I have to come clean, I have a wicked sweet tooth, so when I read this news from the Financial Times, I almost cried. Anyone who has bitten into a Toblerone knows what makes it distinctive…:

The distinctively peaked Toblerone chocolate bar will be partly flattened in the UK after maker Mondelez International blamed rising costs for the need to cut back its size, writes John Murray Brown. British consumers took to social media to complain about changes to the Swiss-made chocolate bar, which has had its unique shape for more than a century. Two products, one sold exclusively in the UK, have fewer peaks and wider troughs to reduce weight without changing the packaging.

This has caused quite a stir leading one to wonder if their cost savings will be illusory as their sales volumes drop. Here what some folks are saying on social media:

• Ricky Gervais: “Don’t be fooled people. All this stuff in America is just to bury the news about the new Toblerone.
• William Shatner tweeted: “Did you the horrible news about @Toblerone‘s? They are skimping on the delicious goodness by spreading them out?

More from the NY Times:

The peaks are slimmer and the valleys are wider, but the price hasn’t changed. The maker of Toblerone, the Swiss chocolate bar, has reconfigured the unique appearance of two of its milk-chocolate versions, with narrower triangles and a larger gap between peaks.

The price for the new bars is the same as the old ones, but the changes to the smaller one — which is sold mainly in Britain at the discount retailer Poundland — were so pronounced that Toblerone’s Facebook page was filled with outrage from aggrieved consumers, even though only a relatively small number were likely to be affected.

Might be a good discussion starter in your entrepreneurship or business class.

• What are the pros/cons of changing the composition of an incredibly successful product in order to reduce costs?
• Check out the controversy over New Coke back in the mid-80s for another example of a product reformulation that backfired.
• If you were Toblerone management, how would you address this brouhaha?

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About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.