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05.07.2008

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UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER REDEFINTION OF QUALITY

Quality is undergoing a makeover. Premium Experiences: Understanding the Consumer Redefinition of Quality focuses on documenting how consumers define premium products.

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The Dark Side of Quality

Do you hear it? One would think the sound of all that foil and paper being pulled, peeled and ripped would be deafening. All across America, the dark side of quality is being revealed one silky, bitter, smooth, decadent bite at a time. That it tastes like chocolate should be no big surprise either. Americans have a deep love affair with chocolate — and lots of it.

Numbers from research firm Mintel pegged premium chocolate sales increasing 129% between 2001 and 2006 when it exceeded $2 billion (or about 13% of the total chocolate market). The outlook on premium chocolate sales in the U.S. is for continued growth well into the next decade.

Consumers want quality; they gravitate toward higher levels of quality. In recent years, arguably, nothing says “better quality” to consumers than deluxe chocolate. And, we ain’t talking about your average, garden-variety candy bar.

Chocolate, Recchiuti Style: Every Day is a Special Occasion

One glance at the chocolates on display in Michael Recchiuti’s signature store in The Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco, or in Dean & Deluca, New York, and you quickly realize that you are in the presence of miniature masterpieces, true works of art. Should they be framed rather than eaten? Is there a security guard in sight?

“Really fine confections evoke a similar experience or feeling you have when you walk into a fine jewelry store. Just like jewelry, the chocolates have a precious quality; they’re colorful, they’re shiny,” explained the effervescent master chocolatier, Michael Recchiuti.

Listening to Recchiuti talk about chocolate, it is easy to conjure up images of baubles designed by Tiffany or luxurious bags crafted by Louis Vuitton. From Recchiuti’s perspective, his chocolates are “really a high quality gift item that can be very precious to people. I love the gift aspect of chocolate and how special it can make people feel.”

Chocolate’s multi-faceted relationship with culture stems from its ability to satisfy diverse consumer emotions and occasions — it can be a treat, it can comfort and it can impress. Looking at Recchiuti’s chocolates one can easily be lulled into the false impression that these little works of chocolate art are reserved only for special occasions.

“In France or Italy or elsewhere in Europe, people think nothing of going into a chocolate shop for a bon-bon…they do this on a daily basis,” Recchiuti said. “I guess it represents how they are able to moderately enjoy great things. I’d say it relates to the French Paradox.”

As a growing number of consumers seek out better quality foods and food product experiences, chocolatiers like Recchiuti are deepening their confectionary offerings with passion, flavor, narratives and a profound spirit of experimentation and innovation. While chocolate cannot reveal all things about the consumer redefinition of quality, looking at chocolate through the consumer lens provides a framework of understanding the consumer’s quest for heightened experiences beyond the ordinary.

In the now relentless pursuit of higher level sensibilities, chocolate serves as a delicious analogy for the long-term cultural trend toward premium as consumers seek to align their values with products and brands that appeal to their emotions, intellect and spirit. Chocolate empires, such as those created by Mars and Hershey’s, have delivered the average consumer a modicum of milk chocolate-laden satisfaction — within easy reach and seemingly at every checkout in America. It’s not about creating a dark chocolate version of M&M’s or dark vs. milk chocolate.

That once niche, artisan brands are finding their way to mass-market retailer shelves, crowding out the likes of Mr. Goodbar and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups stems directly from the growing consumer dissatisfaction with “ordinary” and a desire to upgrade on a very regular basis to products like those crafted by Recchiuti. “I have people coming into my store here [San Francisco], and they might be from the financial district and just get a certain treat each day (and they clearly can afford it),” Recchiuti explained. “But I also know of customers who save up to buy a box of chocolates from us so they can work on the box over a period of time…then they save up and buy one a month later.” To assume that quality is reserved only for the rich is shortsighted.

Hanging Out at Farmers’ Markets

Michael Recchiuti is not one to rest on his laurels. He is willing to try something new, driven by the belief that “once you introduce people to truly exquisite chocolates they will be won over instantly and forever.” This openness to exchange, whether it is ideas or ingredients, is central to his belief system. “For the first five years of our business, when we were at the farmers’ market in San Francisco, we learned that people will share their passions with you,” Recchiuti recounted, referring to his early days of honing his craft. “At the market, I would listen to people when they talked and then I would try and make something and return to the next week to see if people liked it.”

In the early days, before the farmers’ market moved indoors at the ferry terminal, Recchiuti spent many a Saturday, rain or shine, in the parking lot alongside farmers and other artisans. “Five to seven thousand people would show up. Listening to consumers, that’s how our first set of eight recipes was born, then the next eight and so on. Getting a sense from our customers’ likes and dislikes with our products is the foundation of our recipes. It really helps drive the focus of our business and it helps us understand how to develop new recipes.”

Recchiuti’s affinity for farmers’s markets continues. “Farmers’ markets are popping up all over the place; they’re local and sustainable within a variety of areas throughout the U.S. This doesn’t even take into account other parts of the world where farmers’ markets are an intrinsic aspect of the culture. Today, it’s all shared through communication, through blogs. It is everyone being able to move around, read, touch and feel things.”

The Complexity of Quality

What’s a quality food experience to a world-renowned master chocolate craftsman? Would you believe fries from McDonald’s? As Recchiuti explains, understanding quality is very much about understanding context. “My idea of quality is really based on my experience, my friends and my community. It’s hard to say that everything I’ve been exposed to is of high quality, but it all relates to the inspiration,” Recchiuti said. “I always try to branch out and try things. Every once in awhile I go to McDonald’s for fries because there is something about them I really like. I’m not always disciplined in the best things in life because I think having these vices and experiences and understanding going to the best restaurants, like the French Laundry, or having fries at McDonald’s is just as powerful in their own way. That’s how I share myself in the flavors I develop.”

Context lends meaning to Recchiuti’s own chocolate experience: “I love Junior Mints. If you see me at a movie theater, there would probably be a Junior Mints sticking out of my pocket. My wife would bring one or our own bars. I’m trying to figure out how to make a really wonderful Junior Mint. There’s something really fascinating about that.”

Recchiuti won’t divulge what to expect next from him, offering instead, one tiny morsel to contemplate, “I’m always wondering how can I take an existing experience and make it better.”

These last words strike a certain chord with us. For several years now, The Hartman Group has talked about a number of tenets that should resonate with anyone with a stake in taking their business, brand, product or service to the next level. These include:

Understand how consumers are redefining quality
Culture has shifted to a consumer culture where contemporary consumers are infatuated with authentic, high-quality experiences with few boundaries
The consumer, not the industry, is changing definitions of categories
Special occasions are now everyday occasions
Context and culture of food and life is always changing
Community of chocolate is about seeing something special together

For more about Michael Recchiuti, visit his website: www.recchiuti.com.

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