Most of us never have.

Nonetheless, many Europeans and North Americans are lucky enough to have indulged in this delicious hazelnut chocolate spread - whether it was during their childhood, trying a sample at the supermarket, or from their neighborhood crepe store.

Nutella is somewhat of a unique branding phenomenon - on Facebook's top pages Nutella ranks third after Barack Obama and Coca Cola. Search on Youtube and you'll find thousands of Nutella videos created by fans. Fans are also getting creative, declaring the 5th of February as World Nutella Day. All of this happened without support or initiation by the Nutella company.

In fact, Nutella’s expenditure on marketing is fairly low, with Ferrero USA, the owner of Nutella, spending only $300,000 on media in 2008. Nutella fever has spread through word-of-mouth and social media. While the jury is still out whether Nutella is a “cult brand” or not, it is obvious that with over 3 million Facebook fans they are definitely experiencing the benefits of promotion through social media.

So what can we learn from Nutella’s success?

For one, a Facebook page can be a good way for companies to promote themselves. In the case of Nutella it was actually a fan rather than the company itself that started the page. Nonetheless, more and more businesses are finding new and creative ways to stimulate word-of- mouth marketing on the web. We have only seen the beginning of how social media channels can be used to develop brand identity, with companies like Nutella and Coca Cola leading the way.