As unconventional challenger brands go, Tony’s Chocolonely is pure textbook.

Set up by TV producer and investigative journalist Teun van de Keuken in 2005, the brand quickly came to prominence in its native Netherlands for its eccentric founder’s numerous high-profile PR stunts. While intentionally outrageous – and some might argue ridiculous – these were all in support of a deeply important message: that some of the world’s biggest producers were turning a blind eye to human exploitation in the global cocoa trade.

At its core then, Tony’s Chocolonely is a brand on a mission. Naturally, it aims to make a profit – but also to incrementally change the way in which grassroots cocoa producers are treated and remunerated.

As the brand’s global head of creative, Emma Baines has a vital role to play in both spreading this message, and ensuring that Tony’s Chocolonely’s voice is heard in a crowded international marketplace.

Lidl’s ‘naughty’ copycat

This mission is all the more vital when you get to grips with the trade’s shocking statistics; the most recent estimates suggest that as many as 1.56 million children are currently being put to work on cocoa farms.

And the situation isn’t much better for the cocoa farmers themselves, earning on average 7 cents from every €1.50 bar. Most will only go to earn €1.50 for a whole day’s work.

This is why Lidl’s decision to release a ‘copycat’ version of the famously unique Tony’s Chocolonely bar (which is made up of unequal tablets to represent the inequality of the cocoa trade) has proved so controversial.

Yes, some might consider it the purest form of flattery – but Lidl’s product ignores one fundamental aspect of the Tony’s Chocolonely brand: its steadfast commitment to its sourcing principles.

Speaking exclusively to Marketing Beat at Frontify’s Paradigms brand conference in Rome, Baines unapologetically laid bare her thoughts on the matter:

“Well that’s just naughty isn’t it? I think it’s really cheeky to take something that does good and rip it off. That’s my opinion. There are moments where I think it’s flattering, but copy the right part of it!

“Copy the sourcing principles, join Tony’s’ open chain. We’d like them to join us. We can see that they’ve created an unequally shaped bar and I think that’s where we get a bit disappointed.”

It is these sourcing principles that guide the brand’s actions on the ground and permeate every facet of its strategy.

“We do a lot of reporting in our AFR report, which is our annual fair report. This is something we’ve been doing for years that a lot of other companies don’t necessarily always do, but we do it, and it includes all of our data, all of our numbers.

“We have five sourcing principles that we can look at and make sure that we are tracking against them, the guiding principle of which is traceable beans.”

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Making a difference

Tony’s’ guiding principles put Baines in a rather unique – and perhaps enviable position as a creative: producing undeniably fun, quirky campaigns but all backed with a serious, tangible mission.

When your main remit is to sell – it must be rewarding to see that your work can go some way towards making a real difference in the world.

However – Tony’s’ mission can at times cause some teething problems for its creative team. It altruistic remuneration principle mean that it simply doesn’t have the budget of the industry’s big players – giving its creatives the tough task of devising truly memorable work on a comparative shoestring.

And by and large, they tend to succeed. The brand now has 98% awareness in its native Dutch market, and is posting steadily improving figures of around 20% in the UK and US.

“Our mission is the reason we all come to work in the morning, it’s innately in all of us, we all have this North Star that we’re following,” Baines explains.

“It is debated at times whether to prioritise the product or the mission first, but we’re under no illusion – people will come for the product, and stay for the mission.”

“It’s hugely rewarding, I used to have this saying: “We don’t have parachutes.” No one’s gonna die if this piece of creative doesn’t go out. But with Tony’s, whilst we might not be saving lives, we are changing them.”

It is for these reasons, and its outlandish, news-jacking campaigns no doubt, that Tony’s will continue to prove highly successful in Western Europe and the US. Its clear, vital message and vibrant brand identity are simply irresistible against the faceless big players. It can only be hoped that Tony’s ironclad principles will inform other brands’ strategies over time.

And for the discerning customer – it doesn’t taste too bad either.