This week, Chocolate Inn, Freeport, N.Y., will release its 2007-2008 catalog featuring a new look, a selection of new products and new packaging options.
“We’ve revamped the whole catalog,” noted David Miller, president. “It has a different look—a lot more upscale and more elegant. I think when people see it, they will think of a Godiva catalog.”
In addition to the catalog’s fresh face, one of the most exciting things that has happened at the company, according to Miller, is the redesign of its packaging. “We have revamped most of the packaging on our line and we feel that the new look of the packaging has a much higher perceived value,” noted Miller. He said most of the packaging bases “will have a black bottom with sort of a coppery-gold or silver type of lid with a ribbon or stretch bow on it.”
The 56-page catalog also boasts a host of new products—many of them the result of putting new spins on existing products.
“We have big one- and two-pound bars, which we’ve always done, but on these large bars we are giving people the opportunity to provide either 13 or nine different imprint areas for just one $76 mold charge,” explained Miller.
He said a product like this would be beneficial to large companies with various product lines or subsidiaries. “[They] can actually imprint all the different subsidiaries and product names and just pay one mold charge and really get a nice impact for their gift,” Miller further explained.
Chocolate Inn has also updated its wood box line, designing the imprint area to appear under the lid instead of on top. “A customer [may] send a wood box to their clients with [the customer’s logo on it]. When their client gets it, it’s not something they might want to put on their desk because they don’t want to put anything with a logo on their desk,” he explained. “With our new wood box, we’re actually providing the imprint on the inside of the lid. This way, because [the imprint is hidden], they are more apt to leave it on their desk.”
Miller said with increasing information about the health benefits of dark chocolate, Chocolate Inn has seen a “nice upswing” in dark chocolate sales. “With the big popularity of dark chocolate, we’re doing combination two-tone bars, which dark and milk chocolate is intermixed on the bar.”
The company is also highlighting “the fact that a lot of our different products encompass the same chocolate centerpiece,” explained Miller. He said customers can pay one mold charge and use combined pricing to purchase a variety of products. “People can take advantage of the combined pricing and select one of the many different products at different price points all featuring the same chocolate centerpiece,” he explained.
In addition to these and other newer products, including chocolate logo cookies now combined with various confections as well as cookies packaged in the popular business card box, Miller stressed his company’s commitment to providing free samples. “The reason why we provide samples free of charge is not because we like wasting our money,” he said. “We feel once people see what they can get—different shapes and colors of the chocolate—plus taste it, they’ll be more apt to make a purchase.”
For more information, call (800) 526-3437 or visit www.chocolateinn.com
