Creative Cut- Godiva (1,113 words)
By Scott Shrake
The name "Godiva" denotes first the mythical nude Lady, and second, a brand of luxury confections. To some, the order of association may even be reversed: The brand is that strong.
Founded in Brussels, Belgium, by Joseph Draps in 1926, Godiva Chocolatier introduced its chocolates to Americans 40 years later. Godiva, now with world headquarters in New York City, has been credited with single-handedly creating the U.S. market for "super-premium chocolates." It now markets in three channels: retail, catalog and Web.
Just like print, online catalogs are always evolving, taking advantage of new technology and fresh realizations about the character of e-commerce.
Godiva.com is in the midst of a site redesign more substantial than any it has experienced thus far, says Beth Brown, Godiva's marketing manager, interactive. What follows is background and commentary on the site as it appeared in August. In a future Catalog Success, we'll examine the next incarnation of the site.
Selling Confections Like Jewels
The chocolatier produces more than 100 different candy pieces, using a shell molding technique, in contrast to the enrobing technique of most other candy makers. The chocolates fall into seven basic types, which are often chosen by the buyer personally to create unique collections for gift-giving or self-consumption. The company also produces liqueurs and coffees.
As they were originally in this country, Godiva's products are still sold at upscale department and specialty stores.
In 1972, Godiva opened a boutique on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue near Tiffany's and Cartier, recreating the fine-chocolate boutiques characteristic of Brussels—where chocolates were presented in a similar style to jewelry, in artistic displays under glass.
The company now owns and operates more than 200 boutiques in North America.
The product density in the catalogs and on the Web site is low compared to that in stores. This is a reversal of the usual inventory situation, in which catalogs and e-commerce sites use their extra space to show more product than a brick-and-mortar store can.
Brown explains that with a product sold in units like chocolates, it is more difficult for customers to put together personal packages by catalog or on the Web than in a store, which has a bulk supply. At the boutique, a shopper points, a shop worker picks and packs on the spot.
You can't really just buy one truffle at the Web site. But, Brown says, Godiva is exploring ways to duplicate the boutique shopping experience online. "We're hoping eventually you'd be able to come [to the site] and make custom boxes—where you could say, 'I'd only like the raspberry truffle.'"
Brown says the creative goal for Godiva.com from the beginning has remained: "Translate the Godiva boutique experience—the ease of shopping, customer service, quality and freshness of product—to an online environment."
She says the redesign also has the creative mission to achieve "instant recognition [by the visitor] that we're a chocolatier. We kind of want to go back to our roots and say, 'Hey, we're the experts in chocolate.'"
Luxurious Web Boutique
Known for its distinctive gold ballotin box, Godiva Chocolatier has the kind of classic brand newer companies cannot acquire for love or money.
"They're brand monsters," says Mark Pierson, creative director at Ambrosi One2One Marketing in Chicago, where Godiva's print catalog, point-of-sale and wholesale creative efforts are carried out, and photographic images for both print and Web are produced.
Brown says Godiva was one of the first luxury-brand cataloger/retailers to embark on e-commerce, back in 1994. Fry Multimedia of Ann Arbor, MI, does the site's design work in collaboration with Godiva.
Color is a vital brand-consistency element. Brown calls it "crucial to our online and off-line sales. Gold is our 'icon' color, and we also add accents of black and ivory to highlight the gold." She also points to an art nouveau design motif going back to the company's beginnings, declaring, "These creative elements are consistent in any presentation to our consumer, from our boutique, Web site and catalog design to our advertising campaign and packaging design."
As for photography, Brown says, "Originally we used … all the catalog images for the Web site. However, for the past few years we have been shooting separate images [digitally, and only] for the Web site. However, we are looking to go back to sharing some of the photography, [as soon as digital] can work just as well [as film]."
In addition to periodic redesigns that always make use of customer opinion and often industry research, says Brown, the site's editorial content (and product) is updated about eight times per year. The frequently updated recipe section, which was developed with Chocolatier magazine, is a great stickiness creator for Godiva.com. Godiva is also branching out into other countries by creating more foreign-language sites, including a mirror site in Japanese, www.godiva.co.jp.
Special offers and new programs pop up even more often, she says, behind the "What's New" button.
A site feature popular with visitors since its launch nine months ago is the gift certificate program. The certificates are sent to an e-mail address, so the gift-giver needn't know the mailing address of the recipient. "It is a great gift for people who have 'e-mail friends [or] buddies' and do not want to share their personal information," she says.
Brown also mentions that Godiva.com now offers a personalized area called "My Godiva," a free service that allows consumers to store information on the Web site to be used each time they place an order.
Godiva's creative team understands the priorities of e-commerce: "While providing an up-to-date and refreshed Web site creatively, the needs/wants of our consumers in terms of site navigation and services (address book, recipes, etc.) are the key driver of our site evolution," says Brown.
The dilemma for a company like Godiva is to build and maintain brand on the one hand—with all the ethereal creative underpinnings—and sell direct on the other, which requires pushing and stopping the customer, often not a creative's favorite thing to do.
Godiva.com strives for that fine balance. Stay tuned for the new site redesign in an upcoming issue …
Shop Godiva:"The shopping cart navigation has a solid customer service section, which adequately addresses issues such as their money-back guarantee," Africa says. She notes that the search function should remain prominent throughout a site. "The site designer's primary goal is to walk a user through the site so … the site owner controls the flow and the user path."
Golden Books: Godiva Chocolatier mails slim seasonal mail-order catalogs several times per year. Beth Brown says the holiday book contains Godiva's full product line (confections and coffee). The response options: order form, 800 number or Web ordering.
