Green and Black's

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 4

2 Critical Success Factors (CSF) 4

2.1 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) 4

2.2 Product - the Balance between Taste and Principles 4

2.3 Promotion 5

2.4 Price 6

2.5 Place 6

3 Strategy 7

3.1 Co-operation with Friends of the Earth 7

3.2 Internationalisation 8

3.3 Social Media 8

4 Conclusion 9

Abbreviations

4Ps Product, Place, Price, Promotion

CSF Critical Success Factors

CSR Corporate Social Responsibility

G&B's Green & Black's

PR Public Relations

1 Introduction

G&B's is a premium organic chocolate producer which started off in London in 1991 when Craig Sams created the world's first organic chocolate. 'Green' in the name stands for the strict organic principles the organisation employs and 'black' stands for the intensity of its chocolate and the iconic style of the brand. The company claims that its chocolates give a taste experience like no other chocolate product (Green & Black's, n.d.c).

In this paper we explain why the organisation has been so successful by pointing out their critical success factors. We also propose a three-year strategy which should help them to maintain and also enhance their brand.

2 Critical Success Factors (CSF)

In this chapter we explain why G&B's has been so successful in its years of operations. We found out that G&B's has a lot of CSFs and we will investigate them by looking at the most important ones separately. Firstly, we will discuss CSR as we think that being socially responsible gives G&B's a major competitive advantage. We then investigate the other CSFs by going into detail using the 4Ps.

2.1 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

G&B's is following a great set of standards (see Appendix) (Green and Black's, n.d.d) including e.g. human rights and labour standards. These online-published standards indicate that the company values its employees, the environment and also its customers. As brand chocolate manufacturers have been accused of child and bonded labour in recent years (Roberts, 2003) it seems to be of particular importance to mention that G&B's puts a lot of effort into CSR. Turban and Greening (1997, cited by Roberts, 2003) also state that potential employees prefer to work in an organisation that is highly rated in terms of CSR. Being socially responsible will reflect positively upon organisations and therefore enhance their reputation (Blowfield, 2000).

2.2 Product - the Balance between Taste and Principles

G&B's is always searching for ways to reduce its impact on the environment. For example at G&B's they are using 100% recyclable materials where possible, using resource efficient light-weight materials and water based ink for their packaging (Green & Black's, n.d.a).

One of G&B's key strengths, though, is that all of its products are organic. At G&B's (n.d.a) they stress that their ingredients are all naturally grown and that there are no artificial fertilizers or pesticides used for growing the cocoa. G&B's uses only the finest cocoa beans and puts a lot of time into stirring the chocolate to bring out the distinct flavour that has become its trademark (Green & Black's, n.d.a).

Another aspect that draws positive attention to the organisation is that all of their products are Fairtrade® certified since 2011 (Smithers, 2010; Green & Black's, n.d.a). This shows that the company commits to fair prices (Blowfield, 2003) for the cocoa farmers - giving them economic stability.

G&B's has marketed itself as an unmistakable brand to its customers who we believe to be sophisticated middle- to high-income businessmen and -women who live a healthy lifestyle and highly respect the environment. As Solomon et al. (2009, p. 299) state: 'A brand is a name, a term, a symbol, or any other unique element of a product that identifies one firm's product(s) and sets it apart from the competition'. This explanation shows how many different aspects a brand includes and that G&B's addresses all of them in a great way to create a holistic and memorable picture of the organisation and its products in the customers' minds. Branding allows marketers to create added value that distinguishes one brand from another (Jobber, 2007) and thus, giving the customers the ability to make a quick and informed choice (Solomon et al., 2009). G&B's can be regarded as a strong brand because it markets itself very well, so, when talking about organic chocolate, customers will immediately think of G&B's and their great tasting products.

G&B's goes beyond just chocolates, though. The brand offers more than just chocolate bars, such as home baking products and hot beverages, ice cream, seasonally based products, e.g. chocolate Easter eggs, and different gift assortments, in order to attract different customer segments. Ton and Raman (2010) hold the idea that higher product variety is typically associated with higher sales because then more of the customers' tastes are addressed and therefore the target market is bigger.

2.3 Promotion

Promotion plays a vital role to the success of a product because it is the element of marketing mix that communicates with consumers and informs them about the product and its benefits (Solomon et al., 2009). So, G&B's can use promotion to persuade customers to buy its chocolates. To be successful, the organisation needs to identify its potential target market and the best way to attract the customers within that target market (Ehmk, Fulton & Lusk, n.d.).

The promotion mix includes four distinct elements: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion (Solomon et al., 2009) which can all be used together for integrated marketing communications to create a holistic image for the customers. G&B's