Ask What Japan Thinks: Chocolate brands

Welcome to a new irregular feature, where I will try to answer queries from my mailbag (and other questions prompted by the buzz of 103bees).

This time, a reader named A.P. emailed to ask what brands of chocolate the Japanese like. Off the top of my head, regarding bar-type just chocolate products, Ghana would appear to be the number one brand name. Thinking about chocolate-based sweets, tops would have to be Pocky of course. For premuim brands, the local brand Royce, USA ones like See’s and Mary’s, and Belgium’s (well, manufactured under licence from Belgium) Godiva. There are also a number of smaller speciality chocolatiers dotted all around the country, whose products can sometimes be found in department store basement food courts.

There was a boom in bitter chocolate last year, but that was mostly spurred on by fakery from Hakkutsu! Aru-Aru Daijiten.

This year I translated a St Valentine’s Day survey that listed the top chocolate brands for both co-workers and lovers, which might be a starting point for finding out what Japan thinks. Tops for co-workers, favouring, perhaps, low-end premium brands were Morozoff, Royce and Godiva; for lovers, where taste may outweigh cost concerns, the ranking was Godiva, Royce and Pierre Marcolini.

Looking further around the web I discovered the following from Japan Consumer Marketing Research Institute:

Over the end of October and the start of November 2006 they interviewed 635 people from their online monitor group. 50.1% were female, and for both sexes roughly a third were in their twenties, a third in their thirties, and a third in their forties. This survey looked at brand awareness of both straight chocolate and chocolate-based sweets.

Research results

Q1: Which of the following brands do you know? (Sample size=635, multiple answer)

Rank	Brand	Percentage
1	Glico Pocky	93.8%
2	Morinaga Koeda	93.0%
3	Meiji Milk Chocolate	92.4%
4	Lotte Ghana	88.5%
5	Morinaga Chocoball	88.1%
6	Morinaga DARS	87.8%
7	Lotte Toppo	87.5%
8	Lotte Crunky	84.2%
9	Meiji Fran	83.6%
10=	Meiji Black Chocolate	79.7%
10=	Lotte Almond Chocolate	79.7%
12	Glico Almond Chocolate	78.8%
13	Morinaga Milk Chocolate	77.8%
14	Lotte Cacao no Megumi	65.8%
15	Meiji White Chocolate	61.9%
16	Meiji Strawberry Chocolate	57.9%
17	Meiji Chocolate Kouka	57.7%
18	Hersey’s Kisses Choco	55.1%
19	Glico Mental Balance Choco GABA	49.1%
20	Meiji Deluxe Chocolate	36.5%

Q2: Which of the following brands have you ever tasted? (Sample size=635, multiple answer)

Rank	Brand	Percentage
1	Glico Pocky	88.5%
2	Morinaga Koeda	85.6%
3	Meiji Milk Chocolate	81.9%
4	Morinaga Chocoball	81.6%
5	Morinaga DARS	76.1%
6	Lotte Toppo	75.0%
7	Lotte Ghana	73.9%
8	Lotte Crunky	68.5%
9	Meiji Fran	68.5%
10	Glico Almond Chocolate	66.6%
11	Lotte Almond Chocolate	66.3%
12=	Meiji Black Chocolate	61.5%
12=	Morinaga Milk Chocolate	61.5%
14	Hersey’s Kisses Choco	44.6%
15	Meiji Strawberry Chocolate	42.4%
16	Meiji White Chocolate	42.1%
17	Lotte Cacao no Megumi	39.6%
18	Meiji Chocolate Kouka	37.6%
19	Glico Mental Balance Choco GABA	29.6%
20	Meiji Deluxe Chocolate	20.9%

Q3: Which of the following brands have you eaten within the last three months? (Sample size=635, multiple answer)

Rank	Brand	Percentage
1	Glico Pocky	33.1%
2	Morinaga DARS	29.3%
3	Morinaga Koeda	27.9%
4	Lotte Toppo	25.1%
5	Meiji Fran	23.6%
6	Meiji Milk Chocolate	23.2%
7	Meiji Chocolate Kouka	19.0%
8	Morinaga Chocoball	18.6%
9	Lotte Crunky	18.3%
10	Meiji Black Chocolate	17.2%
11	Lotte Ghana	15.6%
12	Glico Almond Chocolate	15.4%
13	Lotte Almond Chocolate	15.3%
14	Morinaga Milk Chocolate	14.0%
15	Lotte Cacao no Megumi	12.5%
16	Glico Mental Balance Choco GABA	12.2%
17	Meiji Strawberry Chocolate	8.7%
18	Meiji White Chocolate	7.8%
19	Hersey’s Kisses Choco	5.3%
20	Meiji Choco Life	4.8%

Q4: Which of the following brands have come up in conversation within the last three months? (Sample size=635, multiple answer)

Rank	Brand	Percentage
1	Glico Pocky	12.2%
2	Meiji Chocolate Kouka	10.1%
3	Meiji Fran	8.6%
4	Glico Mental Balance Choco GABA	8.3%
5	Lotte Toppo	7.3%
6	Morinaga DARS	7.0%
7	Morinaga Chocoball	6.9%
8	Morinaga Koeda	6.7%
9=	Meiji Milk Chocolate	5.6%
9=	Lotte Cacao no Megumi	5.6%
11	Glico Almond Chocolate	5.1%
12=	Lotte Ghana	4.2%
12=	Lotte Crunky	4.2%
14	Lotte Almond Chocolate	4.1%
15	Meiji Black Chocolate	3.6%
16	Meiji Choco Life	3.1%
17	Morinaga Milk Chocolate	3.0%
18	Meiji Strawberry Chocolate	2.8%
19	Hersey’s Kisses Choco	2.7%
20	Meiji White Chocolate	2.0%

The reason for this Q4 was that GABA, polyphenol, and fibre in dark chocolate had been highlighted by “health” programs as beneficial. Specifically, Lotte Cacao no Megumi, Meiji Chocolate Kouka and Glico Mental Balance Choco GABA bill themselves as functional foods.

Q5: Which of the following brands do you want to buy in the future? (Sample size=635, multiple answer)

Rank	Brand	Percentage
1	Glico Pocky	52.3%
2	Morinaga Koeda	48.2%
3	Morinaga DARS	40.7%
4	Meiji Milk Chocolate	39.9%
5	Lotte Crunky	36.7%
6	Meiji Fran	35.7%
7	Morinaga Chocoball	35.4%
8	Lotte Toppo	34.6%
9	Lotte Ghana	32.6%
10	Glico Almond Chocolate	32.1%
11	Lotte Almond Chocolate	30.0%
12	Meiji Black Chocolate	28.9%
13	Morinaga Milk Chocolate	26.8%
14	Meiji Chocolate Kouka	21.1%
15	Lotte Cacao no Megumi	19.7%
16	Meiji Strawberry Chocolate	19.5%
17	Meiji White Chocolate	19.0%
18	Glico Mental Balance Choco GABA	17.2%
19	Hersey’s Kisses Choco	17.0%
16	Meiji Deluxe Chocolate	9.7%

Next, a summary of one from MacroMill:

They found that 71.0% of their small sample of 490 chocolate eaters wanted to eat chocolate when tired or stressed, 65.3% ate as a snack, and 53.3% when hungry in between meals. The most favourite type of chocolate was bar-type, with 63.9% liking it, 58.1% chose fresh chocolate, and 55.8% almond chocolate. When asked to name the first high-class chocolate brand that came to mind, 49.0% chose Godiva, 6.0% Morozoff, and 4.5% Royce.

Now one from infoPLANT and Desk Top Research as resported by ZD Net:

12,074 users of NTT DoCoMo’s iMode chose to complete a survey available through their mobile phones over a week in the middle of October 2005. 72.1% of this self-selecting sample was female.

Research results

36.0% of men and 55.3% of women bought chocolate at least once a week. Looking at the average amount of money spent on chocolate-based products per month, a quarter spent just 100 to 300 yen, and another quarter spent 300 to 500 yen, or 25.3% and 25.2% repectively. In addition, 15.4% spent betweem 500 and 700 yen, 15.2% 700 to 1,000 yen, and 12.7% 1,000 to 3,000 yen. Looking at the data by sex, 36.5% of men spent over 500 yen per month, whereas nearly half (49.0%) of women spent the same amount.

Regarding where they shopped, the most common location was at a supermarket, with 70.8% using one, followed by 67.0% who got their chocolate fix at a convenience store. Men preferred convenience stores, women supermarkets.

Finally one from MDB Net Survey:

409 women aged 20 or over from both the Tokyo and Osaka conurbations successfully completed an internet-based survey between the 26th and 28th of January 2007, on the subject of St Valentine’s Day chocolate.

Research results

Q1: What brand do you want to send to your true love on St Valentine’s Day? (Sample size=409, multiple answer)

Godiva	36.4%
Hand-made	17.6%
Royce	12.2%
Morozoff	9.3%
Rokkatei	8.6%
Fauchon	8.1%
Maxim’s de Paris	7.6%
Pierre Marcolini	7.3%
Other	6.8%
Don’t want to send any	24.4%

Q2: What country has an image of having delicious chocolate? (Sample size=409, multiple answer)

Belgium	65.5%
Japan	42.3%
Switzerland	40.6%
France	31.3%
Austria	10.8%
UK	10.0%
Germany	9.8%
USA	7.6%
Canada	7.1%
Don’t know, none in particular	7.1%

I hope the above answers your question!