[Type text]

Contents

Executive Summary........................................................................................................... 1

Situation Analysis .............................................................................................................. 2

Brand Analysis .................................................................................................................. 6

Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 7

References ....................................................................................................................... 12

Page | 0
[Type text]

Executive Summary

Cadbury is a leading global confectionary company with a diverse portfolio of chocolate, gum

and candy brands. Cadbury India started in 1948 and has since grown to become an Rs 4000

crore unit with over 60% market share in value sales. This document analyzes the branding

strategy of Cadbury in India over the years and the elements that have helped the brand

successfully cater to traditional tastes and consumer preferences. However, growth has slowed

down over the last year due to economic pressures and increased competition from companies

like Nestle and Ferrero Rocher. We analyze Cadbury’s brand strength in the backdrop of the

competitive landscape and changing consumer preferences.

India is a high growth market for Cadbury and the key trends that the incumbent is trying to

capitalize on are:

1. Increased consumption of adults

2. Huge rural market that needs product-packaging innovation and distribution. Also,

branding activities takes on a different paradigm for this segment

3. Snack market slated to grow at a fast rate

4. Traditional sweets still a threat

The brand evolution of Cadbury over the years has progressed from positioning itself as an

alternative to traditional sweets to touching lives by standing for “True happiness”. It is

interesting to see the changes that Cadbury made to the entire value chain from product and

packaging to marketing communication and distribution in order to create a brand that Indian

consumers associate with celebration and that provides happiness in the smallest of moments.

Some of the key campaigns that we have highlighted to track this evolution are “Kuch meetha ho

jaye”, “The real taste of life”, “Shubh arambh” etc.

Page | 1
[Type text]

Based on the brand mantra of “Zindagi ki har choti badi khushiyon ke liye”, we recommend that

Cadbury enters the Greeting cards segment. This brand extension will complement the chocolate

business as consumers often bundle chocolates and cards as gifts. Also, the overall brand

promise of Cadbury will be reinforced as cards let consumers express their feelings to their loved

ones.

Situation Analysis

Company:

Cadbury India began operations in 1948 by importing chocolates and re-packing them for

distribution. Today, Cadbury India, rechristened Mondelez India Foods Limited after the parent

company was acquired by Mondelez, has five company-owned manufacturing facilities at Thane,

Pune, Gwalior, Bangalore and Baddi. Cadbury offers chocolates under the Cadbury Dairy Milk,

Celebrations, Bournville, 5 Star, Perk, Gems, Toblerone, and Choclairs brand names; and

produces, purchases, and sells milk. It also owns Bournvita, a malted food drink, powdered

beverage Tang, Oreo, Halls and Bubbaloo. The company also exports its products to Bangladesh,

Sri Lanka, Maldives, the United States, Bahrain, and Kenya.

Cadbury’s brand mantra in India has been to spread happiness and the company has consistently

used simple but imaginative extensions to product categories and distribution. As an example

Bytes, a crispy wafers filled with coca cream in the form of a bagged snack, was introduced as

"The new concept of sweet snacking". Cadbury has been a leader in the chocolate industry and

have regularly introduced new products to the Indian market. Since 1965 Cadbury has also

pioneered the development of cocoa cultivation in India. The company is poised in their leap

towards very high growth and new categories of business, namely gums, mints, snacking and

gifting. Some of the key opportunities in the Indian market that Cadbury wishes to capture are
Page | 2
[Type text]

rural growth and rising consumption of chocolates by adults. We have based our

recommendation keeping in mind the company’s strategic position and investments.

Consumer

Cadbury segments its customers in three ways, geographical, demographic and behavioral.

Geographically speaking, Cadbury divides the consumers into rural/semi urban and urban and

offers different sizes and packaging for each. Demographically, Cadbury divides the population

into children and adults. ‘Children’ is the most important segment for the company and they have

a huge range of products designed specifically for young consumers. Adults are a more recent

target and Cadbury has launched a range of products that are more sophisticated in packaging

and cater to older eating habits (smaller individual pieces instead of bars etc). Behavioral

segmentation is the most important one for Cadbury. As per the buying occasion and usage,

Cadbury has divided the market into three segments, for regular consumption of self/family

(buyers and users both), impulse buyers and gifting/occasion based purchase. The first segment

is the largest for Cadbury with over 60% consumers belonging to it. Impulse buyers form the

next, and Cadbury targets them via placement of its products in high-visibility areas of stores.

Cadbury has grown the third segment many-folds in the last decade, with products aimed

towards festivals and occasions and packed to gift.

Till the late 1990s, Cadbury targeted only two markets, children and young adults/teenagers.

While the majority of Cadbury products were created keeping children in mind (Dairy Milk,

Gems, 5 Star), the advertisements also focused on them. Cadbury started to position itself as a

cool association for youth in the 90s, by using celebrity endorsements and campaigns for

festivals such as Rakshabandhan. It was only in recent years that Cadbury launched premium

products (Bournville, Silk, Celebrations) targeting the high-end consumers looking for quality

and variety.
Page | 3
[Type text]

Cadbury has a very large range of products that cater to each strata of society, and it positions

itself differently in each. For several decades, Cadbury has primarily targeted children and young

adults with products aimed specifically at them. The initial positioning mantra was “spontaneous,

special, carefree, real moments”. However, in recent years, Cadbury has tried to position itself

more holistically as a substitute for traditional sweets. Occasion specific positioning has resulted

in Indianized new product launches for festivals such as Rakshabandhan and Diwali and

chocolates as sweets on auspicious occasions. Cadbury has also positioned chocolates as a gift,

by creating gift packs of chocolates and positing chocolates as something to be shared with loved

ones.

Recently, with urbanization of India and the increase in the size of middle class has given rise to

an increase in the market size for Cadbury’s high end products. As the country becomes more

global, the acceptance of chocolate as a gift and a dessert instead of the traditional sweets has

increased. Thus, the profile of a Cadbury consumer is rapidly evolving. While children are still a

primary segment, Cadbury is making in-roads in hitherto untapped segments too.

Secondary research on Dairy Milk and Silk shows that the attributes of Cadbury most important

to the consumers are Quality of Product, Taste of Product, Price of Product and the Brand.

Though there is very little difference between Silk and Dairy Milk, customers rated it higher on

taste and quality. This shows that consumers are willing to pay a premium for Brand Image and

product association. The study also reveals that customers do not switch brands because of trust

factor related to Cadbury, associating it with quality, taste and freshness and habit formed over

the years. Consumers have also associated Cadbury with happiness for self and for loved ones as

a gift. These findings can be useful if Cadbury was to extend in other categories as the brand

Page | 4
[Type text]

image will help it capture markets for products where same associations (quality, happiness and

gifting).

Page | 5
[Type text]

Competition:

There are many players in the Indian market but the top 2 have close to 90% market share.

Cadbury leads the market with more than 60% of market share by value sales. As Indian

consumers are price-sensitive, most brands offer low priced products in small packs. Cadbury

has been selling Dairy Milk at an entry price of Rs 5 for many years now. However, premium

chocolates, define as anything that costs more than Rs25 now make up 27 per cent of the market

Major competition in this segment comes from Ferrero Rocher, Nestle, Mars, Hershey and

Lindt.

Cadbury has positioned itself in the minds of the Indian consumer as a celebratory food product

but at the same time kept the attributes of its Indian legacy intact. Nestle has decided to position

itself more in the snack consumption category. Here is a perception map of some of the dominant

brands in the Indian market.

As chocolate consumption can be associated with impulsive buying, brands constantly try to

attribute human traits to their products. For example, the map below shows how Munch has tried

to use advertisement to change its perception in the consumer’s mind from liberal to astute.

Page | 6
[Type text]

Brand Analysis

Cadbury’s boasts of a diverse brand inventory comprising of high performing sub-brands.

Sub Brands

Fine Dark Chocolate Malted drink aimed at

Old favourite consisting
aimed at the premium Kids, one of the most
of Chocolate, caramel
segment trusted brands in India
and nougat

Marquee product of
Sub-brand of Dairy Milk Mix of chocolates positioned Cadbury, known for value
differentiated on smoothness as replacement to traditional for money and milky taste
and softness. Highly successful. sweets

Recently launched luxury Crunchy shell candy with

chocolate gift brand with chocolate similar to MnMs, old
special treasure box packaging favorite with kids

Endorsed Brands

Brand exploratory

Cadbury made its first major shift from a product aimed at children to one that reaches out to

everyone in 1994 with the 'The Real Taste of Life' campaign. The ads showed adults consuming

the chocolate in public settings, some examples are 'Khaane Waalon Ko Khaane Ka Bahana

Chahiye' featuring Cyrus Brocha distributing Cadbury at a wedding and the iconic Cricket

commercial. Distribution was expanded and smaller packs introduced at more affordable prices.

This campaign led to 20% plus growth for 3 to 4 straight years and the category doubled in size.

Page | 7
 Brand Audit Report | Cadbury India | Group 1

In 2003,

Cadbury faced a controversy about worms in the chocolates and celebrity spokesperson Amitabh

Bachchan was roped in to reinforce trust in the brand.

Since then, Cadbury has focused on making the transition from once in a while celebratory

occasions to more everyday events and to increase the relevance of chocolate in occasions where

people eat sweets. The initial campaigns like 'Pappu Paas Ho Gaya' were about introducing

Cadbury as a substitute for traditional sweets. This has been followed by campaigns like 'Pehli

Tareek' and 'Shubh Aarambh'. A corresponding change has been made in distribution strategy.

Brand Association

We asked ~50 people on what was the one word that came to mind when they think about

Cadbury. The following word cloud captures the associations.

CBBE Pyramid
Strong sense of brand loyalty and
deep rooted attachment driving repeat
Good quality, value for money; High For all age groups, special
quality, distinctive purple packaging occasions and celebrations

Great taste and quality for Connected to happiness, celebrations,

different segment pleasure and indulgence

Page | 7
High awareness and brand recall,
satisfies impulse and take home needs
indulgence
 Brand Audit Report | Cadbury India | Group 1

Recommendations

Brand Ideal:

Cadbury stands for true happiness. Be it any occasion or any emotion, Cadbury would want to

associate itself with all such moments. It wants to make people associate itself as a chocolate for

occasions like Diwali, Holi, Raksha-Bandhan etc. where they gift it to each other or just offer it

as a snack when guest visit them. It also associates with emotions such has love, sadness etc.

where when people experience such emotions they enhance it by eating the Cadbury chocolate.

For e.g. during happiness Cadbury is eaten to celebrate it while when sad people eat Cadbury to

feel better.

Brand Mantra: “Zindagi ki har choti badi khushiyon ke liye” (For every single happy moment of

life) Cadbury communicates its ideal by extensive advertisements. Over the time it has used the

following punch lines to express its ideals:

1. Those who want to eat, will find a reason for it: Used this campaign to find its acceptance

among the adult audience

2. Real Taste of Life' campaign

3. Kuch meetha ho jaye (Let's have something sweet): Used this to replace the traditional

sweets with Cadbury chocolates by keeping the traditional values intact but giving them a

modern look

4. Shubh Aarambh (Auspicious beginning): Used this to associate itself with an indian

tradition wherby peole eat something sweet before starting any work

5. Meethe mein kuch meetha ho jaye (Let's have something sweet for dessert). Eat

something sweet for desserts, basically saying that eat Cadbury for desserts

Page | 8
 Brand Audit Report | Cadbury India | Group 1

New Product line recommendation:

Cadbury should start another line of products for Greeting cards. Chocolates will act as a

complimentary product to greeting cards where by a consumer could gift a greeting card and

chocolates as a pack to someone.

Greeting cards align with the current brand ideal and mantra where Cadbury goes one step ahead

by not just enabling people to share and spread happiness but also share feelings. They help

people connect with each other and make them happy. Cadbury currently markets itself as a

chocolate which can be gifted, and greeting cards are meant for the same thing.

The target market here is young adults, adults and families. Greeting cards by Cadbury would be

sold at a premium price thereby positioning it as a very valuable gift item which make the person

who is being gifted the card will feel very special. The market currently doesn’t offer a lot of

options for greeting cards and there are very limited options in greeting cards. It could come up

with a wider range of cards which are more innovative and more personalized. The following

ways could be used to innovate:

1. It could come up with cards in regional languages as there is no product available which

caters to regional languages.

2. It could come up with small to medium sized greeting cards there by replacing the small

name chit which people place in a flower bouquet which people use for gifting.

3. It could come up with a basket of greeting card and chocolates which could be gifted

together as a bulkier gift.

The gift cards would launched across all categories like Birthdays, Anniversaries, Weddings,

Valentine’s day, Diwali, Holi, Raksha-Bandhan etc. The target segments could use the cards in

following ways:

Page | 9
 Brand Audit Report | Cadbury India | Group 1

Young adults – This segment would gift each other such cards on valentines days, birthdays,

friendship day etc.

Adults – This segment would use such cards on occasion like anniversaries, baby shower, and

birthdays.

Families – This segment would use these cards for occasions like Diwali, Holi, Weddings and

other auspicious occasions.

The Four P's of Cadbury's Greeting Cards

Product

The product that Cadbury can sell apart from its line of chocolates is Greeting Cards. Since

Cadbury has already established its products as gifts exchanged during festivities and other

occasions, this new product is likely to compliment most of its existing products. Another factor

that helps Cadbury successfully launch Greeting cards is the absence of a major player in the

greeting card industry. Apart from a few established players such as Archies, greeting card

industry is a fairly segmented one with a number of local players. Availability of greeting cards

at only a few select showrooms is also a gap that Cadbury can aim to plug through its Greeting

Cards business.

These cards can be modelled in sync with the variety of chocolates owned by Cadbury. It is not

uncommon for Cadbury to come up with new variations of chocolates during various festivals. It

can adopt the same strategy with greeting cards as well. Cadbury can have different kinds of

greeting cards for different festivals and for different occasions.

Price

Page | 10
 Brand Audit Report | Cadbury India | Group 1

Cadbury can position these cards as a premium way of showing love for a special one. Since

these cards are likely to be sold with high end Cadbury's chocolates such as Silk, Celebrations

etc. people will be willing to pay a premium for cards that perfectly complement with chocolates.

Another way of pricing greeting cards can be bundling it with Cadbury's existing range of

chocolates. This will encourage chocolates buyers to also buy greeting cards. At the same time,

customers will also have an option of buying greeting cards in isolation. This strategy is likely to

boost sales not only of greeting cards but also for Cadbury's chocolates.

Promotion

The greeting cards should be promoted as a complimentary product to chocolates while gifting.

Greeting cards can leverage Cadbury's current strategy of positioning itself as a means to spread

happiness during any small or big occasions. Cadbury can promote greeting cards by sending a

message that giving just chocolates as gifts is an incomplete way of showing love. What makes

the process of gift giving complete is by conveying the feeling through words which can be done

only by a greeting card.

Below is one promotional campaign that Cadbury can run to promote its greeting cards:

"Ab khushiyon ke mauko pe Cadbury Chocolates ke saath bayaan kijiye apne dil ki

baat...Cadbury Greeting cards ke saath"(Now go beyond sharing happiness with only

chocolates...Also share your feelings with Cadbury Greeting Cards)

Place

One of the most important thing for Cadbury is to ensure that the greeting cards are available

almost at all the places where Cadbury Chocolates are sold. In addition, Cadbury can ensure that

its greeting cards are stocked right next to Cadbury chocolates in various departmental stores.

Page | 11
 Brand Audit Report | Cadbury India | Group 1

Apart from this, Cadbury can also have such cards sold through gift shops, and other specialized

flower and cake shops such as Ferns and Petals.

Since more and more people are going online to send gifts to near and dear ones, Cadbury can

also explore this avenue. It can tie up with a number of online gift organizers to sell Cadbury's

greeting cards. These gift organizers currently sell a wide range of Cadbury chocolates in the

form of chocolate bouquets. A Cadbury greeting card with such bouquets will act as an icing on

the cake.

References

Source1: S&P Capital IQ report

Source2: https://www.cadbury.com.au/about-cadbury/the-story-of-cadbury.aspx

Source3: http://www.caclubindia.com/forum/-history-of-cadbury-products--

53701.asp#.VJwnVV4CA

Source4: http://thecadburychocolatier.wordpress.com/part-3-the-brand-purpose/

Source5: http://tejas.iimb.ac.in/articles/97.php

Source6: http://thebestiims.blogspot.in/p/assignment-2-imc-plan-of-cadbury-dairy.html

Source7: www.tarj.in

Source8: http://www.business2000.ie/pdf/pdf_8/cadbury_8th_ed.pdf

Source9: http://www.business2000.ie/pdf/pdf_10/cadbury_10th.pdf

Page | 12