Easter in Latin America means chocolate business opportunity in Brazil

Although Easter has a strong religious connotation in Spanish-speaking markets, the chocolate Easter eggs hold strong in Brazil and is beginning to be present in some Latin Markets, according to a survey released by eCMetrics and eCGlobal Solutions.

Miami, FL, April 04, 2012 – With the current Easter Holidays arriving, eCMetrics – a Social Media Consulting Agency – in conjunction with eCGlobal Solutions, owner of one of the largest online opinion communities in Latin America, conducted a survey to gauge the significance of Easter as a religious event and as moment to share Chocolate Ester Eggs in Latin America.

Religion vs Chocolate

According to the study, more than 50% of the Spanish-speaking market respondents perceive Easter as a true religious holiday. Much more than Brazil, where the event is seeing as well as a moment to share with family and to more than 20% of Brazilians, as an event exclusively to share chocolate eggs.

This chocolate tradition explains why almost 60% of Brazilians perform the practice of giving chocolate eggs to children during this holiday while in Spanish-speaking countries this percentage is lower (less than 35%.) Furthermore, in Latin countries outside Brazil almost 50% go to church during Easter while in Brazil this number is roughly 27%.

The tradition of the Easter bunny and giving chocolate eggs during that holiday is a European custom that came to Brazil with the German immigration at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, it became also a business opportunity for companies that produce chocolate in Brazil, beginning in the 1960s when Nestle launched its Easter chocolates in supermarkets across the nation.

“It becomes very clear in this study the impact that consumer products have even in religious holidays. The success of the chocolate Easter eggs is such that it became embedded in the Brazilian culture where is almost synonymous to Easter Holidays.   However, in similar Catholic Countries in Latin America this is not the case, with perhaps the exception of Argentina and Chile were we see the chocolate egg tradition getting strong (although much lower when compared to Brazil) ”, according to Ivan Casas, CEO of eCMetrics.

“The study presents us with two lessons: another example of the impact that consumer products have on culture and traditions, which is nothing new and we’ve seen many cases around the world, and differences across countries with similar cultures, such as in Latin America. Marketers need to understand these differences and specificities. Why not, perhaps there is growth opportunities for chocolate Easter eggs in Argentina and Chile”, added Ivan.

Brands make a difference with chocolate Easter eggs

For more than 75% of Brazilians, brand is important when choosing a chocolate egg. Nestle is the preferred brand to roughly 40% of respondents, both in Brazil and Spanish-speaking countries. In strong chocolate Brazil, “Cacau Show” came second as preferred brand (20% of Brazilian respondents) followed closely by Garoto (19%) and then Lacta with 16%.  However, in the more timid Latin countries for chocolate Easter Eggs, “Kinder” is well positioned in second place as preferred brand to 34% of respondents.

When asked if they had “favorite chocolate Easter eggs”, 30% of Brazilians said they did in contrast with 13% of non-Brazilians.  Although eCMetrics cannot conclude that there is a single type of chocolate Easter egg that stands out of the crowd in Brazil, more than 50% are concentrated in 9 types of eggs, in order of preference: Diamante Negro, Trufados, Alpino, Sonho de Valsa, Talento, Prestígio, Ferrero Rocher, Kinder Ovo and Serenata de Amor. For the other Latin American countries, Kinder stood out with more than 50% respondent mentioning it as a “favorite chocolate Easter egg.”

Supermarkets are still by far the channels by which consumers buy Chocolate Easter Eggs (more than 71% in Brazil and 61% in countries not including Brazil). Typically, almost 70% of Brazilians spend between USD $ 11 and USD $ 55 for Easter shopping. In the case of the Spanish-speaking countries, this number is more distributed with almost 50% spending less than USD$ 20 but about 40% spending between USD$ 20 and USD$ 50.

“The willingness of Latin Americans, specially Brazilians, to shop for Easter related products during this Holiday is an excellent opportunity for business to offer their products integrated with the Easter Holiday”, asserted Adriana Rocha, CEO of eCGlobal Solutions.

Social Media and Chocolate Easter Eggs in Brazil

Just like with the online survey, the results of the social media monitoring conclude that, in Brazil, the tradition of exchanging Chocolate Easter Eggs is very much consolidated. Within the most mentioned key words in 969 posts collected in Twitter during March 30^th, egg (ovo – 441 mentions) was the leader followed by “win” (162 tweets) and “chocolate” (44).

Out of all posts collected, 72 made direct reference to some specific brand of Easter Chocolate Eggs. Sonho de Valsa was the most mentioned followed by Kit Kat, Suflair, Diamante Negro, Alpino, Bis and the special commemorative egg of Lacta’s (a Brazilian chocolate brand) 100-years anniversary. The Round Egg of Skol (a Brazilian beer) was also between the Twitter users – generating a lot buzz in the micro-blog. Another highlight was Fiat’s Fiat 500 model Easter Egg, also mentioned on twitter.

Although in the online survey, Nestle came first as the preferred brand, in Twitter the leader in terms of mentions was Cacau Show (the second preferred brand in the online survey.)  Kopenhagen, Kinder e Ferrero Rocher came behind. However, the company that concentrated its Easter campaign in the “chocolate lovers” consumers came in fifth place in the social networks. Although Nestle appears in distant 5^th place, its innovative Easter Eggs where the attention of twitter users. The special Kit Kat egg and the innovator Suflair, that comes with a feeding spoon, where amongst the most desirable in social media.

There were people with their Status as “Status: accepting Easter Eggs”. The message was replicated 58 times. There are twitter users exchanging false people for Easter Eggs. The tweet “I exchange false people for Easter Eggs” with re-tweeted 56 times. Within the analyzed posts, 131 came from brand promotions form diverse companies and amongst them was a thematic egg of Zezé Di Camargo & Luciano (a Brazlian country music duet singers – its profile title @zcloficial became the most cited  title in the microblog. The promotional tweet was retweeded 44 times.

Methodology

The online survey was conducted by eCMetrics using eCGlobalPanel’s representative online panel of the Internet universe in Latin America, with 2.225 male and female participants from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Honduras, ages 18 to 72 years old. The sample size guarantees a 2.5% margin of error at a 95% confidence level.

The tweets analyzed came from the States of Sao Paulo (35.4%), Rio Grande do Sul (12.4%), Rio de Janeiro (8.8%), Paraná (8%) and 35,4% came from the other Brazilian States. Women tweeted more about Easter (54%) than males (46%) and the total posts analyzed reached approximately 2 million people.