Seattle Chocolate, based in 1991, practically met its finish only one decade into enterprise after the Nisqually Earthquake destroyed its manufacturing facility.
Jean Thompson, one in every of a few dozen of the corporate’s investors on the time, stepped in to reserve it. She grew to become the proprietor, salvaging the machines and transferring operations to a different location. Six weeks later, when the CEO give up, she assumed that place too — and by no means regarded again.
Within the greater than 20 years since, the corporate has grown from about 35 to 75 workers, does roughly $20 million in annual income, offers 10% internet earnings to fund initiatives to enhance the lives of cocoa farmers and have become carbon impartial in 2022.
Now the corporate is present process a daring, imaginative rebrand, introduced earlier this month — and altering its identify to Maeve.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Maeve
“In different areas, whereas we may get distribution, the customers did not pull it off the shelf.”
Thompson had by no means favored the identify Seattle Chocolate, noting it felt too limiting and regionally tied. ”The information was there that we did rather well in our personal yard, within the Pacific Northwest,” Thompson explains, “however in different areas, whereas we may get distribution, the customers did not pull it off the shelf.”
However the firm had been Seattle Chocolate for over 20 years. Thompson thought the time to revamp its name had come and gone.
Nevertheless, a dialog together with her daughter Ellie Thompson, the corporate’s model supervisor, modified her perspective. “She stated, ‘I like Seattle Chocolate, nevertheless it’s not cool,'” Thompson remembers.
Thompson agreed, and desperate to make the model interesting to new audiences like Gen Z, she got down to give it a makeover.
“ I am an evergreen firm,” Thompson says. “I do not need to flip; I do not need to simply promote the corporate. I need to put money into it in a approach that it is going to be round eternally as a result of I believe that is if you actually could make a distinction.”
“[It’s] this actually whimsical [design], and it virtually takes you to a spot of fantasy.”
Few folks know that the corporate is woman-owned, so that they wished to steer with a reputation indicating that, Thompson says. Nonetheless, touchdown on the corporate’s new identify and branding took a few 12 months — and wasn’t with out its challenges.
Finally, Thompson labored with three totally different companies on the rebrand. The primary company gave them a reputation that lots of people favored, however Thompson wasn’t bought. Ultimately, they could not get the trademark, so it was again to the drafting board.
A second company would assist with the model’s new identify. Thompson quipped to the staff that the “chocolate goddess” had been searching for her by stopping the trademark, and that set them down a brand new inventive path: goddess names. “Maeve” was one in every of them — and it resonated on twin fronts.
“She is a first-century Irish warrior queen who believes girls are equals,” Thompson says, “and every time I inform that story, I am going like, ‘Wow. Novel idea.’ She additionally [hailed] from the area of Eire that my grandparents have been from. So I am like, I believe she’s my lady.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Maeve
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Thompson labored with a 3rd company to create the branding design that exists immediately.
Now, Maeve’s colourful homepage, dynamic with illustrations of waves, a ship and a mermaid, invitations guests to “Include us to a faraway land” earlier than giving method to one other show that reintroduces Seattle Chocolate as Maeve, “the place moral meets scrumptious.”
“[It’s] this actually whimsical [design], and it virtually takes you to a spot of fantasy,” Thompson says. Chocolate itself is at all times an escape, Thompson provides, however Maeve’s new branding gives customers one other layer of escapism: replete with “tongue-in-cheek” product descriptions and a enjoyable solid of characters.
“You possibly can construct a complete fantasy world,” Thompson explains. “[The agency] even developed a map for us. We need to blow the doorways off of how chocolate’s ever been marketed earlier than.”
“You must observe your intestine since you are setting the course for this particular firm.”
A number of components have helped Maeve pull off an efficient rebrand thus far, in accordance with Thompson.
First, Thompson made certain to contain groups throughout your complete firm within the course of from the very starting. It was essential to get any fears and issues out within the open so that they may very well be addressed, Thompson says.
The staff additionally needed to analyze each side of the then-current product line. The reevaluation led to some modifications, like swapping the “truffle” designation to “bonbon” and axing sure flavors that have been cumbersome to supply. Permitting ample time to refine the product providing — which took about three years for Maeve — helped lay a strong basis for the rebrand.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Maeve
Speaking the change to the corporate’s loyal customers was additionally important and typically difficult.
Shoppers within the Pacific Northwest who’d liked the chocolate for years felt considerably “betrayed” by the identify change, Thompson explains. Maeve has met the “little little bit of unfavourable blowback” with a promise to supply the identical high quality product and dedication to its values.
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A essential lesson Thompson’s discovered over the course of Maeve’s rebrand — and one she recommends all entrepreneurs take to coronary heart — is simply how essential it’s to take heed to your instincts.
“You must follow your gut since you are setting the course for this particular firm,” Thompson says. “You’re the engine. For those who do not belief your self, then you are going to misstep and be mad at your self. For those who belief your self, [even if] you observe your intestine and also you fail, [at least you can say], ‘However that is what I assumed was proper.'”
