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Case HBS Case Collection July 2013 Montreaux Chocolate USA: Are Americans Ready for Healthy Dark Chocolate? |
Andrea Torres, director of new product development at a high-end chocolate confectionery company, leads her team through a carefully sequenced program of market research to support the development and launch of a new product, healthy dark chocolate with fruit. This is the first time Montreaux USA, an offshoot of a Swiss confectioner, has created a product specifically for U.S. chocolate consumers. The case explains the steps Torres and her NPD team have completed and describes the decisions that lie ahead, a few months in advance of the anticipated launch. A challenging situation is intensified by a competitor also having tested a dark-chocolate-with-fruit product that was likely to be introduced into the U.S. marketplace in the near future. Students must perform a quantitative analysis as part of their work.
Keywords: Competition; Food; Consumer Behavior; Nutrition; Product Launch; Product Development; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland; United States;
Quelch, John A., and Diane Badame. "Montreaux Chocolate USA: Are Americans Ready for Healthy Dark Chocolate?" Harvard Business School Brief Case 914-501, July 2013.
