What sells best: a good chocolate in an ugly packaging or a bad chocolate in a nice packaging?

You can endlessly argue about it, but it’s the final consumers that have all the answers. Craft chocolate lovers like what they like, change taste often, make irrational decisions and have their own weird purchasing criteria. The market is the market, and if the market says that packaging is part of the decision-making process, you’d better adapt.

If craft chocolate makers can often be sentimental, retailers and distributors are required to have a colder heart. They can only keep in their assortment what sells, or gives them at least some prestige. They are in direct contact with a broad audience of chocolate lovers on the daily, and know exactly what these like, don’t like, are willing to spend money on, or won’t even consider buying.

Today, six of the most successful craft chocolate retailers and distributors from all over the world answer the same five burning questions on packaging. Will their answers be the same? Will they reveal unimaginable insights? And how much does packaging actually influence their decisions? Here they are:

Let’s find out their answers.

1) Do you see a correlation between the performance in sales of a craft chocolate brand and its packaging? In other words, are the craft chocolate brands with the most beautiful packaging also your best sellers?

Caputo’s Market: Yes. There is always a strong correlation. In fact, I would go as far as to say there is not a single brand with strong penetration and wide distribution without excellent branding/packaging. Prove me wrong!

The High Five Company: Packaging is extremely important, and there is a strong direct relationship between packaging and sales performance. But 'beautiful' is not what is important. You can have the most beautiful packaging and still not reach your 'chosen' customer. The packaging you choose must 100% communicate/support your identity, as a maker and as a brand. One example I gave at the EMA at Chocoa is: if you're not colorful yourself or as a craft chocolate maker, do not make your packaging colorful.

There can be no mismatch. Consumers 'feel' if there's a mismatch. Everything you do, and packaging is one important element in that, should adhere to the chosen identity. Therefore, beautiful is not important. Should packaging stand out on the shelf? Yes, it should. But again, it depends on your target customer. If you make the best fine flavor chocolate from the very best and maybe rare cacao and your target customers are 'uber geeks', then you might not choose fashionable packaging, as your target customer 'knows' you and your proposition. No need to communicate added value explicitly then.

Chocolopolis: There is definitely a correlation between beautiful packaging and product trial, but if the chocolate inside the package doesn't meet the customer's expectations for quality and price, they won't purchase it again. What do I mean by this?

If customers are faced with a shelf of chocolate bars that are not familiar, they will choose the bar with the most beautiful packaging. But if the quality of the chocolate inside the package does not meet their expectations, they won't purchase it again no matter how lovely the packaging looks. With that said, if a chocolate is good but not world class, and a customer enjoys it enough, having that beautiful packaging can influence them in purchasing the bar again. The opposite also applies. We've had really good chocolate in really bad packaging, and it's tough to sell it because the visual experience does not match the price point.

Cocoa Runners: Yes, packaging is super important. But not all the “prettiest” bars sell best.

The Chocolate Shop: Yes, (beautiful) packaging is almost a must for consumers. We hear from our customers that each and single one of them are pieces of art, and we have several different target groups in our store. For instance, consumers who look for presents fall for nice packaging and want to gift something so that they themselves look good. Then we have the foodies.

They go for limited editions or selected makers, regions or ingredients (organic, vegan, sugar free, etc). And after that, they do make a choice based on packaging. One other big group is what I call 'fair trade women'. They are well traveled, well educated, mostly women with large pockets. They look and fall for big labels like fair trade, rain forest alliance, max havelaar, etc. When the labels are there, they buy it. 

Chocolate 7: We need to distinguish between a client who is already an expert on bean-to-bar chocolate and a new client. The expert client is already familiar with some producers, cacao varieties, and more. So he/she will focus more on the product than on its packaging. But also an expert client, between two chocolate bars with the same quality, will tend to choose the one with an good-looking packaging. In the case of a new client, the first thing he/she will notice is immediately the beauty of the packaging.

Questions about the cacao used, the process and more will come after. In the end, the sales of a craft bean-to-bar chocolate brand are highly affected by its packaging.

2) What is the most inconvenient or annoying packaging for you to carry in your assortment? Transparent wrapper, square shape, small size....?

Caputo’s Market: Brands that have packaging that is confusing to customers can be difficult. Maybe there is not enough differentiation between their various lines or confusing copy. For example, often times potential customers can mistake tasting notes for ingredients. For us, clear wrappers and very small packages tend to disappear on the shelf and therefore get overlooked. I always encourage chocolate makers to evaluate their packaging on the shelf in a setting similar to what their average retail point of sale will look like.

Yes, bring mock ups into a store and set them there. Walk around. Take pictures for later. Do they stand out? Are they hard to see? Design aside, are the materials and texture in the hand on par or better than similarly priced bars? Is the format going to present any challenges for display? 

The High Five Company: Any kind of packaging which does not protect the product inside. Yes, just a transparent wrapper is annoying! The shape does not matter, neither the size.

Chocolopolis: Here's what my customers want – resealable packaging that's easy to use/reseal. Unfortunately, the resealable packages that are easy to use are often the least attractive packages. Foil with a paper wrapper is really difficult to reseal and it's messy – crumbs everywhere. These often look nice on the shelf, but they're not fun once you get home. The resealable foil pack that Solstice uses is great for resealing, and the brands that use paper envelopes with plastic wrappers inside are good. The plastic wrappers aren't resealable, but it's easy to put them back into the envelopes, and the envelopes keep chocolate and crumbs from escaping.

Cocoa Runners: We are pretty agnostic on shape. What is irritating is packaging that isn't resealable.

The Chocolate Shop: The biggest concern for customers is packaging that cannot be closed up again in an easy way. People tend to take a little piece and wrap it back in.

Chocolate 7: The most inconvenient packaging is aluminium foil and a paper wrapper. Shape or dimension don’t matter much, and they don’t create particular problems in the choice of the brand to carry.

3) In your opinion, what craft chocolate brands currently have the best packaging on the market? What are the characteristics that make them successful?

Caputo’s Market: As far as characteristics go, this is very hard to quantify or even specify. Primarily, a very good (and almost always very expensive) design and high quality materials, so the feel in the hand is rich. This does not mean that spending a lot of money is a guarantee of good packaging, but the chances are certainly higher. I am not a designer so it's hard to describe, but I generally know what will NOT work when I see it. Often have an idea of what will work too. 

The High Five Company: Chocolate Tree: strong identity (Scottish craft chocolate); graphics relate to the country of origin; each bar is visually part of the family; the shape is different (square). Taza: their discs are a superb example, as they stand out, and the packaging itself is extremely simple (just one piece of paper). Dick Taylor: every element answers to their identity of craft and quality; anything you see from them, whether it's a piece of packaging, or a pictue, you recognize it's Dick Taylor instantly.

Chocolopolis: See my answers to the next question.

Cocoa Runners: We have over 100 makers. So hard to pick favorites! More and more now have packs that you can close again (almost all the US makers, many of the UK ones, but interestingly few French ones).

The Chocolate Shop: The more well-known popular brands do a good job. Every aspect is being thought of. Communication, branding, design and shape of the mold. When all these elements are in sync, people relate it to quality.

Chocolate 7: The most appreciated packaging by customers is colorful and elegant. I’d like to highlight: Chapon, Svenska Kakaobolaget, Zotter, Goodio, Chocolate story, Feitoria do cacao, Rózsavölgyi, Soma, Chocolate tree, Dick Taylor, Georgia Ramon, Goodio, Kacau, Letterpress, Millesime, Naive, Svenska Kakaobolaget, The Chocolate Conspiracy and Zotter. But the absolute most beautiful packaging to me belongs to To’ak Chocolate, especially the wooden boxes that look like small masterpieces.

4) Are there some info that you feel are mandatory to include in a craft chocolate packaging? What info do you think are completely useless instead?

Caputo’s Market: Basic things like cacao percentage and ingredients are a must. Little else is mandatory. As for our companies, we are less likely to carry a maker unless there is a bean origin specified. We also like more than just country. We want to see info that gives us an idea of the terrior. In my opinion, the more granular you can get, the better. We love to see the specific farm or coop listed. I hate to admit it, but I rarely read copy. This is a blind spot of mine, as to me it all sounds the same and is not something I find useful. I am not saying copy is unimportant. It is. It's just not my area of expertise. 

The High Five Company: No real general answer here. It depends. If your target customer is the general public (i.e. the supermarket public), then don't bother communicating how special your product is, how many awards it won, etc. You need to adapt the packaging (style, print, etc) to your target customer. If you focus on the e.g. uber geek, then it could make sense to even include the conching time, the type of bean, the estate, the region where the cacao comes from, the harvest year, any awards, etc etc. The only general comment I can make is that it's important to make the customer aware that the product is different from an industrial product made for the mass market.

Chocolopolis: Keep it simple. Every craft chocolate maker has a great story, but there's only so much you should write on a package. The consumer isn't going to read it all, and they may get overwhelmed by the amount of print on a package. There are many ways to tell your story. Ask yourself: “Is a lot of text going to get my story across, or are there more visual ways to tell my story?”. Think of Askinosie's photos of farmers on the front as an example of how to graphically tell your story.

I'm not suggesting everyone put photos of farmers on the front (please don't!), but I am suggesting that you use graphics instead of text in a way that effectively tells your story. Goodnow Farms' packaging is particularly good. I say that because I've had more than one customer comment on how much they like Goodnow Farm's packaging. The front is simple, the font is large and you can easily read the company name, the origin and the % cacao (don't put your logo, the origin or the % on the bottom 1/3 of the package or no one will see it).

Cocoa Runners: Some mandatory information includes: ingredients - ideally in a common format, and at minimum following EU guidelines; Use By/ Best Before Date; when the chocolate was made; where the cocoa beans come from; the story and the inspiration behind the bar; some tasting notes, maybe even pairing suggestions; where the bar was made, and ideally something on the crafting (roast, conch, etc.).

The Chocolate Shop: Next to ingredients, origins are a must. If there's any information on the farm itself or the way the cacao is processed, fermented, roasted or conched, that’s a plus. When there's a story with a lot of marketing bs, I leave the chocolate on the shelf.

Chocolate 7: The most appreciated info by craft chocolate lovers are about the origin, the cacao variety, the bean-to-bar process (roasting, conching, fermentation, etc.), together with the nutritional values and allergens.

5) On a scale from 1 to 10, how much does packaging impact your choice to carry or not a craft chocolate brand in your assortment? Any advice for new craft chocolate makers?

Caputo’s Market: 8. We are unlikely to consider a new maker without good branding or packaging. That being said, it is certainly not the most important factor to us. If sales and money were our number one goal, it would be even more important. However, we have many goals for our company and we carry several makers that have branding/packaging that is moderately to severely limiting. We love them anyway.  

The High Five Company: If I think there's a mismatch between packaging and identity, I will not list the product. My advice is to consult customers, non-customers, distributors, etc. to get feedback. Others can often easily identify mismatches.

Chocolopolis: I'll say 5 on a scale of 1-10. For us the quality of the chocolate inside is more important than the packaging, with one exception. I've had great chocolate in really poor packaging, and customers didn't want to pay $12 - $15 for it because it looked bad. They didn't want to try it, and even if they tried it and liked it, the perception of paying that much for something that didn't look good was too much for them. Beautiful packaging can tip the scale on repeat purchases if a customer likes a chocolate enough. They might purchase it more than they otherwise would if they were just evaluating it on the quality of the chocolate.

Cocoa Runners: We have a set of minimum criteria. For example, we must know where the cocoa beans are from and that the chocolate maker crafts the bar to their recipe. Then we choose based on taste. We don’t choose on packaging, but if the packaging is really problematic (ex. labeling wrong info), we will ask for it to be changed.

The Chocolate Shop: We choose our collection on taste first and foremost. After that, we look for consistency. If that relates to price and quality and presentation. We're hooked.

Chocolate 7: I’d say 10. We buy with our eyes first, especially in my case. Shopping online is highly influenced by the beauty of the packaging. In the store, when quality and price are the same, the customer tends to buy chocolate with a beautiful packaging, also because it’s often chocolate bought as a gift for others. The pieces of advice I’d like to give to new and old craft chocolate makers are:

1) choose a packaging that strongly identifies your brand, so that the client can see it and immediately associates that chocolate bar to its maker;

2) choose a weight of 50 gr. because the typical bean-to-bar client wants to taste different chocolate makers, so 50gr. is the perfect weight to give him/her a right amount of chocolate to be tasted at an affordable price;

3) choose a packaging that can preserve the chocolate at best, even when the packaging gets opened. For example, a packaging with a zip lock (like Chapon) or an aluminium flowpack and a paper box (like Luisa Abram).

A huge THANK YOU to all the craft chocolate retailers and distributors who took time out of their busy schedules to answer these questions!