Lindt unwraps mobile ambitions
Premium chocolate brand Lindt is looking to launch an m-commerce platform, one of a raft of mobile initiatives planned to boost sales.
The Swiss chocolate maker has identified mobile as a key channel to boosting sales in 2013. It will also look into branded games as well as selling directly from mobile.
Lindt’s sales for the first half of the year failed to meet analyst estimates, with the business reporting a 4.4 per cent increase for the six months to July.
Tim Stoller, head of impulse at Lindt, says that sales volumes were dented by the “lack of connection” consumers currently have with the brand, but adds “mobile can play an important part in a making us more accessible and driving value sales growth.”
He adds: “We’re looking at how we can pioneer our use of mobile, both in terms of driving brand equity but also as a revenue driver. We revamped our website so that people could visit and not just learn about the Lindt brand and all our products but also use it to purchase our chocolate online. We’ve got nothing finalised yet but we’re looking at how we can adapt this strategy in a mobile context.
“A lot of people think we’re a very traditional brand and maybe don’t have as closer connection with us as they do with a brand like Cadbury. Changing this attitude is going to be at the centre of all the branding and sales activity we do next year and mobile can play an important part in aligning our sales and marketing activity more closely together to achieve this.”
In recent years Lindt, has benefitted from the development of the premium chocolate market in the UK and the US. But the growth rate of these markets appears to be slowing. In Europe, the eurozone crisis limited revenues, which rose 4 per cent during the first half of the year.
Holt says the business is increasing the level of marketing activity to build market share in its developed markets with a particular focus on the digital arena, where the business has “much work to do.”
Lindt is working with agency 4Ps marketing on a digital strategy that includes Facebook and Twitter activity.
Separately, the brand is working with convenience stores and supermarkets across the UK to redefine what it says are “dull” in-store experiences for customers in the confectionery aisles.
