Godiva Creates Special Chocolate For Chinese New Year

Hong Kong – Godiva Chocolate Is New Kid On The Asia Block

Mandarin oranges, peanut candy and glutinous rice cakes have historically been the biggest foods contending for space on the snack platters of Lunar New Year festivities in Asia and around the world.

Now there is another kid on the block: Godiva chocolate.

The New York chocolatier, recognized because of its trendy shops, rolled out limited-edition chocolates and gift boxes this year specialized to appeal to Asian palates in the United States, congruent with the landmark holiday.

“Asian clientele like deluxe, premium brands, and Godiva is the Rolls-Royce of chocolates.”

Godiva Releases New Chocolate Collection To Coincide With “Chinese New Year”

The concept of developing a unique product for a particular market is absolutely nothing new. However the New Year chocolates have proven particularly profitable for Godiva mainly because of the gift-giving habits in Asian countries.

Of the 10,000 boxes for sale at 90 stores around the country, “well over half” are sold. Markets with large Asian communities like the Bay Area and Southern California have seen multitudes of individuals sweeping up the candy.

Sacramento’s Arden Fair boutique, for one, sold out of the Matcha Green Tea flavor last week, according to store manager Suzanne Lopez. The organization has 24 locations in California.

The most pricey collection ($120 for 32 pieces) in the Lunar New Year line comes prepackaged in a box sealed in red velvet – a lucky color in China. It’s no coincidence that the cover of the box conspicuously features the company’s logo, Lady Godiva riding a horse – 2014 is their year of the horse, in accordance to the Chinese zodiac calendar.

The four chocolates made solely for the holiday are made from ingredients that appeal to Asian taste buds, Finard said: Matcha Green Tea, Dark Caramel Pear, Milk Cherry Almond and White Pineapple Macadamia.

With the purchase of the $120 box, you additionally get 8 red envelopes, which are customarily passed to children and elders stuffed with cash.

Marketing And Packaging Appeals To Chinese Cultural Tastes

The organization plays on established Chinese superstitions for riches with its creation and marketing of the line of chocolates. For example, in the 32-piece box, eight pieces of each variety are included, since the number eight in Mandarin sounds like the word for “creating riches.” Pineapple is often found at Lunar festivities mainly because, in the Taiwanese dialect, the fruit sounds like the “approaching of wealth.”

Rung Fong Hsu of Sacramento, who accepted the large collection as a gift from family members, characterized the package with one word: “beautiful.”

“After eating the chocolate, I can use the box to store my jewelry,” Hsu said in Mandarin.

A native of Taiwan, Hsu often gives loads of Godiva chocolates to her loved ones in Asia because of the brand’s cachet.

“People know it’s deluxe as well as high quality chocolate,” said Hsu, a founding member of the Chinese New Year Culture Association.

Godiva has long displayed various flavored chocolates for its Asian boutiques, but 2014 is the first time Asian-themed products makes their way to shelves in the United States on a grand scale. The company last year did a small test run in three Southern California stores, generating great success.

New Year Chocolate Collection Appeals To Chinese “Gift Giving”

The 88-year-old company has introduced an advertising blitz to market the collection, running ads in major Chinese language newspapers, converting its American website to Chinese and even contracting a Chinese-American singer, Jason Chen, to produce a music video about chocolates.

Though the Lunar New Year collections sell for about twice the cost of a regular package, customers are nonetheless ponying up.

Chinese New Year is a occasion for gift-giving,” Dukes said. “Your eagerness to pay is higher if you’re shopping for it for somebody else. You’ll really want to impress.

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