Time for A Reset: Balancing Profit vs Purpose at a Tony’s Chocolonis: A Mission Centric Company

Tune in to: Time for A Reset

A company’s mission clarifies its purpose and defines its direction in all business decisions. Typically, the mission is larger than normal metrics like profitability and market share. While almost all companies have a mission statement, only a handful truly live their mission daily. We’re going to look at one of those companies.


Time for A Reset Podcast with Aidaly Sosa the Head of Marketing USA at Tony’s Chocolonely, a chocolate brand committed to using cocoa that is free of slavery and child labour. In this episode, she explains that things aren’t shared fairly in the chocolate supply chain. The chain starts with the farmers that produce cocoa and ends with the billions of consumers that enjoy chocolate. However, the section between the two is dominated by a group of chocolate giants that profit from keeping the cocoa purchasing price as low as possible, and for the farmers, this creates a poverty trap that leads to illegal child labour and modern slavery.

The Company Mission

To keep chocolate slavery free is the company’s North Star, and all business operations pivot around this mission. Aidaly explains how mission-centric companies have well-defined North Stars, which is the purpose of their existence. The mission at her company is to eliminate exploitation across their cocoa supply chain, and all other business activities, including product design and marketing, align with the mission.


Let the Product tell the Brand Story


When a company lives by a focused mission, it uses all possible vehicles to spread the word and what vehicle could be more powerful than the product itself. A purpose-led company wants to communicate and reinforce its mission at every customer touchpoint. The product is a big lever in this communication. Aidaly walks us through how Tony’s chocolate bar accomplishes this. It is bigger and thicker for a start to stand out; hey, we’re doing things differently. The back of the chocolate has a one-line mission statement, and when you open the bar, you first see an insert explaining the mission in greater detail. When you remove the wrapper foil, you see that the bar is divided unequally, a testament to the unequally divided cocoa cultivation industry.


The product is a powerful vehicle for creating awareness of the brand’s purpose, yet how many companies can you think of that take it to this level?


Consistency in Messaging


Consistent messaging that aligns with the company mission comes organically at purpose-led companies. All communication is built around the company mission, and the basic objective of the communication is to create awareness of the mission. The product and its attributes come second. This also allows the customer to buy into the purpose in addition to the physical product leading to greater customer loyalty.


Evidence suggests that if customers align with the brand mission, they are more likely to pay a slight premium for the product. In the customer’s mind-eye, it is their contribution to making the world a more equitable place.


Is Purpose vs Profit a Dichotomy?


Aidaly mentions that the dichotomy is a myth and that it’s possible for a purpose-driven company to be profitable as well. She says more companies should step out of the shadows and discover their own North Star, thereby improving the world around us.


The thought process of a conscious buyer cannot be ignored. There has been a widespread movement of consumers increasingly prioritizing Corporate Social Responsibility as important as product aspects like convenience and price. 86% of consumers believe that companies should take a stand for social issues.

About Aidaly Sosa

Aidaly Sosa, the Head of Marketing USA at Tony’s Chocolonely, was born and raised in Curaçao with an innate curiosity and love for travel. Her adventurous spirit brought her to Amsterdam, where she studied and graduated with a degree in International Business. She has a 10-year career in the fashion industry, where she honed her product messaging and brand communication skills.

Her passion for sustainability and social impact is tailor-made for her role at Tony’s, and Aidaly has played a crucial role in launching Tony’s in big box retailers like Target. She has also created successful partnerships with beloved brands like Ben & Jerry’s and championed Tony’s civic engagement campaign, ‘Make Your Voice Heard’.

Tune in to the Time for a Reset podcast, where host Paul Frampton, Global President at CvE, sits down with Aidaly Sosa, Head of Marketing USA at Tony’s Chocolonely, for an in-depth discussion on how mission-led companies use marketing to spread a consistent message that aligns with company values and resonates with the customer. Aidaly also explains how profit and purpose are two sides of the same coin and are not mutually exclusive. Customer awareness drives more companies to identify their North Star and align all business activities to their core purpose.


Join them as they:


● Discuss the DNA makeup at mission-led companies
● Share how your product can narrate your brand story
● Examine the need for coherent messaging to create awareness of the brand mission
● Shed light on the profit vs purpose dichotomy

Also available in:

𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆
𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀

News & Blog