The Dubai Chocolate Phenomenon: Lessons in Branding and Differentiation
In the ever-competitive confectionery industry, a single chocolate bar from Dubai has managed to create a global sensation, demonstrating the immense power of strategic branding and product differentiation. What began as a local treat has transformed into an international phenomenon, offering valuable insights for businesses across sectors.
The Viral Rise of Dubai Chocolate
The Dubai chocolate story began in 2022 when British-Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda, inspired by pregnancy cravings, created a unique chocolate bar that would later be named "Can't Get Knafeh of It." Launched by FIX Dessert Chocolatier, this handcrafted creation combined milk chocolate with pistachio cream, tahini, and knafeh—a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made with shredded pastry.
What transformed this local specialty into a global sensation was a viral TikTok video posted by influencer Maria Vehera in December 2023, which sparked unprecedented demand. The combination of striking visuals—particularly the vivid green pistachio filling—and exclusive availability created the perfect recipe for social media virality.
Strategic Elements Behind the Success
1. Product Differentiation Through Cultural Fusion
The Dubai chocolate bar stands out by blending Western chocolate traditions with distinctly Middle Eastern flavors. This fusion creates a unique taste experience that can't be easily replicated, giving the product a clear point of differentiation in a saturated market.
The integration of regional ingredients such as pistachios, tahini, and knafeh not only creates a distinctive flavor profile but also tells a compelling story of cultural heritage. This narrative resonates with consumers seeking authentic, novel experiences.
2. Scarcity Marketing and Controlled Distribution
FIX Dessert Chocolatier initially produced just 25 handcrafted bars daily, later scaling to 500—still a minuscule number relative to demand. This limited availability, combined with exclusive distribution through Dubai's Deliveroo platform, created genuine scarcity.
When demand exceeds supply, perceived value increases dramatically. The difficulty in obtaining these chocolate bars transformed them from mere confections into coveted luxury items, with some buyers willing to pay significant premiums through unofficial resellers.
3. Visual Branding and "Instagrammability"
The Dubai chocolate bar was designed with visual impact in mind. Its chunky proportions and striking green pistachio filling create an instantly recognizable aesthetic that stands out on social media feeds. This visual distinctiveness made the product inherently shareable, driving organic promotion.
In today's digital marketplace, products must be designed not just for consumption but for content creation. The Dubai chocolate bar exemplifies how "Instagrammable" design can become a powerful marketing tool.
4. Authenticity and Artisanal Positioning
Despite growing demand, FIX maintained its commitment to handcrafted production methods. This dedication to authenticity and quality resonated with consumers increasingly drawn to artisanal products with genuine stories behind them.
In an age of mass production, the human touch becomes a powerful differentiator. The knowledge that each bar is individually crafted creates an emotional connection that transcends the physical product.
Challenges and Market Response
The sweet success of Dubai chocolate created significant challenges for FIX Dessert Chocolatier, including:
- Production capacity limitations: Scaling handcrafted production while maintaining quality proved difficult.
- Supply chain disruptions: The trend sparked a global pistachio shortage, affecting ingredient availability and cost.
- Market copycats: Major retailers and brands worldwide launched their own versions, creating intense competition.
- Generic branding overtaking creator identity: Perhaps most critically, "Dubai chocolate" itself became the generic product name, overshadowing FIX Dessert Chocolatier as the original creator.
The market response has been remarkable, with supermarket chains across the UK—including Waitrose, Lidl, and Morrisons—launching their own "Dubai chocolate" bars. Even established luxury brands like Lindt have entered the space, demonstrating the phenomenon's commercial impact.
Lessons for Brands and Marketers
The Dubai chocolate phenomenon offers several valuable lessons for businesses seeking to differentiate their products:
1. Cultural fusion creates unique value propositions: Blending diverse cultural elements can create products that stand out in homogenized markets.
2. Controlled scarcity builds desire: Limiting availability can dramatically increase perceived value and create buzz.
3. Visual distinctiveness drives social sharing: Products designed with visual impact in mind can generate organic social media promotion.
4. Authenticity resonates with modern consumers: Genuine stories and artisanal approaches create emotional connections with consumers.
5. Adaptability is crucial when scaling: Businesses must balance growth with quality maintenance when demand surges.
6. Brand Identity is essential: When a product goes viral, establishing and protecting a distinctive brand identity—not just a descriptive product name—becomes critical to maintaining market position and preventing generic commoditization.
Local businesses in Dubai have responded to this trend by investing in innovation, including advanced production technology, sustainable sourcing practices, and further experimentation with regional flavors. Some have embraced ingredients like camel milk, which offers nutritional benefits and lower lactose content compared to traditional dairy.
The Generic Name Trap and The Importance of Brand Differentiation
The Dubai chocolate case study presents a cautionary tale in brand identity management. While FIX Dessert Chocolatier created the original viral sensation, the product quickly became known simply as "Dubai chocolate"—a generic, location-based descriptor rather than a protected brand name. This nomenclature shift has allowed countless competitors to market their own "Dubai chocolate" products with minimal differentiation from the original.
When a product category name overshadows the creator's brand identity, the innovator risks becoming just another player in the market they created. This phenomenon echoes other historical examples like Kleenex (facial tissues), Xerox (photocopiers), and Google (internet searching)—though in those cases, at least the generic terms were the companies' actual brand names, providing some protection.
The lesson is clear: viral success without corresponding brand identity reinforcement can lead to market dilution and lost opportunity. Innovators must move quickly to establish their brand as the definitive version of the product, rather than allowing geographical or descriptive terms to become the default identifier.
The Dubai chocolate phenomenon demonstrates that even in mature markets, opportunities exist for dramatic differentiation. By combining cultural authenticity, strategic scarcity, visual distinctiveness, quality execution, and—critically—strong brand identity protection, companies can create products that transcend their category while maintaining market leadership.
As markets become increasingly saturated, these principles of differentiation will only grow in importance. The most successful brands will be those that can tell authentic stories, create genuine scarcity, design products that demand to be shared, and ensure their brand identity remains firmly attached to their innovation.
The Dubai chocolate bar may be a sweet treat, but the business lessons it offers are a blended mix of flavors indeed—showing that with the right combination of innovation, authenticity, and strategic marketing, even the most established markets can be disrupted by newcomers with a fresh approach. The challenge for innovators is ensuring they don't become victims of their own success by allowing their creation to become a generic category rather than a distinctive brand.
Mad About Marketing Consulting
Advisor for C-Suites to work with you and your teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes. We are the AI Adoption Partners for Neuron Labs and CX Sphere to support companies in ethical, responsible and sustainable AI adoption. Catch our weekly episodes of The Digital Maturity Blueprint Podcast by subscribing to our YouTube Channel.
Why Brand Management is Everyone’s Responsibility
Something I’m sure that has every marketing leader or brand leader tearing their hair out besides seeing their brand scores tank is when they get all the blame for it. If only brand preference building and management is as easy as putting out your brand ad on a big bus, taxi or whichever platform that gets as many eyeballs as possible. If so, why not just put it on a huge sky scrapper (hey that’s done before actually!).
Such tactics (I call them tactics and not strategies) work better for “will you marry me” types of wedding proposals but to build brand preference, it takes way more than that. Similar to good customer experience management, brand management takes the whole organization, including your client facing employees and your client facing touchpoints to help uplift your brand.
Firstly, your brand needs to serve a purpose and address a need or multiple needs for your defined target customers. Secondly, you need to know what differentiates you from your competitors even if you are selling the same things. Just like Pepsi and Coca Cola, both are cola drinks but both have their differentiating factors and ultimately, appeal. Thirdly, is your brand voice, message and identity that you are bringing to life through your marketing campaigns, news about your organization, things that your client facing teams are telling your clients or prospects, right down to the things you do in the broader public facing community. Finally, you need to clearly define as well as upkeep the key channels you are positioning your brand on that serve as a communication touchpoint with your target audience.
Many business leaders think the buck stops with the marketing campaigns but the trickiest part about brand management is how to make your target audience see you the way you want to be perceived. This approach leads to a dystopia state of brand reputation and perception as you will see almost conflicting activities and messages being shared from your organization by various business functions working in silos but not realizing they are all trying to steer the same ship to avoid hitting an iceberg. This is because everyone ends up trying to chart their own course to reach the same destination instead of playing to their strengths and working as a team.
There is nothing more dysfunctional than multiple teams trying to launch different variations of what they think your brand stands for in order to meet their own KPIs (key performance indicators). A tactical offer, is not a brand management strategy, a segment representation is not a brand management strategy and a campaign telling people how good you are is certainly not a brand management strategy but all this will affect the perception of your brand. Companies need to take a giant step back to reflect on what you are trying to position out there in terms of your brand identity and whether that still stays true to the fundamental reason you deserve to exist as a brand that customers care about.
The third and last part of the brand management aspect is actually also the hardest to maintain. You have to make sure your client facing touchpoints are keeping up with the demand from a tech, process and user design perspective so nothing falls through the cracks for your customers trying to engage with you. Concurrently, you need to have a joint-up approach in what you do and say to your target audience, including the timeliness and/or appropriateness of certain actions or messages. It goes beyond having a good crisis communications protocol.
For example, if your digital platform or servicing touchpoint is having a breakdown, you definitely do not want your key spokesperson to go out with a media commentary boasting about how great your digital or client servicing capabilities are or run an ad showcasing “seamless digital or client servicing capabilities”.
It’s more important to ensure business functions are working collaboratively as part of business-as-usual in keeping each other abreast, including your brand, marketing and communications team when something breaks or if they are preparing for a major enhancement so they can pre-empt the customer impact for the better or for the worse. Your management meetings should have a cadence to exchange such information so it can be cascaded to working group level to formulate a pre-emptive and proactive communications and customer management approach.
Simply said, the brand is the soul of the company and everyone is responsible for brand and reputation management but in the right way and not just checking off a list.
About the Author
Mad About Marketing Consulting
Ally for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.