Cowgirl Chocolates

Individual Assignment Week 5: Cowgirl Chocolates Case Study

Daniel L. Knight II

Marketing Strategy – MKT/575

June 30, 2013

Gail Lorber

Chocolate is one of the world’s oldest and most consumed guilty pleasures. To capitalize on the amount of chocolate sold and eaten annually, Marilyn Lysohir and her husband Ross Coates, have broken into the chocolate business with Cowgirl Chocolates. Since the inception of a revolutionary spicy chocolate recipe, Marilyn Lysohir and Ross Coates have struggled to grow a competitive and profitable business in the chocolate industry. To keep Cowgirl Chocolates running, Marilyn has lent the company money out of her personal funds. Cowgirl Chocolates is branded based on the concept that chocolate lovers are fun and adventuress, hence the reason the company caters to both Chocolate lovers and spicy food fans.

Cowgirl Chocolate’s offerings are sourced from Seattle Chocolates, a private label Seattle-based company known for specializing in producing European-style chocolate confections. Seattle Chocolates procures all of its raw materials from Schokinag of Germany, a world renowned chocolatier. After the product is produced combining a recipe of Cowgirl spices, Marilyn requires the product to be creatively packaged into custom tins, bags, buckets, and boxes. Even with having award winning packaging designs and a high quality chocolate, many consumers and retailers are hesitant to purchase or retail the chocolates. One contributing factor to the lack of sales is the feedback that has been given about the product. The feedback that Marilyn has received from both consumers and potential retailers, is that the chocolates are too spicy. To overcome these criticisms and to gain greater access to a customer base, Marilyn created a non-spicy chocolate and labeled it as being mild-mannered.

Before spending an additional $3,000 on an advertising campaign in the March/April edition of Chile Pepper Magazine, Marilyn Lysohir needs to consider...