8 December 2016 337 words, 2 min. read

A roll to spread chocolate : really a good idea?

By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab PhD in marketing, director of IntoTheMinds
One at food fair SIAL 2016 featured inovations was a “choco roll”. this product had been selected for its innovative packaging. In light of the debate on the failure rate of innovations in the food sector, we paid a visit […]

One at food fair SIAL 2016 featured inovations was a “choco roll”.
this product had been selected for its innovative packaging. In light of the debate on the failure rate of innovations in the food sector, we paid a visit to the Israeli company that brought it on the market.

The idea behind the “chocolate spread revolution”

The company which presented this product at SIAL was “choco roll”. The roll was filled with chocolate made by Ornat, a known israeli brand.
Choco roll claimed to bring a “chocolate spread revolution” on the market in 2017 (this innovation was only at the prototype stage). Where was such a revolution coming from in the mind of its conceptors ?
Everything stems in fact from a good value proposition : with the choco roll children will eat less bad things because the quantity spread is lower. We will discuss afterwards whether this value proposition make sense.

Technical challenge

To make this value proposition true, one technical challenge had to be solved : how to make a chocolate paste that can be rolled over ? This was essentially a viscosity problem which led to eliminating palm oil (which increases viscosity and, as everyone know, has serious health-related drawbacks).
The protoypes which we tested enable the use of 7g of chocolate instead of 37g when the chocolate paste is applied with a knife or a spoon.

Will it be a success?

We seriously doubt this product can be a success on the market. The chocolate roll offers to rationnalize the use of chocolate whereas consumers probably don’t think of chocolate paste consumption as an problem of quantity. Rather, chocolate paste consumption is an hedonist experience that probably relies on the quantity spread over your bread. Honestly, will you take the same please eating your bread if you reduce the quantity of chocolate five fold ?
This is the main weak point of the choco roll marketing strategy. It opposes hedonism and rationalism. Life is already difficult enough and consumers will certainly not easily exchange their pleasure for tiny savings.



Posted in Innovation, Marketing.

Post your opinion

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *