness and communicating in ways that reach and resonate with the target audience.
Product Portfolio
ChocoLuxe - Dark Chocolate Bar 3 oz.
ChocoLuxe - Milk Chocolate Bars 3 oz.
Campaign Challenges
As OMC considers the future, it needs to address two challenges:
1. Revisit the communication and marketing initiatives used to build awareness through engagement and storytelling, including reviewing the marketing campaign budget and how it is allocated.
2. Determine the ideal package design based on the overall marketing communication strategy and brand positioning.
To address the first challenge, OMC has partnered with a design agency to consider options, using a creative brief to ensure that the options support the brand and will allow OMC to connect with more like-minded consumers who appreciate quality, sustainably sourced gourmet chocolate and the stories of those producing these artisanal products.
To address the first challenge, OMC will take a hard look at its budget and the communication channels it uses, including website updates and maintenance, email marketing, social media advertising, events, and options to influence purchase decisions and brand awareness while customers are in stores, as well as any new activities when finalizing the upcoming budget.
To address the second challenge, OMC will take a good look at its current packaging and consider some possible options using a creative brief to ensure that any considered options support the brand and will allow OMC to connect with more like-minded consumers who appreciate quality, sustainably sourced gourmet chocolate and the stories of those producing these artisanal products.
Campaign Budget
OMC devotes 10% of its gross revenue of $1 million to integrated marketing communications efforts. These efforts include a variety of tactics, including the subset of initiatives listed below, which includes the estimated costs for each tactic, activity, and/or channel. As noted in the campaign challenges section, this campaign budget is under review to ensure the most effective and efficient allocation of dollars to reach the target audience.
|
Marketing Communication Channels and Activities |
Budget Allocation |
|
Email Marketing |
$2,000 |
|
Paid TikTok Advertising |
$4,000 |
|
|
$1,000 |
|
|
$3,000 |
|
|
$3,000 |
|
Farmers’ Markets/Festivals |
$4,000 |
|
Website |
$2,000 |
|
In-Store Merchandising |
$1,000 |
|
Package Redesign |
$5,000 |
|
Total |
$25,000 |
Current ChocoLuxe Packaging Design
Image 1: Current Chocoluxe Gourmet Dark Chocolate bar wrapper.
Brand Style Guidelines
Vision
Octava Maravilla Company (OMC) aspires to help people find joy in unexpected ways.
Mission
Octava Maravilla Company exists to serve, make people happy, and improve the quality of life in big and small ways.
Logo
Image 1 ChocoLuxe Gourmet Dark Chocolate Bar Logo
Color Palette
Image 2: Color palette for OMC's brand.
Audience
Chocolate connoisseurs are people who enjoy and appreciate fine chocolate. The core fine chocolate consumer is younger and more affluent, but more than anything, they are environmentally and socially conscious. Fine chocolate consumers are more likely to:
· be millennials who appreciate:
· honesty and authenticity
· helpful, relevant, and informative content
· opportunities to get involved and contribute
· live in urban areas
· earn above-average incomes
· spend above-average money on groceries
· like a mix of dark, milk, and white chocolate versus preferring one over another
· believe the cacao percentage is important and lean toward the higher cacao percentages
· have an outright preference for specific cacao sourcing regions, leaning toward South and Central America
· be socially and environmentally engaged, over-indexing for the importance of fair labor practices, traceability, transparency, organic, non-GMO, and waste/water/energy reduction
· be willing to pay a price differential for these types of certifications
· shop online at specialty chocolate and candy stores as well as buy chocolate at festivals and farmers’ markets
· have an above-average appreciation for chocolate made in the Americas
Personality
OMC is a cheerful champion for escapism. We enjoy simple elegance. We’re positive. We seek approachable sophistication. We avoid stress and drama. We are artists, focused, and passionate. We accept continual progress along the path to perfection.
· We’re honest, and sometimes inconveniently so, but we’re never tone deaf.
· We know when to speak and when to listen.
· We’re sometimes silly, but only when pointing out what’s true.
· We never exaggerate. Reality is plenty weird on its own.
· We’re tireless with high standards.
· We’re empathetic to the pressures people live with every day.
· We’re curious about everything and are constantly verifying things on our phones.
· We love fun facts.
· We’re neat and clean, even in the kitchen.
· We’re good at finding the silver lining.
Tone of Voice
Our tone is positive, persuasive, and straightforward. We walk the line between informal and formal and will always choose clear and succinct.
We are experts at what we do. We convey our expertise by infusing conversations and collateral with helpful tidbits, interesting facts, and useful information. We are genuine in our communications and plainspoken.
When we write and we speak, we want others to feel like they’ve been heard, that what they say matters, and that we’ve taken them seriously. When others speak, we listen to their words, seeking understanding. We want anyone to feel comfortable bringing their problems to us, and confident that we will never pass judgment, because we won’t. We choose our words deliberately and will never shout, unless it is to let someone know they dropped their chocolate.
Product-Specific Word Use
Our company is called Octava Maravilla Company, OMC after first use.
Our name can be abbreviated on social as OMC.
Our product line includes ChocoLuxe Dark (dark bar) and ChocoLuxe Milk (milk bar).
Market Research [footnoteRef:1] [1: “Social Media Fact Sheet.” 11 Jan. 2022. Pew Research Center: Internet, science & tech. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/ ]
Image 3. Chart showing data for social use by age.
Image 4. Chart showing data for social use by individual income.
Image 5. Chart showing data for social use by location.
