In an effort to expand its presence in the United States, Divine Chocolate - a Fair Trade chocolate company - looked to universities across the United States to help develop a strategy to promote its product and socially responsible business model.

During the Fall of 2008 in Chicago, I was selected to lead a group of 10 in creating a marketing campaign from start to finish for a relatively unknown product and its socially responsible business model that is Divine Chocolate.

In order to do so, my team and I determined the following objectives:

Objectives:

- Educated target market about Divine Chocolate and its socially responsible business model

- Convinced merchants on campus to sell Divine Chocolate products

- Designed a collegiate integrative marketing prototype that could be utilized nationwide

- Conducted relevant primary and secondary research

- Hosted an interactive event and product sampling for Divine Chocolate

- Promoted Divine Chocolate through a variety of media channels, including online social networks, e-mails, and text messaging

- Reported and submitted an extensive marketing proposal outlining results and providing recommendations for the entire campaign

Outcome:

Our team not only raised awareness of Divine Chocolate products and its socially responsible business model to the target market, but we were also successful in persuading all campus convenience stores to sell the product and make it a part of their regular inventory.

Furthermore, our use of media tools, in particular online social networks and e-mails, attracted many to our interactive product sampling event and through post-market research, determined that attendees were more likely to purchase the product in the future.

The CEO of Divine Chocolate USA congratulated my team and said we went above and beyond in promoting Divine Chocolate - and we could not have been prouder.

About Divine Chocolate:

A farmer-owned chocolate company founded in 1997, West Africa, Ghana, the mission of Divine Chocolate is to improve the livelihood of local smallholder cocoa producers.

The socially responsible company manufactures an extensive variety of Fair Trade chocolate bars, including dark, milk, mint, hazelnut, and white chocolate, as well as seasonal items.