A Brief Analysis of the European Chocolate market

[Abstract：Recently，the chocolate market is growing fast in western market.As the conventional chocolate has fulfilled the basic need of the consumer，they concerned more about the other factors such as product quality，environmental problems and health.The article will take the Green&Blacks as a example to give a breif analysis of the European Chocolate market.

Key words：Green&Black；chocolate；European Chocolate marke]

In the past years，the chocolate market is growing fast in western market.Compare to the conventional chocolate market，the new market organic and fair-trade is getting an advantage position in the future since the organic and fair-trade market is growing fast in the Europe market.

Obviously，Green & Blacks Chocolate has achieved good reputation and great business success in UK organic chocolate market.In the long run，however，in order to maintain and enhance the brand of Green & Blacks，it is essential to set up strategies which is based on the both strengths and weaknesses of this company.

Strategy I： Keeping Existing Market

To maintain the existing market share by guarantee the organic product quality：

Although there was a shareholders change in 2010 because the Cadbury Plc was acquired by Kraft Food Inc who became the wholly owner of Green & Blacks，fortunately，manage teams were kept unchanged.In the meantime，the continuous investment on the social infrastructure of cocoa source area in Belize and the Dominican Republic makes sure the sufficient supply and quality of organic material.As a company with a quality focus，both of above two aspects could guarantee the ethical principle of company and original taste of its organic chocolate.In this aspect，it could keep the loyalty and trust of customers in future and abstract them continuous consuming on this brand.It is mainly because consistent quality stimulates consumers repeat consumption.（Solomon，Marshall，Stuart，Mitchell & Barnes，2009）

Strategy II： Marketing development

To make a positive promotion strategy & marketing communication：

Green & Blacks was the first Fair Trade manufacturer in the UK chocolate market.Nevertheless，it was followed by some competitors such as Divine Chocolate soon.Even though Green & Blacks hold the unique advantage on organic material，it became tiny because of super-premium price positioning of Divine.（Doherty and Tranchell，2005）.In Figure 1，the prices of Green & Blacks 70% dark chocolate is a quarter higher than Divines.It suggests that Green & Blacks has to make a positive marketing communication strategy if to maintain its strong position in Fair Trade chocolate market.The current market of Green & Blacks were concentrated in the UK，Germany and the North America，which is mainly based on the mature cognition on organic food.However，to develop potential market in the other areas should be taken into consideration.Take Asian market for instance，the demand of organic products is growing significantly in China and Japan etc.in which the processed organic foods depend on import in this market.（Wright，S.& McCrea，D.2007）.It would be profitable to develop international reputation of Green & Blacks organic chocolate brand in these new markets.Kraft Foods Inc，as a giant in the international confectionery industry，has built up distribution channels and processed enough experience on oversea market expansion.It could help Green & Blacks to set up international brand reputation along with strong financial support of Kraft.

References

[1]Sahota，A.，‘The International Market for Organic and Fair Trade Food and Drink，in Wright，S.& McCrea，D.（eds.） The Handbook of Organic and Fair Trade Food Marketing.Oxford： Blackwell Publishing Ltd，pp，2007：1-28.

[2]Doherty，B.and Tranchell，S.，‘New Thinking in International Trade？A Case Study of The Day Chocolate Company，Sustainable Development，Sust.Dev.13，pp.166–176 Published online in Wiley InterScience （www.interscience.wiley.com），2005.DOI： 10.1002/sd.273

[3]Solomon，M.，Marshall，G.，Stuart，E.，Mitchell，V.& Barnes，B.，Marketing： Real People，Real Decisions 1st European ed.Essex： Pearson Education Limited，2009.

[4]Sainsburys Supermarket Web.Available at： http：//www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp？bmUID=1320463247546 andhttp：//www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp？bmUID=1320463210644 （Accessed： 5 November 2011）.

作者簡介

楊琇嵐（1988—），女，漢族，籍貫：四川省涼山州西昌市；單位：西昌學院經濟管理學院；研究方向：管理學。