Guylian has always been well-known as a premium chocolate brand, making its mark across global markets with its seahorse and seashell assortments.
The nature of its products and the high tendency for these to be used as gifts has led the company to innovate towards the direction of larger-serve boxes containing around 20 pieces of chocolate each, but in recent months it has decided to move towards a new direction in Asia.
“We have specially developed smaller packages of our Guylian chocolates specifically for the Asian market, each of which contain three to six pieces respectively,” Guylian Duty Free and Retail Travel Senior Channel Manager Sven Adrianssens told FoodNavigator-Asia at the Tax Free World Association (TFWA) event this year.
“This is part of our new price positioning strategy to target a whole new consumer base, particularly those who are looking to just grab Guylian chocolates at the tills and consume these themselves instead of gifting these away.
“There is also an affordability angle to be considered here, as some consumers may want to try Guylian chocolates but not buy a whole box at a premium just to do this, so this is a good option for them too.
“In this market, we can very clearly see that dark chocolate is growing very hugely and the uplift is tremendous, so this is a direction we will certainly continue to pursue.”
That said, the brand is also catering to its traditional premium audience in terms of innovation with its Master’s Selection premium pralines, containing six unique flavours such as Coffee cardamom and Caramel pineapple in a box of 24 pieces.
“The creation and production of the Master’s Selection is more focused on sophistication and craftsmanship in line with its premium tagline,” he said.
“The regular seashells are of course high-value and premium as well, but are more automated in the production line whereas these receive a great deal more attention with a lot more crafting put into them.
“The main thing is to keep our target consumer demographic range very wide with something for everyone as we know that changes are taking place quickly and the consumer of today may not be the same tomorrow.
“That said, we are also looking at India as a key focus market at the moment given the rapid growth and evolution of the market happening there.
“There has been a lot of talk in the travel retail industry about waiting on Chinese travellers to come back and that the growth is here and so on – we don’t want intend to just wait though, and will just continue activating products to capture a wider audience both in travel retail and domestic markets.”
Revamp complete
Guylian completed a full update of its portfolio and streamlining its SKUs down from over 1,000 items to several major categories this year.
“We are now focusing on the original seashells, pralines, tablets and assortments,” he said.
“Within travel retail, we are also looking at a revamp in terms of retail shelf branding in markets such as Turkey, Singapore and Dubai to improve presentation and consistency.”
