AWAKE Chocolate Marketing Strategy with Energy

With the Canadian founders of Awake (Adam Deremo, Matt Schnarr and Dan Tsotsiz) having emerged from consumer goods such as Pepsico and Kraft, there is a keen awareness of the need to continually innovate though their caffeinated chocolate bars have garnered considerable consumer awareness since its inception in 2012.While the business adage "innovate or die" might seem a littleextreme, it is not far from the truth of companies that decide to rest on past success instead of looking around and seeing what is going on around them.

Much of what Awake tries to achieve around its marketing strategy is the creation of 2 things: new products and new customers. While the company is not actively moving from a loyal customer, the leaders believe in the importance of creating an infrastructure of innovation that will continually push the company to create a new product and then seek out the customer segment that they believe will gain the most value from consuming this particular product.

Adamnoted that by "bringing more new products to market, we have more reason to go outand talk with our customers on a more frequent basis than we ever had before." This "excuse" forcustomer engagement is a great way to not only assess new product ideas but also get the name of the brand in front of the customer on a more consistent basis.

And once again, the backbone of marketing (needs) is front and centre in Awake's approachto its marketing strategy. One of the most misunderstood aspects of marketing surrounds the concept of strategy. Often companies, journalists and even business students will assume that marketing strategy is all about tactical concepts such as creating great content or developing an advertisement.

ForAwake, the ability to come up with "new"is central to its strategic aspiration. Adamasserted: "Having a more robust innovation pipeline, and bringing new productsto market more frequently, I think is a good marketing strategy. It meets consumerneeds."In recalling a new product introduction, Adam described how a shift in consumer preferences shifted what the company offered."The ways we can make it better is: one, format. So we launched in a full-size bar that had about 200 calories with between 20 to 30 grams of sugar. We subsequently brought out a format that was a third size and less than 100 calories per serving and fewer than 9 grams of sugar. Consumers seem to valuethat."

If you go on looking for Awake Chocolate on store shelves, including pharmacies and on its website, you will not only find the originalbar that started it all on Dragon's Denin 2013 ( watch:https://www.c.ca/dragonsden/m_pitches/awake-chocolate). You will find a number of new innovations, including different sizes and flavours, but also different formats like bite-size and granola.

And there are no signs of awake stopping anytime soon. The company is continuing to come up with new ideas, test markets and concept assessments. The cupboardsof Awake's product ideas are farfrom bare, as Adam stated: "At this point in the lifetime of the brand, we have the deepestinnovationpipeline that we ever had." For competitors in the market,including the larger more established brand like Quaker and Kitkat, this pipeline should be a concern. The company is still small enough to be nimble and make adjustments on the fly that would be challenging for large multinationals. Andthe company'splan is to make sure its marketing strategy never has the company standing still.

Adam and the rest of his team need your help in analyzing if their current marketing strategy to expand the footprint of Awake in North America is feasible considering all the environments (internal and external) facing the company. Your recommendations would help them assess if their marketing strategy is true with real energy.

Questions:

1. Identification of Issues/Problems/Opportunities from the case
2. Analysis, Evaluation and Two Recommendations with reasons
3. Best Recommendation and Action Plan/Tactics/Measurement of Success