Project by: Elinor Brelis, Emma Magidson, Daniel Tsui Studio:

One aspect of the Bean to Bar campaign is an interactive timeline that would be a part of Omanhenes website. Although they already have a description of their chocolate-making process, we think that it should be made more interesting and interactive so that they can capture the interest of a younger audience. The first screen that will come up when this timeline option is selected will be one showing illustrations of all nine steps of Omanhenes chocolate making process. Issues such as the value chain and Fair Trade will be incorporated into the timeline too. The timeline includes a Fair Trade Line, which shows the narrow area of the value chain Fair Trade focuses on. It also demonstrates the value chains effects, showing that one pound of cocoa beans is sold for about $0.60, while one lb of chocolate is sold for approximately $13.00. When a viewer clicks on an item in the timeline, another screen will pop up. On this screen there will be a short paragraph describing what is done to that item, it uses, and its place in the value chain. There will also be either photo slides with captions better explaining the process or a video showing it. In the bottom right hand corner, there will be the option to buy each of the items. In order for this to work, Omanhene would need to sell each step in the chain leading from bean to bar so that customers have access to all of these natural products. If they can see, feel, and taste more than just the finished chocolate bar or hot cocoa, they will be able to internalize all that went into making that specific bar. This will set Omanhene apart from other companies because consumers will be able to understand that their process is special and worth supporting.

If Omanhene decides to sell each step of the Bean to Bar process, the next step of the campaign would be to create recipes and uses for the new products. The executive chef of Omanhene is Francois Kwaku-Dongo, a famous chef that used to work under Wolfgang Puck. We think that Omanhene should create an online cooking show featuring Chef Francois to be uploaded to their Youtube channel, Facebook page, and website. About once a week, Chef Francois would upload a new video to Francois Kitchen. In each episode, Francois would demonstrate and promote a new recipe that includes one or more ingredients from the new line of step by step products. In some episodes, he would also cook with either Ghanian or American teenagers, and occasionally both. This would attract a younger audience in addition to the serious cooks and foodies. By working with people from both cultures, this show would also help form relationships between kids who lives across the world from each other. By watching the videos, even kids who are not involved will learn about Omanhene and Ghanaian culture in general. They will not see the teens from the other cultures as foreigners, but as kids just like them. Viewers would also be encouraged to post their own videos that could either be responses to the previous ones, questions for either Francois or the kids, or their own Bean to Bar recipes.

The final part of the Bean to Bar campaign would be a page titled What does Bean to Bar mean to you? This page would be another section of Omanhenes Youtube channel where Omanhene employees would share why their companys mission is important to them. They would also encourage the viewers to make video responses in which they would answer the same question. This section is important because it gives Omanhene and its customers a chance to communicate through talking instead of writing. It also helps make the term Bean to Bar more well known as it is used more often. We also think that Omanhene executives and employees should respond to customers specific questions and videos because it makes the two feel connected. If Steve Wallace (president) were to periodically comment and personally thank people for posting videos, the people watching the channel would have a relationship with him (even if it was only through the web) and would be more likely to follow Omanhene (and be educated more).

Through the Bean to Bar campaign, we hope to educate the customers of Omanhene. We hope to force people to think about how their food was produced and make them choose one product over another because they support the producers methods. We also hope to connect the people in Ghana and Omanhene with the rest of the world through videos and, in the case of Francois Kitchen, face to face interactions. The main goal of Omanhene (that we are hoping to help achieve with the Bean to Bar campaign) is to make the world let go of their assumptions about Africa and see that it can compete with the rest of the world.