Nestle Goes for the Gold With 'Pocahontas' Candy Bars

No, you're not crazy. That is an American Indian maiden and a blonde-haired gentleman paddling a canoe in your supermarket!Step a little closer and you'll realize that what you're seeing is a floorstand display for Nestle's new Pocahontas Milk Chocolate Bars.Nestle Chocolate & Confections, a division of Nestle Food Co., Glendale, Calif., has introduced its new series of seven molded and etched, 2.5-oz. chocolate bars with scenes from Disney's blockbuster animated movie, "Pocahontas." The characters on the bars include Pocahontas, the famous American Indian heroine, and Capt. John Smith, the famed British soldier who was her friend. Nestle has temporarily replaced its red and white wrapper and silver foil inner wrap with a colorful wrapper -- featuring Pocahontas and Smith in a forest setting -- and gold foil inner wrap."Our chocolate bar molds are on the cutting edge," says Tricia Bowles, manager, Nestle Chocolate & Confections. "No other candy company is doing this with chocolate yet. It is chocolate art."The chocolate bars will be offered for a limited time at a suggested price range of 79 to 99 cents each. They became available nationwide in June to distributors, supermarkets, mass merchants, convenience stores and drugstores. "Pocahontas" opened in movie theaters nationwide on June 23.Nestle is supporting the promotion with three different P-O-P displays: a floorstand, a countertop carton and a sidekick. All three feature a 3-D header card.The floorstand display, which holds 240 chocolate bars, is corrugated. "The header is multi-layered and the back of the box reflects the store lighting into the foreground and freezes the key scene of Pocahontas and Capt. Smith in the canoe," says John Alvarez, regional manager, Chesapeake Display & Packaging Co., Winston-Salem, N.C. The company created the structural and graphic design for the floorstand and sidekick displays and manufactured the units as well.On the side of the floorstand display is an image of another of Disney's "Pocahontas" characters, Grandmother Willow. Alvarez says the company employed a four-color process flexo-graphic technique to create it. On the front of the display, beneath the candy bars, is Meeko, the raccoon and Flit, the hummingbird."We added the raccoon and bird to appeal to youngsters at their eye level," explains Bowles. "We want to attract the attention of adults and children alike. We've taken the magic and the excitement that Disney brings to movies and transferred it to a floor display."The sidekick display, which holds 192 chocolate bars, was designed for accounts with 'clean floor policies,' primarily drug and convenience stores. It extends out only 9 inches in depth.Bowles says the length of the promotion will be about three months. "Creativity, flexibility and versatility are crucial in this business," she explains. "Chocolate is an impulse-driven product that does not get on people's grocery lists. It requires more of a draw than other products might need. Therefore, our challenge in the chocolate industry is to create unique displays. We need to make an impact on consumers," Bowles states.Alvarez agrees: "What Nestle allowed us to do was cutting edge. They asked us to create an entire retail environment, which was exciting from a design and manufacturing standpoint."Additionally, Nestle is supporting the promotion with 30-second television commercials featuring clips from the Disney film.Don't worry chocoholics, Nestle thought about everything with this promotion. On the back of each Pocahontas bar is a photograph of the Nestle Milk Chocolate Bar in its familiar red and white wrapper and silver foil. When the promotion is over and you get a chocolate impulse, you'll have no problem finding the right chocolate bar.

Nestle Goes for the Gold With 'Pocahontas' Candy Bars

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