Taste Drives Decisions As mentioned after in the Awake case in Chapter 1, the clear focus for the company was to underst

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Taste Drives Decisions
As mentioned after in the Awake case in Chapter 1, the clear focus
for the company was to understand consumer needs. This focus on
needs describes very well the first stage of the Consumer Decision
Process described in this chapter.
When Awake Chocolate was formed, determining how to meet a
consumer need was paramount. Awake CEO Adam Deremo noted that the
rallying cry when starting up Awake was focused on “… delivering
the energy benefit in food format. And we are not aware of anything
better tasting than chocolate, [so] that’s what we focused on.”
And thus taste is what drove Awake Chocolate, and was the
stimulus that would compel consumers to try to solve the problem of
a lack of energy with food products instead of beverages like
coffee and energy drinks. And the form that has been the most
popular for Awake Chocolate has been with chocolate bar type
products.
When taste is not a clear advantage, often Awake will shy away
from pushing new products to the market with an offering that does
not engage their customers. Awake is continually looking at
innovative ways to solve consumer problems, and this is often in
the form of different forms of delivery—in this case a bite-sized
candy instead of the more traditional Awake chocolate bar.
“Imagine if Awake was like an M&M type product, but better.”
And Awake realized through various trials and tribulations (like
granola) that the main deciding factor for consumers will be taste.
When looking for food and drink, consumers aim to achieve benefits
that go beyond simply satisfying thirst and hunger. Consumers today
have so many different alternatives that they can look for multiple
benefits. For Awake, the inclusion of energy into a chocolate bar
was the “aha” moment that caught the attention of Canadians from
Dragons to regular consumers.
When looking at consumers’ needs, it is important to look at the
ways and environment environments in which they are will solve
problems to meet their needs. For example, when consumers go to the
movie theatre, they are tempted by a number of food and beverage
choices. While the prices of these products seem exorbitant, there
is the temptation that comes along with movie-watching experience.
Awake Chocolate tried a pilot program in movie theatres to see how
consumers enjoyed their products. The pilot was not very
successful, largely because the format of pilot product did not
suit the environment in which consumers were making decisions. Adam
said, “I think we were trying to sell them the wrong product. We
were selling them our full-sized caramel chocolate bar. And I think
that something that is a little more bite sized and snackable, I
think that’s the right application there. … “Because if you just
look at what people are buying in movie theatres, it’s generally
not chocolate bars. It’s usually bags of bite sized chocolate
pieces, or candies or popcorn.”
So when Awake introduced “Bites,” bite-sized individually
wrapped chocolates with a caffeine equivalent of a half cup of
coffee, its use in the workplace and on campus made a lot of sense
given the portability and ease of consumption. These two factors
are significant in another setting—the movie theatre. And Awake
Chocolate hopes to one day have the chance to sell the candy-coated
treat in theatres.
QUESTIONS
1.Prepare a defence of the following statement: “Awake Chocolate is
unique in the food marketplace because, unlike other new products
in this area, it is truly an engineered need.”
2.Describe how psychological factors identified in this chapter
may prevent some consumers loyal to existing products like M&Ms
from trying the new Awake bite-sized candy products once they enter
the market.
3.Using the concepts from this chapter, provide clear
justification that Awake products are a more involved purchase than
traditional chocolate bars and candies.