Summary
Tareq Hadhad, founder and CEO of Peace by Chocolate, joins The Pricing Guys to discuss the link between purpose, profit, and long-term growth. He shares how his family rebuilt a business in Canada, why consistency builds trust, and how brands can create pricing power through story, experience, and service—not just a higher price tag.
Key takeaways
- Purpose is an investment, not simply a cost or charitable expense.
- Profit and purpose can reinforce each other when they are built into the business model.
- Consistency matters more than occasional acts of generosity or short-term campaigns.
- Premium pricing is about the full customer experience, including quality, story, and service.
- Gen Z uses its spending to support brands that show proof of purpose and act authentically.
- Growth should protect the people, values, and operating choices that made the business trusted in the first place.
Purpose and profit do not have to compete
Peace by Chocolate began with a family story. The Hadhad family had operated a chocolate business in Syria for more than 30 years before war forced them to leave. After arriving in Canada, they rebuilt the company from the ground up.
The business was not created simply to sell chocolate. Its name and products carry a wider message about peace, community, and giving back. That purpose shapes how the company thinks about employees, customers, partnerships, and growth.
For Hadhad, the question is not whether purpose should come before profit. The two are connected. A company needs profit to remain in business, but it also needs people who care, customers who trust it, and a reason to keep moving forward.
At Revenue Management Labs, this is a familiar principle in pricing work. Sustainable margin improvement does not come from applying a generic price increase and walking away. It comes from understanding the business, its customers, its value drivers, and the choices its teams can actually execute.
The cost of doing good can become an investment
Peace by Chocolate has made decisions that reduced short-term financial returns. In one early example, the family donated all the company’s net proceeds from a campaign supporting wildfire relief in Western Canada.
That was a significant choice for a young business. Still, the family believed the money belonged to the community that had helped them restart their lives and business in Canada.
Hadhad’s point is simple: doing good may reduce the return today, but it can build value over time. The benefits may appear as stronger trust, greater loyalty, better partnerships, and a brand that people remember.
This does not mean every company should give away its entire margin. It does mean leaders should measure success more thoughtfully. Financial statements matter, but they do not tell the full story of how a business serves people or earns its position in the market.
A practical purpose strategy should answer three questions:
- What does the company stand for?
- How does that belief affect everyday decisions?
- Can customers and employees see evidence that the company is following through?
Consistency builds trust
One of the strongest ideas from the conversation was the difference between intensity and consistency. A dramatic campaign can attract attention, but it is repeated behavior that creates trust.
This applies to purpose, pricing, and operations. A company that makes a bold promise and then behaves differently will eventually lose credibility. The same thing happens when pricing strategies are announced but not adopted by sales teams, customer service, or frontline managers.
Revenue Management Labs focuses on this connection between strategic advice and field adoption. Customized pricing models, including AI-supported analysis, can identify patterns and opportunities quickly. But the work only creates value when teams understand it, believe in it, and use it in real customer situations.
For purpose-driven businesses, consistency can show up in areas such as:
- Hiring and employee development
- Product quality and packaging
- Supplier and community partnerships
- Marketing claims and customer communication
- Decisions made during inflation or other difficult periods
Premium is more than a price tag
Peace by Chocolate is positioned as a premium product, but Hadhad does not define premium only by price. He sees it as a combination of quality, experience, storytelling, attention to detail, and the feeling customers take away from the purchase.
That distinction matters. A higher price is easier to accept when customers understand what makes the product different and can feel the value beyond its physical features.
The company reinforces that difference through creative packaging, messages in multiple languages, seasonal campaigns, books, film, and customer-led storytelling. Its products are designed to carry meaning, not just flavor.
For leaders evaluating pricing power, the lesson is useful: customers do not pay a premium for cost alone. They pay for value they can recognize and explain. That value may come from performance, convenience, trust, identity, or a meaningful experience.
Gen Z is looking for proof
Hadhad strongly agreed that Gen Z places greater emphasis on mission and value when making purchases. This group often uses its wallet as a voting tool, rewarding brands that reflect its beliefs.
But a mission statement is not enough. Gen Z is looking for proof of purpose. It wants to see whether a company treats people fairly, supports its community, limits harm, and behaves consistently over time.
Authenticity matters more than perfection. Customers may accept that a business is still learning. They are less likely to accept claims that are not supported by action.
That creates both pressure and opportunity for established companies. Purpose cannot be treated as a short-lived marketing trend. It needs to be connected to decisions across the organization, from product development to pricing and employee policies.
Building a business that lasts
Hadhad is cautious about chasing every trend. Markets change quickly, and companies that build their identity around temporary attention can rise and fall just as fast.
Peace by Chocolate aims to stay relevant across generations by focusing on a lasting idea: peace as a product, value, and message. Its growth plans include wider distribution, international e-commerce, retail expansion, and partnerships with organizations working on peacebuilding, refugee support, and community development.
The broader lesson for business leaders is clear. A strong purpose should guide growth rather than limit it. It should help decide which opportunities fit, which trade-offs are acceptable, and how the company will protect its people as it scales.
Purpose is not a substitute for sound economics. It is one of the forces that can make sound economics sustainable. When supported by strong execution, customer insight, and pricing discipline, it can create trust that competitors cannot easily copy—and value that customers are willing to pay for.
