Food Processing - April 2008 - (Page 23)

C o n s u m e r Ta s T e T e s T into their mouth while working at the computer or driving kids to soccer practice. The recloseable (somewhat melt-preventing) packaging also is a plus. Indulgence plus health: Pleasure is important as one form of stress relief. Certain nutrients and other ingredients might supply health benefits. If you can get both in one product, this is not only indulgence and health but convenience, too! The type of chocolate in this product is the indulgent form we recognize from Godiva. The creative use of small spheres allows one to eat the product in a way that indulges. You can’t really eat these like a bar of chocolate – you are forced to suck and lick and savor the experience. Before you know it, it’s taken you several minutes to enjoy your suggested serving of eight pieces. Premiumness: Small portions are integral to premiumness in order to remind us to savor the food. The shape says take a moment. And the idea of a sophisticated brown tin which is rounded and fits easily in your pocket, purse, or hand allows you to take this product with you, drop one round pearl in your mouth (just 3 calories!) and get the rich, premium taste of chocolate in your mouth with limited sin. This is not a kids’ product – this is made for the adult or informed teen who wants to have some chocolate but wants the elegance of the package, taste and accessibility that Godiva Chocoiste has created. The experience Godiva Chocoiste Pearls are available in 1.5-oz. metal boxes for about $2.99. In addition to milk chocolate, they come in dark chocolate and dark chocolate with mint. The metal tins, in Godiva’s signature rich copper color, are available individually and in multipacks of single or assorted flavors. Inside you find chocolate “pearls” slightly larger than a pea. The sheen on them is a clever way to keep the chocolate pearls from melting into each other. Aroma is very faint. What you experience when placing one piece in your mouth is a layering of chocolate – the blend of sweet, very faint bitter, with vanilla and chocolate aromas coming from inside your mouth. It is very easy to eat, since it does not need to be chewed but rather melts – and that helps transform the experience. Tasters found the chocolate to be “really creamy,” “rich” and “very indulgent-tasting.” While some thought the small size was appropriate, others felt they were too small to be satisfying and “get the chocolate flavor I want.” One suggested if they were slightly bigger, that a single pearl would be sufficient to quell a craving (we suggested eating two of the current size, slowly). In fact, most did not consume the entire box in a single sitting. Most also loved the box and felt it helped make the product worth the price. When we first discovered this product, the nutrition facts printed on the clear shrink wrap around the container indicated the serving size was the entire tin and contained about 220 calories. Subsequent purchases of the product revealed a change in this information. While the container size and calorie count www.foodprocessing.com hasn’t changed, the nutrition facts now indicate the box contains eight servings at 25 calories each. We feel as though we were given permission to eat the entire container, and then that permission was taken away by the change in packaging. Why? If this is a nod to the current trend of 100-calorie packaging, then we’re glad Godiva chose not to highlight this anywhere on the package – we feel it would somehow cheapen the image. Interestingly, no one commented on the caloric content of this product. When asked how many calories they thought the whole package might contain, tasters guessed as much as double the actual amount. When we told them the whole box was 220 calories, they felt the calorie count was a bargain. “That’s it for Godiva chocolate, seriously?” said one. Does the product deliver? Absolutely! Everyone who already loves Godiva and chocolate was impressed with everything about this product. Even our lone taster who does not care for chocolate raved about it. Godiva promises that with this product “decadence goes mobile.” Chocolate lovers don’t have to wait to enjoy a premium experience. They can just pop one or two in their mouth while driving, working or whatever. How to make the idea bigger: Offer larger packages so consumers can refill the container. Tasters were inclined to want to “save the pretty box for anything I might want to carry in my purse.” This would be a play on sustainability and would allow us to have our “own” tin. Picking up on the shape and the texture and what it drove in our mouths, maybe Godiva could go beyond the chocolate pearls to other small candy-coated chocolates, mints or even medication. The shape so changed what many did with their mouth and tongue that it had us imagining. Another opportunity might be to increase the availability of the product. Besides Godiva stores, we were only able to find them at the checkout and coffee stands in bookstores and at newsstands at the airport. While offering it in the current channels may be in keeping with the brand image, there may be advantages to making the product more accessible. Especially for those who view the product as “too fancy for me.” Rating: Excellent. The absolute shock and awe expressed by our tasters at merely being asked to sample this product, even before tasting it, says volumes. Market potential: Great! Indulgence can be both convenient and special at the same time. Putting this premium experience in a portion-controlled package that does not announce to the world you are watching your calories is a game-changer on multiple levels. Watch this one being adapted by others. Hollis Ashman and Jacqueline Beckley are principals and Jennifer Vahalik a project manager of the Understanding & Insight Group, a strategy and product development firm that connects with consumers using qualitative and quantitative approaches. See www.theuandigroup.com. ApriL 2008 food processing • 23 http://www.theuandigroup.com http://www.foodprocessing.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Food Processing - April 2008

Food Processing - April 2008 Contents Editor's Plate NewsBites The Trends Rollout Food Biz Kids Consumer Taste Test - Indulgent, Superpremium Chocolate...at 3 Calories a Pop Cover Story - Annual Capital Spending Report - To Build or Not to Build? Ingredients - Trendy Fruits, Nuts and Vegetables Plant Operations - iPlant: Assessing the State of Automation Plant Operations - Your Sanitation Can Be Greener Packaging - For Which Oven? MRO Q&A New Supplier Products Toops Scoops

Food Processing - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.