Noka Chocolate brouhaha goes mainstream (media)

by Teresa Gubbins

Slumbering-giant local-daily decides to acknowledge a "blog" for a change.

PLANO — In an uncharacteristically sentient gesture, the DMN did a piece acknowledging an expose on Plano chocolatier Noka that was written by a local food blog.

Dallasfood.org, written by an anonymous local foodie named Scott, recently did a 10-part series analyzing whether Noka’s exorbitant chocolate, sold on-line and at Neiman-Marcus, was worth the price. He calculated that the chocolate cost as high as $2,000 per pound.

The piece spread across the Internet, attracting international notice. Noka owners Noah Houghton and Katrina Merrem subsequently hired a publicist who specializes in damage-control. Noka reportedly pled their case to the newspaper, seeking some kind of published rebuttal, although the story is more a plodding trend piece about how blogs can harm a business.

Staff
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Anonymous

kirk, says:

The Morning News piece managed to miss a central point of Scott's series: The NoKa people try to create the impression that there is something "magical" about the "NoKa experience," when, in fact, they are selling tiny pieces of good quality but rudimentary chocolate to which they have added little or no value other than packaging.
They still perpetuate the idea that there is something special about their ingredients, and "the gifting experience."
There is such a thing as snob appeal, and they obviously capitalize on that. But if a marketer were to buy Chanel No. 5 in bulk and repackage it as "PerFume par ExCellence," selling it for 20 times as much (simply because it is in a fancier bottle), it is perfectly legitimate for someone to call them to task for that. NoKa's problem is not that they were exposed by a blogger; it's that they are selling sizzle and someone questioned the quality of the steak behind it. Their media relations adviser would have served them best by telling them to come clean about where they buy their raw materials, and what value they add (if any) to the product.

Anonymous

2 years, 10 months ago
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Alan Cohen, says:

You'd have to be drunk to pay that much for chocolate

Staff

2 years, 10 months ago
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kirk, says:

Good point, Alan. Grey Goose gets a significant premium for their product.

But if a marketer were simply buying Seagram's or Gilbey's and pouring it into cute bottles, then charging $1,000 a liter with a story that their product was carefully distilled to meet their exacting specifications, wouldn't you raise an eyebrow? Don't you think that would be the crux of a Pegasus News story on the marketer?