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Case memo on Montreaux Chocolate USA: Are Americans Ready for Healthy Dark Chocolate?

Problem Definition:David Raymond, a marketing director in the new marketing division committed to achieving the
following goals by year-end 2015:
(i)
National distribution of the new montreaux product line
(ii)
$115 million annual sales
(iii)
Be in the top 25 in revenue (0.60% market share).

Analysis of alternatives: Segmentation through (i) Mass market (ii) Premium market (a) Affordable luxury (b)
upscale premium (c) Super premium.
Targeting to (i) Age - 45-64 in USA (ii) Gender Men & Women (57% Females &
43% males are daily chocolate eaters.) (iii) having income $ 50,000 & above (College
educated , Married with children)
Positioning by showing benefit like reducing chances of high cholesterol and provide
cardio vascular benefit & product like dark Chocolate having 70% Cocoa with
additional natural fruit ingredients.
By adopting Nielsens 12 new product success factor.
A possible hindrance to their achievability could be number of competitors and the
rate of new product introduction.
Recommendations:These goals can be achieved by Apollo as Apollo has revenue of $54.4 billion in 2011 and
net income of $3.5 billion and acquired the number two position in the Global market with a
share of 15.4%.The US confectionary market has a total revenue of $35.648 billion in 2011
with a 2.8% growth rate between 2007 to 2011.The revenue for chocolates in this
confectionary market has increased 30% from 2007 to 2010. The US chocolate market is
expected to grow at 2% by 2015.
To create a market of a European chocolate which leads the global market share of
confectionary market and is 2nd in the global market with 33.2% has to be done keeping in
mind the European culture rather than branding it as a complete American product. People
know Apollo mainly because of gums and candies and with this only it ranks number 2 in
global confectionary business. Hence this decision of Apollo to collaborate with the Swiss
company would be fruitful. Also Apollo in the past 3 yrs has innovated 70 new products and
all have been successful so there is a strong brand value that Apollo carries with it which
would be beneficial. Since the consumers in US focus on fitness and health which has been
sharpened in the last three decades, Apollo have an upper hand in launching the montreaux
dark chocolate as it is low in calorie and as it has more of cocoa content. Seeing the U.S
chocolate market trends in 2011 which includes low calorie options, dark chocolates sales
benefiting from flavones etc. would be beneficial in achieving their goals. Also since they
have analyzed the U.S market so well regarding the dark chocolates lovers they can achieve
their goals very easily.

Submitted by Mr. Anil Kumar, Roll No MP13009, BME 2013-16

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