Mark Palmer, Green & Black’s Global Brand Director, has been talking to Paul Gallagher, Freelance Journalist about how he helped turn Green & Black’s chocolate from a niche product into an international phenomenon.
Green & Black’s has come a long way since its inception in 1991 by the journalist Josephine Fairley and her partner Craig Sams, an organic foods specialist. The pair were inspired by the taste of the cocoa they savoured on a holiday in Belize. Fairley, a chocoholic, frequently returned from foreign assignments to complain that the dark chocolate she found in other countries was nowhere to be found in the UK. Green & Black’s was soon born.
Mark joined the company in 2001 when he moved from Burger King to become marketing director. At the time, Burger King’s turnover dwarfed Green & Black’s so many people may have questioned his decision to switch companies. But Mark had no doubts, knowing a move to a young, entrepreneurial company, would reap dividends.
“My advice to anyone is to work in a business where you can control your own destiny, somewhere you can be accountable and have an influence. That may involve downsizing companies, like I did, and it’s a real challenge for anyone, but you’ll never look back.”
Mark’s initial two years at Green & Black’s were spent working on a major brand positioning, moving from the chocolate company’s niche of its organic roots to a serious player in the premium confectionary market. By 2004, Green & Black’s turnover had jumped from £4.5m to £20m. His team’s efforts were extraordinary and the hard work was paying off.
As Mark explains: “We didn’t have the advertising budget in the early days so we had to take a long hard look at the product and ask ourselves whether it was as good as it could possibly be. I’d suggest that to every company.
“Many companies think throwing money at something, or having a decent marketing budget, is a short cut to success, but that’s a common mistake. There’s nothing wrong with spending money, but it’s important how you spend it. Ultimately, as with anything, it’s the quality of the product that drives everything. There’s no point in marketing something if it’s inferior.
“We spent a long time studying our target market and basically spent two years almost stalking customer groups. The ‘time poor, food rich group’ was particularly important to us. We wanted to know where these people shop, what they buy, which newspapers do they read. Everyone needs a robust case study.”
Focus groups were vital for Mark in getting public feedback. One early challenge was explaining what “organic” meant as it featured so prominently on the packaging. He also discovered many people didn’t like the packaging and that it was giving off the wrong image.
“We wanted to be known as an affordable luxury. People wanted fancy chocolates without the intimidation of going into a fancy shop so we adapted our packaging to reflect that.”
At the focus groups, some people didn’t even want to put it in their mouths confirming Mark’s idea that a great product was being presented in totally the wrong way. The decision was made to take the chocolate out of the organic aisles and place it among mainstream chocolate to compete on its own.
Good PRÂ helped, with an Observer Food Monthly cover story in May 2006 entitled “How a Green & Black’s chocolate bar rescued the families of Belize from ruin” confirming the company’s stance on ethics and sustainability. This was emphasised when Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate became the first product in the UK to carry the fair trade logo.
Observer Food also gave away sample chocolate bars – something it had never done before. That year’s Green & Black’s Easter campaign ran with the slogan “disappoint the kids this Easter”. It was a brave move. But Green & Black’s were not prepared to target consumer groups who did not fit their model and reaped the rewards.
As sales improved, Green & Black’s were in a better position to invest heavily in sampling. In recent years, the company has given away more than five and a half million chocolate bars. “If we have a distinctive taste, then people need to have a chance to try it,” says Mark.
Sampling became a far more powerful tool than advertising.
In 2006, the Independent raved about “the greatest marketing triumph in recent years”. Green & Black’s had “come from nowhere to be the chocolate of choice on the office tea run”.
It took a long time to get there, as Mark, now Global Brand Director overseeing expansion into the USA, New Zealand and Japan, acknowledges: “It took us 7-8 years to get to the level we are at today. We have had a few products that didn’t work out but when we do something new, we try to do it on a small scale so if there are problems, we haven’t lost much time and money on them. So don’t invest too much on a new product, start slow before you build up.”
Today, not only Green & Black’s chocolate bars, but also ice creams, hot drinks, gift chocolates and biscuits, can be found in a wide range of supermarkets, delicatessens, from Harrods to health food stores and sandwich stores such as Pret a Manger, whose founder, Julian Metcalf, Mark considers a business mentor.
“He didn’t spend any money on advertising either so he was a great example of how to build a brand without a big budget. They used their own packaging to optimise their product, just as we then tried to do at Green & Black’s.
“Julian called us one day years ago and, because of the manner of our receptionist who didn’t even know who it was, ended up asking us to sell our chocolate bars in 180 of his stores around the country. So it’s vital to make the first point of contact as good as possible as you never know who might be calling.”
This interview and article was commissioned by Inside Business and is copyright protected.
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