2019 has seen us undertake the refresh of our brand, with the aim of modernising our packaging and logo. It’s quite interesting when you sit back to work through the process, as it makes you ask questions of where you started, and how you imagine the business will change and grow over the next few years.
This was where we found ourselves when we began to chat through how we saw our current logo, and our name. You see; the name Choc affair came about without imagining a business that would see it’s products spread throughout the UK and beyond; with no thought to how that name would sound when answering a phone, or when telling someone your website details. I mean – that never even crossed my mind, I certainly wasn’t looking that far ahead. I was a mum, all set to start making a product I thought would sell; not a woman with a business plan and an ambition to employ a team of people.
It all began at a girl’s night with my friends gathered, tasting the hot chocolate stirrers and letting me know what they thought, and how it made them feel. Give a few girls a glass of wine and some chocolate, and well; the conversation flows! We chatted about how chocolate felt a bit of a guilty pleasure; indulgent, naughty, and oh so nice… How in secret, it’s a little like the idea of a love affair; and from that evening came our name. This then developed into a matter of the heart being at the centre – and so our logo was born, with a heart, which has stayed with us for the first 12 years of our journey.
Our re-brand meant we needed to look back over the years to see how we felt about our logo, and if it bore any reflection as to who we are as a company. From this has been many a discussion as we’ve unpicked our values and beliefs to see if we are who we say we are. I am so relieved that as we’ve gone through this process, we’ve ended up coming to the conclusion that at the centre of us, as an independent, family-run business, there is a small company with a big heart; as we try to do things in the right way, and with integrity. Have we always got it right? No – I don’t think so. At times it has been messy, and we’ve made some decisions that have been the wrong ones; but something has always prevented us from moving too far away from our central beliefs, bringing us back to our heart.
The focus of our work is about people; people at the centre of everything. From the cocoa grower in Colombia, to the ladies and gentlemen that we employ (who would otherwise find it difficult to enter the workplace); it is the people who make our business what it is.
So with now being the opportune time to move away from having a heart as part of our logo, the journey we’ve gone on with our re-brand has made us realise all the more that our heart is what keeps us on track, and holds us to our beliefs and values. That it is without a doubt the centre of Choc Affair; we could change the font, change the colour, or change the style; but we had to keep the heart at the centre.
I am absolutely delighted with our new look; I think it’s fresh and exciting, and ready to hold us true whilst taking us through the next chapter of our story.
Linda x