Melting the Chocolate Market

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Scenario

Deliciously seductive and seriously decadent, Hotel Chocolat has been on a mission to bring high quality chocolate to the UK for over ten years. First by catalogue and tasting clubs, then online and now with 22 high street shops opening in under three years, Hotel Chocolat is the nation’s fastest growing chocolate retailer. Ambergreen has worked in partnership with Hotel Chocolat for four years to help the retailer open up the online market and strategically integrate its’ online and offline marketing. This phenomenal growth has been achieved through Ambergreen’s highly targeted and effective search marketing campaign strategies.

Challenge

The confectionary industry is sharply focused on the months surrounding Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter. This unique characteristic of the sector defines Hotel Chocolat’s online strategy. One of the key challenges Ambergreen faced was the speed with which this campaign had to be implemented during four intense months from December to March. Chris Bishop, Online Marketing Manager at Hotel Chocolat explains: “We wanted to raise Hotel Chocolat’s profile on the search engines and boost online sales while always remaining within a clearly visible, profitable customer recruiting cost. It’s essential that we ensure strong prominence during the company’s key seasonal periods, while also keeping a year-round presence. We recognized search engine marketing needed to be the cornerstone of Hotel Chocolat’s marketing strategy in order to protect our online reputation as well as meeting our sales targets.”

Solution

Developing a cutting edge search strategy, Ambergreen applied sophisticated marketing skills underpinned by up to the minute technical talent. Ambergreen initially undertook a period of strategic consultancy during which they researched and analysed the market and the Hotel Chocolat offering. Additionally this campaign was implemented in the context of the re-launch of Hotel Chocolat’s UK site, the launch of Hotel Chocolat in the US and the shift of the brand’s retail model from traditional direct marketing to online retail. Ambergreen knew that natural search would be critical to the success of Hotel Chocolat. Implementing all the recommendations made by Ambergreen, the new site was built with SEO at its heart. With the new site in place and the research carried out Ambergreen also developed a strategic relationship between paid and natural search, to create seasonal campaigns to gain the highest return on investment for Hotel Chocolat.

Results

Ambergreen’s search campaign increased visitors to the site by 100% through natural search. The seasonal campaign saw revenue increases up to 150% for Hotel Chocolat. A key objective of the campaign was to keep customer acquisition costs low. Exceeding all client expectations, Ambergreen secured this extra visibility at a customer acquisition cost that was 50% below the target set by Hotel Chocolat. “Hotel Chocolat needed to work with a company that has the skill, experience and passion to deliver the highest possible return on investment results. Ambergreen came to us with an innovative approach that fused progressive marketing with advanced technology and showed us the strategic approach that would deliver us market dominance. We believed and continue to trust ambergreen to keep to our core objectives and constantly deliver results while maintaining their high level of service”.