The Contour of Luxury Fall/Winter 2018 | Page 385

Alexis Day illa, what moved you to get on board with your sister’s proposal to manufacture chocolate? ‘57 Chocolate always known that I wanted to move back to Accra, Ghana and start a business. At the time dn’t know what that business would be until my sister approached me with the idea of nufacturing chocolate from bean to bar. The fact that Ghana is also the second largest producer of cocoa in the world, but very little value is added to the bean itself locally was enough motivation to join forces with my sister. Additionally, I really enjoy the artistic aspect of the company which includes working with local artists to develop unique packaging or brainstorming creative ideas with Kimberly on how to take our company to the next level. I am extremely moved by the fact that we are contributing to the “African Rising” narrative, where we are showing that the African continent has so much worth, talent and creativity to offer the world. We want to create a positive and vibrant view of the continent, contrary to how the media might portray us. Alexis Day at you have a marketing and communications background. In what ways are you able to Chocolates? ‘57 Chocolate ned that social media is an incredibly powerful marketing tool, but most we needed to strategically devise an affordable approach to not only mers through multiple channels. As a result, we currently maintain a gram. To make communication more convenient for our customers, pp, an internationally recognized free text messaging platform. ions skills, the ‘57 team and I built our very own simple but d techniques paved the way to slowly building our brand.