{"id":65369,"date":"2023-03-21T11:22:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T10:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/?p=65369"},"modified":"2023-03-21T11:22:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T10:22:42","slug":"toblerones-new-mountain-when-packaging-brands-a-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/en\/logo-news\/toblerones-new-mountain-when-packaging-brands-a-territory","title":{"rendered":"Toblerone’s new mountain: when packaging brands a territory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cervin-toblerone-montagne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Made in Switzerland since 1908, Toblerone chocolate will have to swich the image of its emblematic mountain on its packaging, the Matterhorn<\/strong>. The reason for this necessary change? Relocation, because of globalization. This is our opportunity to look at what makes a territorial brand image<\/strong>, between labels and visuals.<\/p>\n

Toblerone: made in Slovakia<\/h2>\n

Toblerone will now be produced in Slovakia, and the \"Swissness\" legislation prohibits the use of Suiss indicators<\/strong> from the chocolate country to promote it in a non-compliant way. Products labeled \"made in Switzerland\" must in fact contain at least 80% local ingredients made locally, and 100% for those containing milk (except for non-endemic materials, such as cocoa). The law indeed prohibits since 2017 to use the flag or other elements of the Swiss territory in food, industry or services. The Guardian newspaper points out that studies show that products with a Swiss label or image sell for 20% more, and up to 50% more for luxury products. By relocating its production, Toblerone no longer has the right to mention \"of Switzerland\" or to use the Matterhorn<\/strong>. The 4,478-meter-high Swiss mountain will be \"replaced by a more generic peak\" as the BBC explains, and the packaging will henceforth indicate \" established in Switzerland\".<\/p>\n

Toblerone already swiched identity (see images below) in 2022 with the agency Bulletproof<\/a>, redesigning its letters to be more faithful to the original logo, and highlighting the chocolate triangle with a new, more vintage, handwritten typeface as a \"genuine\" writing, a signature<\/strong>, which bears the name of its founder; Tobler. Below we see the typographic work, with fuller letters with a gourmet and vintage look, and the product's close-up. The new identity diverts the attention from an original and Swiss product to a gourmet and authentic product, even if it has nothing to do with Switzerland!<\/p>\n

\"toblerone-logo-avant-apres\"<\/a>\"triangle-toblerone-nouveau-logo-2022\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Until now the Toblerone Matterhorn also hid a bear, the heraldic symbol of the city of Bern, underlining twice its Swiss origin<\/strong>. One might think that this kind of bad publicity would be detrimental to the triangular brand, but when in 2016 Toblerone reduced the weight of its bars from 170g to 150g by spacing out the triangles, and then reduced their number from 15 to 11 a year later in Germany, sales soared...<\/p>\n

Swiss chocolate, a fresh brand image in the prairie<\/h2>\n

Swiss chocolate didn't bloom alone from a green Suiss prairie. It took at least three people to build the empire and the quality image it still has today. Although the first chocolate bar appeared in England in 1847, it was Fran\u00e7ois-Louis Cailler who invented the first mechanized chocolate factory in 1819 and set the chocolate stage amidst the snow-covered mountains, chalets and cows grazing in the Swiss Alps.<\/strong> At the end of the 19th century, Switzerland benefited from an important flow of foreign tourists who contributed to make their chocolate know-how and their delicious innovations known worldwide. These Suchard Milka posters from the beginning of the 20th century set the scene beautifully along with the shepherdess and her cows in the green valley, and the snowy peaks in the distance.<\/p>\n

\"affiches-publicites-milka-vintage\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Suchard and Milka, the golden milk lilac cow<\/h3>\n

Originally, Philippe Suchard built the image of the typical \"Swiss chocolate\"<\/strong>, by opening a chocolate factory and then his first (dark) chocolate factory in an old mill in 1825, sold as a product with multiple virtues. With the arrival of the train, he exported to Germany in 1880. There he registered the brand Milka<\/strong> (Milch und Kakao = milk + cocoa) in 1901 (in Germany, actually). Prosperous, the Swiss protectionist measures encouraged him to set up local branches in foreign countries and he opened factories in the United States, England, Argentina, Sweden and South Africa after the 1st World War, well before the trend of globalization! Suchard then relied on milk, an abundant and inexpensive local product in his country, to make chocolate... with milk. The cow in the mountain pastures was present since the bar creation but it appeared in 1973 in the advertisements.<\/strong> Only in 1988 the whole image was built around the animal, the Alps and the famous lilac color. Like Toblerone, Milka now belongs to the giant Mondel\u0113z (which owns oreo, tang, philadelphia... among others).<\/p>\n

\"affiches-publicites-milka-vintage\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Peter and Lindt, golden bars<\/h3>\n

We owe the first milk chocolate bars to Daniel Peter, Swiss (obviously), who fell in chocolate as he fell in love, marrying the daughter of a French chocolate maker. In Lyon, he thus invented powdered milk chocolate<\/strong>, around 1875 (Van Houten had invented powdered chocolate in 1828 thanks to a degreasing press that removed the butter from the beans), before selling his golden egg (in powder) to Nestl\u00e9 in 1929.<\/p>\n

The third person to revolutionize Swiss chocolate was Rodolphe Lindt: he invented the first creamy-textured chocolate<\/strong> when he accidentally forgot to turn off a machine one weekend, which made it melt! He sold his patent 20 years later to Tobler, another Swiss, founder of Toblerone (we'll come back to that). If the packaging did not yet feature the mountain back in the 1950s, the Matterhorn was clearly in the spotlight and the Swiss origin of Toblerone was undeniable<\/strong> (see pictures below).<\/p>\n

\"pub-vintage-tobler-toblerone-1959\"<\/a>\"toblerone-packaging-vintage-france\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Swiss chocolate, Greek feta and French Gruy\u00e8re<\/h2>\n

Milka's purple bars sold in Europe used to say \"Swiss milk\" and now less accurately state \"100% milk from the Alpine country\": an area large and fuzzy enough not to be named, yet still retain its aura. As for Toblerone, the brand image is sufficiently anchored in the minds of consumers to be able to evolve without fear, or almost.<\/strong> The production plants are now located all over Europe and we are far from the family factory with marmots, cows and chubby children that we used to see in the ads!<\/p>\n