The Classic Chocolate Shop – A Successful Startup Branding Story

“People love chocolate, they really get excited. People are intrigued by what we have. We keep them guessing.” –Chriag “Charlie” Bansal, the CEO of the Chocolate Box

What do you get when you have a family with a big sweet tooth, a craving to know what makes gourmet chocolate so different and complex, and combine it with an opportunity to open a store of your own? You get the Chocolate Box, a classic chocolate shop with a twist!

Recently, I overheard a few people talking about The Chocolate Box, a local chocolate shop located in the Robbinsville’s Town Center in New Jersey. It opened only five months ago.  The name caught my interest because it didn’t sound like a big name chain store, and it had one of my favorite foods ever – chocolate!

Due to write a post on branding, I thought it’d be a good idea to study this new store, its branding strategy and learn a few things about branding startups in the process.

What was The Chocolate Shop branding like? You’ll be surprised.

Branding Starts with a Website

Most small businesses don’t have their own website because they are unwilling to spend money upfront on a business that might fail; hire someone to do it; or even get someone to have a look at it.

Being a startup business with such a specific niche market, The Chocolate Box realized they needed a web store which would help broaden their word-of-mouth advertising and grab the attention of people who live out of their usual advertizing reach.

When I first found their website, it was under construction and had a “coming soon” status. However when I visited it again a few days later, I saw the finished product, and to my pleasant surprise, the newly designed website followed many rules of a well-designed landing page!

It is clear what the store is all about, what they offer, and has an easy access to the shopping cart.

Most of the important stuff is above the fold, although I have to zoom out to see the prices of the products without scrolling down.

My recommendation would be to make the main rotating image section a little smaller so that a customer can view a hint of the other products the store has to offer before they scroll down.

The call to action on the site is pretty easy to see as well, as every item featured has an “Add to Cart” button that was orange to match the shopping cart icon, and stood out from the rest of the page. The color is a good choice to catch attention against the rest of the color palette.

Know Your Brand, Know Your Market

The outdoor advertising board of the Chocolate Box gives a hint of the quality product sold inside.

All the shops in the Robbinsville’s Town Center are owned by small business owners who put a lot of efforts to bring quality products to the community. Each shop has a supportive community feel, with doors wide open for customers to walk right in and sit down.

When you walk into The Chocolate Box, you immediately feel the “mom and pop”.

The space is cozy, the shelving neat and orderly, and the day’s menu items written out on a chalk board. They have a counter which looks like a bar, with padded bar stools, to allow customers to relax and chat with the person behind the counter. Their customers range from the local shoppers to businessmen and women who are looking for a good place to relax during their lunch hour or after work.

While they have customers who have had gourmet chocolate before, The Chocolate Box focuses on those customers with a limited experience, and their brand is about teaching them to enjoy a richer, darker chocolate not typically found in common stores.

Branding in Packaging

Every sign on the shelves and hangings on the walls are hand written, lending an atmosphere of a one-of-a-kind shop.

The shop sells vegan chocolate, organic, and the best award-winning chocolate in the world, but they also have their own house tea brand and a coffeehouse.  Everything is freshly brewed including coffee. The beans are ground on the spot for the best cup, the iced coffee and teas are made to preserve flavor without diluting the drink, and they are served in martini glasses.

The store has all the coffees and teas packaged ready to take home too.

The product labels has their store logo prominently displayed at the top, and the design for the canisters and packaging look as if someone hand-packaged each one before putting them on the shelves.

The Chocolate Box are out to grab their homely customers, alright.

Branding with Culture

I met with Chirag “Charlie” Bansal, the CEO of the Chocolate Box, on a beautiful spring day. A down-to-earth individual yet with a sharp sense for business, Chirag has courteously agreed to meet me and tell me a thing a two about of his shop:

 “My family has a big sweet tooth. Coming from India, a culture that specializes in unique food and desserts, we’ve sought out eating delicious things that we want others to know about. I have tried everything in the store and I take the time to work with each of my customers to find something that matches their individual tastes.”

Branding with an Identity

Finally, I ask Chirag about the Chocolate Box logo. Did he have a professional design it? The logo is simple, neat, and looks great on his products, and works well as a stamp for branding his product lines too. And guess what, the logo which has worked so well with the Chocolate Box brand has been designed by none other than the owner himself!

The Chocolate Box business card has all the important information laid out clearly.

He recalled, when he decided he was going to open his own shop and focus on quality chocolate, he started to play around with different options for a logo. He found that after some experimentation, he really liked the scripted “CB” in the logo, and then made it look like a product stamp. It was originally a placeholder, but he liked it so much he has decided to keep it!

And Finally, Brand with Unique Experience

 “I like to keep things fun which is why we cater events, parties, and even weddings. I personally go out and explain to guests at a party what they are eating is at no additional cost.”

Gift baskets are a great way to entice people to shop at your store.

It has become increasingly important for small businesses to express a single, compelling voice and visual identity to separate them from their corporate counterparts. Everything they do, from their interior and exterior of their shop, to their photos and atmosphere, to all of their marketing tools such as their logo designs, web design, and more need to make them stand out.

People tend to gravitate towards the things that are better in quality, and in a small business, it is especially important to remember that your brand builds on the word of mouth of others.

Create an experience like no other, and people will come to you instead of the big name companies.

All images provided by Chocolate Box 

To learn more about The Chocolate Box:
Visit their website: https://shop.chocolateboxintl.com/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ChocolateBoxNJ
Twitter: twitter.com/ChocolateBoxNJ/