What if your chocolate bar did more than make you happy for the 30 seconds it takes to eat it?
Bon Bon Vivant is a new Amsterdam brand built around a simple idea: the good life shouldn’t be bad for you. Their first product combines 70% cacao with guayusa, an Amazonian leaf naturally containing caffeine, to create a plant-powered energy bar aimed at people looking for a smoother alternative to their usual pick-me-up.
When the founders asked me to help nail the brand, there were plenty of good ingredients already on the table. Chocolate. Guayusa. Energy. Wellbeing. Festivals. Healthy hedonism. A nice boost of energy, without the crash or jitters you get from coffee.
The challenge was bringing them together into one proposition people could instantly understand and actually want to eat. I helped sharpen the positioning and worked with the team on the brand’s purpose, vision, mission, audience and point of view. From there, I developed the verbal identity and translated it into packaging copy, product messaging and retail communication.
The trick was not to turn Bon Bon Vivant into another earnest wellness brand. Because, well, where’s the fun in that? This is a brand for people who take care of themselves precisely because they intend to enjoy themselves.
Hence a tone that combines functional benefits with a little joie de vivre:
“The good life shouldn’t be bad for you.”
“This isn’t just a good chocolate bar. It’s a better buzz.”
“A kinder kind of energy.”
And, naturally:
“OH MY GOODNESS.”
The result is a brand language that can stretch beyond one energy bar into a broader world of functional pleasures, without forgetting that pleasure comes first.
As Bon Vivants do.
