Endangered Species Chocolate
Endangered Species Chocolate has been crafting premium chocolate for three decades. ESC is passionate about redeeming typical business practices into “doing good better,” which leaves a positive and lasting ripple in our wake.
Fair Trade Chocolate
Endangered Species Chocolate is a premium chocolate brand built on sustainable practices, sourcing fairtrade cocoa and giving back to protecting endangered species and their habitats. ESC partnered with us to better understand its customer’s motivations, ensure its marketing messages speak to its target customers, make needed marketing adjustments, and ultimately increase sales.
To understand the brand’s initial positioning, we investigated and audited Endangered Species Chocolate's marketing and targeting strategy. Through this research, we discovered a disconnect between consumers’ characteristics and their regular purchasing behaviors. Discovering this disconnect led to a more intensive analysis of personas and trends for chocolate consumers and then comparing those to market trends within the industry. Through this process, we formed five core consumer personas for ESC. Two of them proved large opportunities for immediate growth and the potential to capture greater market share, while the three other personas were identified as long-term growth areas with the potential for an increase in purchase and preference over the next five years.
Analysis in Action
These personas’ motivations for purchasing drove a new marketing strategy for ESC. While ESC’s mission is a factor in purchase decisions, the research uncovered that it is not the primary factor. Target customers for ESC were also found to enjoy engaging with brands online. We assisted ESC in adjusting its ESC brand strategy and efforts in a way to fit the ideal consumer journey.
With a focus on online brand engagement and sales, we built a rebrand for the organization. The rebrand included digital development and online engagement, paired with a new look and new packaging. Strategically placed content created increased engagement and brand success. A new media strategy for owned, earned, and paid media was created for ESC to pair with the rebrand and updated marketing to deepen brand connections and consumer preference and increase sales. Influencer marketing was leveraged as part of the online engagement strategy allowing ESC to expand its influence with its target personas.
Sweet Outcomes
As a result of its updated brand presence and marketing message, ESC saw increased engagement and purchase consideration from its targeted customers.
This new brand messaging ultimately led to increased sales and a 58 percent increase in website traffic. A targeted one-day sale partnership with Zulily as a result of persona research led to Zulily’s most successful chocolate sale ever. Since this project, ESC has continued to see success and exciting new partnerships with large-scale retailers, including Walmart.
