During the recent Diwali festivities, I received a few customary gifts and there was one common thread running through most of them — chocolates. I looked at these gift boxes with some curiosity, and here are some amazing stories that stood out:

Almost all gift hampers contained chocolates. On the other hand, there was virtually no Indian mithai , amongst the Diwali gifts I received this year.

This is a big change from the past. I thought to myself, this is Mumbai, where have all the mithais gone?

The chocolates were mostly exotic and luxurious, featuring names and price points that I had never heard of before. Take, for instance, the small brown box of Royce chocolates, featuring Mild Cacao, made by artisans and imported from Japan. The box contained only 125 gram of chocolate, but was priced at an eye-popping ₹1,295.

There was a preponderance of dark chocolate this year. A Godiva bar highlighted its content of 85 per cent cocoa and extra dark Santo Domingo chocolate. There was a wide range of single-origin chocolates, too, which I would never have encountered a few years ago. Surprisingly, many of these were from our own favourite Indian brands, such as Amul. A hamper of Amul chocolates contained exotic single-origin chocolates from Tanzania, Venezuela, Peru and the Ivory Coast.

A colleague gifted me a home-made assortment of chocolates, hand-crafted and curated by his sister, who is an expert chocolate chef. They were simply delicious.

A gift from my daughter featured Dagoba picante chocolates with chillies and nibs, inspired by an ancient spicy drink created by Mesoamericans in the 15th century.

Wow. Even as I reflected on this amazing variety of chocolates, I was impressed to read that India is now one of the world’s fastest growing chocolate confectionery markets.

The Indian chocolate market is expected to grow by 20 per cent each year between 2016 and 2020.

Clearly, chocolates, once regarded as a stodgy category limited to dairy milk and eclairs, children and occasional indulgence, have transformed marvellously in India. It is now an edgy, new-age category, full of innovation.

As a result, it is generating new demand from many customer segments, and growing rapidly.

This transformation has been possible because the chocolate category has invented new sweet spots for itself.

What are these new sweet spots and what can marketers learn from the re-invention of chocolates? Here are a few thoughts.

No more kid stuff

Chocolates are no longer merely kid stuff, which used to limit their appeal terribly. Brands such as Cadbury and Snickers have re-positioned chocolates as adult snacking options, which has brought in a fresh hunger for these products.

Snickers recently emphasised this through its “Who are you when you’re hungry” campaign, based on the insight that hunger is relevant for everyone, regardless of age or mindset. Cadbury has imprinted in our adult minds, through many of their superb marketing initiatives over the past several years, that their chocolates help bring out the child in us, something that every adult secretly longs for. Other categories that have successfully leveraged this insight include comics (graphic novels)and Disney movies.

Healthy indulgence

There has been a surge in the popularity of dark chocolates, which is perhaps the fastest growing segment today. This has been led by dark chocolates being positioned as a healthy option, while simultaneously being indulgent. Health professionals have told us that cocoa, which is the predominant content of dark chocolate, is a rich source of anti-oxidants, iron, calcium and other minerals.

Also, dark chocolate has built a mystique which adds to its indulgence quotient. This junction of health and indulgence is irresistible to consumers, as other categories such as wine and Greek yoghurt have also shown us.

Simple to exotic

Gone are the days when chocolates were all about dairy milk and eclairs. Today, from Amul’s range of single-origin chocolates, to ITC’s Fabelle ruby chocolates, to Nestle’s recently launched “Les Recettes De L’Atalier” artisanal Swiss-made chocolates (the name means “recipes of the artisan’s shop”), exotic offerings are the new game in town, across price points. Indian consumers, with rising disposable incomes, are seeking new experiences in everything they eat and do, and are willing to pay for them. Exotic chocolates fit this bill beautifully, much like craft beers and single malts.

Western to Indian

Chocolates, which have a strong western origin, have successfully integrated themselves into Indian occasions and festivals.

This has required a great deal of smart marketing effort by key brands — Cadbury’s “Shubh Arambh” campaigns, based on the Indian tradition of having something sweet before each auspicious occasion or this year’s Diwali campaign where Cadbury lit up the lives of diya makers in Rajasthan, are two different examples of this theme.

Ferrero Rocher, with its round-shaped chocolates wrapped in golden covers, went further by positioning itself as the new “laddoo”.

When a product sheds its western origins and becomes an integral part of Indian festivals and weddings, it unlocks huge potential demand.

These are four pivots around which chocolates have reinvented themselves in India. The question for all marketers is: what are the new sweet spots you will discover, to transform your category?

Harish Bhat is Brand Custodian, Tata Sons. He can be reached at bhatharish@hotmail.com. He acknowledges valuable inputs from Sreelakshmi Hariharan and Pranav Aggarwal in the writing of this article

comment COMMENT NOW