Milka & The Missing Piece

In a crowded market place, it sometimes becomes essential to be weird rather than normal, to be outrageous rather than mild and to be inexplicably unusual rather than understandably usual. This is required to capture the attention of the target audience  and give a definite differentiation to your brand. Such a marketing strategy becomes much more relevant when one is a late entrant in an already competitive market.

Milka, the Swiss Chocolate Brand, was faced with a similar conundrum while being   launched  in France in 2013. Though Milka was an established brand dating back to 1901,  the French Market was still new to them and so the renowned Chocolatiers had to do something different to attract attention and generate interest in Milka. They roped in the Paris based Advertising Agency Buzzman, who came out with an unusual campaign, which motivated me to write this blog.

As suggested by Buzzman, the Chocolatiers removed one piece of chocolate from  millions of  bars of their Classic Milk Chocolate. Consumers who received the bar with the missing piece were given a code to be entered online, where they could either send the missing piece of chocolate to their friends or family members with a personalised message or enter their own address for the piece to be sent back to them. Though this was a weird idea, it had an element of surprise and was an attempt to engage the customer beyond just consuming the chocolate. It was like building a relationship with the consumers in France.

Though this idea did receive a bit of criticism( nothing new for an idea ), it generally was appreciated, particularly with the emotional connect  involved of gifting the missing piece to friends and relatives. Gifting a piece of chocolate was unusual and this  captured consumers’ imagination. Also a gift is a gift however small it may be and therefore there was a happiness quotient attached with the campaign. The outcome of the initiative  was good too and France did turn out to be one of the most business generating markets for Milka. 

There is lot of history which Milka carries, right from its founder Philippe Suchard, who started a patisserie in Neuchatel, Switzerland in 1825, to the beginning of the milk chocolate brand  in 1901, to its commercial manufacturing from Lorrach in Germany for more than 100 years, and eventually turning into one of the most sought after milk chocolate brands in Europe and beyond.  The brand has gone from strength to strength with its trademark Lilac packaging and its ‘ tenderness’ synonymous with it. 

Milka, owned by US based Mondelez International since 2012 ( taking over from Kraft Foods, which held the brand from 1990 ) has also been one of the major sponsors of winter sports, Alpine Skiing in particular. However, the interesting point is that inspite of such a strong history, reputation and being such a popular brand, Milka still required to dole out ‘the missing piece’ campaign. Branding efforts have to be dynamic to keep the interests of consumers engaged, and have to be distinct with an  element of surprise to keep the brand fresh as ever, is a lesson learnt.

Never take your eyes off smaller attributes….in marketing or branding or in life  every bit matters…a la piece of chocolate.