After our legendary Swiss(air), the Germans have now also annexed the golden Lindt chocolate bunnies. I was very surprised when - after buying a dozen sweet long-eared bunnies at Zurich Airport last week - I proudly delivered a sweet premium Easter greeting in the form of golden Lindt chocolate bunnies from Switzerland to the brand managers of Allianz, Bayer, Munich Re, Thyssen Krupp and others at RWE in Essen.
Because when the head of the RWE corporate philippines rcs data archive (yes, there is such a thing in Germany…) mischievously told me that I could have saved myself the effort of traveling across borders with the long-eared animals, as they are "made here around the corner in Aachen", I initially thought it was a joke. But I was far from it. A careful look at the small print revealed that the comment was correct.
Let this sink in: the golden Lindt chocolate bunnies (yes, the ones with the red bow and the bell) are made in Germany and then imported into Switzerland. That means German chocolate bunnies sweeten Easter for us Swiss. They have spoiled Easter for me. The moral of the story: not everything that has Lindt on it necessarily has Swiss chocolate in it.
Marco Casanova is founder of the Branding Institute and co-chairman of INBREC (International Brand and Reputation Community.