Tony’s Chocolonely: Scaling a Purpose-Centered Brand

In 2025, Tony’s Chocolonely, an Amsterdam-based chocolate company, was named one of Time’s 100 most influential companies, due to its longstanding commitment to end the exploitation of the cocoa industry. The company had expanded to traditional retail distributors such as Walmart and Costco in its fastest growing market, the United States. However, as it scaled, Tony’s reached a strategic inflection point. Its mission-led storytelling marketing approach had fueled its early growth among socially conscious consumers; however, brand awareness in the US lagged behind established competitors, and internal research suggested that taste, price and convenience were more important attributes for purchasing decisions than ethical sourcing. The company faced additional headwinds from high cocoa prices and a limited marketing budget. 

The case places students alongside Tony’s marketing leadership as they consider whether and how to recalibrate the brand’s messaging and go-to-market strategy to reach a broader, more price-sensitive audience without undermining credibility or mission integrity. It explores tensions between mission-led and product-led marketing, authenticity and scale, and short-term sales growth versus long-term systems change. The case challenges students to evaluate how purpose-driven companies can adapt their marketing strategies as they grow while continuing to maintain the trust they have with their customers, their differentiating factors, and their ability to influence industry practices.