Chocolate Business : ethics, passion and networking

~ CHOCOLATE BUSINESS ~

Even before they declared their independence from England, the American colonists were making chocolate. Americans love it, in all its forms. Chocolate makes part of their life and became a staple which benefit the famous firms that have become today Nestlé, Mondelés or Hershey’s. For these companies, the ultimate goal was to make profit from something successful. Fortunately, we met entrepreneurs like Robert Untiedt (Graham's fine chocolate & icecream) or even Michelle Adam’s (The Sugar Path) who just built their own success from their passion for chocolate and pleasure to please. Today, the chocolate industry is worth an estimated $110 billion a year. Nevertheless, these big companies and small shops who promote “home-made” have each one thing in common: cocoa!

From Cocoa to chocolate, and from poverty to profit, the supply chain knows today some complications, what are they? How to fight them? What are the different networking strategies between Robert and Michelle? At last, what is the best way that businesses can help each other? These are things that I learnt in Geneva and that I want to share with you today.

In reality, the chocolate supply chain meets today 3 problems.

  CHILD LABOR

For starters, the cocoa necessary for the manufacturing of chocolate in factories is mainly harvested In Africa. The problem is that, to look no further than Ivory Coast and Ghana, 1.5 million children are working in plantation. It goes against ethics and is totally forbidden. The grand Nestlé has been for example cited. Purchasers of chocolate from Nestle, The Hershey Co. and Mars Inc. have filed three class-actionlawsuits against the food companies for allegedly using child labor in the production of their best-selling chocolate candy, including Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kat, Twix, MilkyWay, Butterfinger, BabyRuth, M&Ms and many others, according to Hagens Berman. By this way, they are losing their value, their credibility, and their reputation. Such a bad brand image is communicated because of this. They have responsibilities, now they are trying to stop the child labor and help the African’s workers. With the 11 Billion Swiss francs that earn Nestlé every year, they could put more of the corporate money on education, new school, build roads…

  CUSTOMER EXPACTATIONS ARE CHANGING

Moreover, these big companies will have to meet customer’s expectations. People are nowadays awarded of the child labor’s practice and don’t want to be ashamed, eating some cookies or chocolate. People are more and more encouraging the fair-trade and choosing chocolate that lists the country of cocoa bean origin. On top of that, citizens are more and more careful with their health: they don’t want preservatives and artificial ingredients anymore, they want a pure taste. “The global chocolate is in a time of change”. Solutions today are to promote fair-trade, benefit farm facilities and communities.

  COCOA CRISIS

Furthermore, the upcoming problem for the Chocolate’s market at this time is the cocoa crisis, which is arriving in West Africa, due to the unsustainable farming practices, the climate changes and the Ebola’s virus. In a time were chocolate demand is strong and increasing, were the quality is essential, and the way of producing crucial,  the best way to resolve all that problems would be to invest in South Africa, Latin America, Ecuador, Peru or Colombia.

Linking all these information, I can now much better understand why little shops and “home-made” have more success from day to day. There is just no way to compare the way they select their cocoa, their process, their workers, their ethics, their mind, their product and their quality. Now, let’s talk about how Robert and Michelle make a difference (ambitions and networking strategies).

  COMMUNITY AND WORD OF MOUTH

Robert and Michelle have respectively created their shops by a passion been born from their childhood. Indeed, while Robert was growing in his mum’s bakery and sold home maid “kool aid” in streets at the age of seven, Michelle and her sisters helped their fathers in his farm and tested recipes with their Italian mother who loved to cook. By this way, for them the first word associated with “cook” was “family”; and, their dream coming true little by little, “family” became “community”. The main purpose for each of them was to grow like they wanted to: don’t do something big, but do it with quality and good product in a community’s spirit. So, they choose Geneva which is more peaceful than downtown and allow them to keep a family atmosphere. They try to be connected with their customers, everybody know them and come into their bakery with more than the pleasure to buy, but the one of share and live. Thus, every people who leave, talk about their chocolate, their pastries, and bring them new customers. That is how their businesses started and is running today: networking by word of mouth. They really don’t care about not being downtown, they did what they wanted and succeeded. Moreover their concept permits them to make the difference and to be at least equally successful than a well-known bakery for example In the Michigan Avenue! (Trip advisor gave them a 4,8 out of 5 raking!!). The difference that we can note between Michelle and Robert at their beginning is that Michelle started her business in Farmers market and salon, there is where she met her first future clients. None the less, both of them knew an immediate success as soon as their shops opened.

  GIVE ANG GET

As their concept is much more about community than business, their strategies to get more customers and notoriety (in addition to word of mouth) are not to use the press or other Medias. They get involved in citizens life, their devise is: “Give, and what you get back will be even more”. In one hand, they are giving their help. For Michelle, it is more  about school donations. It is really important for her to volunteer and know to be generous, as it is for Robert. He is more involved in donation to organizations and to churches. He said: “Stay connected tightly with people works better than newspaper.” On the other hand, they are involved in events. Robert and his team know how to advertise themselves and donate at the same time. For example, they organized the event “Graham’s sundae 5K run and walk” this August 16, it permitted them to gather their community, but also to gain more customers and donate to the Mikey Wunderlich foundation. They can also volunteering in events and represent Graham’s with a simple tee-shirt. Moreover, both Michelle and Robert are proposing their high-quality service for weddings. It will make parties pretty much amazing but will also benefit to them as hundreds of people will taste their pastries/ chocolate, will want to know where they are coming from, and place an order for them.

   GET SOCIAL

With the emergence of social network, be present in it is not part of a choice. It is the best way to communicate on your concept without paying. Graham’s and Sugarpath have a Facebook page but are also active on Instagram andTwitter. Michelle tells us that they are good deal to advertise businesses for free and grow up more. To increase their sales, they also have their own internet page. It presents their history, their products, but permits also to contact them and to order online, isn’t that beautiful?? Finally, you can share Robert’s passion threw little videos that explain some of his recipes.

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BUSINESSES HELP EACH OTHER

In the United States, it is rare when businesses don’t help each other. Indeed, If Michelle could start her career it is thanks to a lady working in a restaurant who accepted to LEND her during the night, her restaurant’s kitchen. Then, this same generous soul, proposed her to sell some pastries she made, to help her at the beginning.  Michelle explained us, like Robert, that in business, it is really important to have a mentor. They advice you, they get you your the first relationships, and they know that you will do the same one way or another. This woman was thus, Michelle’s mentor and there are still in relation today.  It is primordial to allow people to learn, like during internships. Moreover Businesses  should share their experiences and expertise so they can improve their products and their services, becoming together the best’s ones. Partnerships and sharing is stronger than war and competition.

Get more informations and order online :

http://www.grahamschocolate.com/

http://www.thesugarpath.com/