Market
India has a huge sweet tooth. It has the world’s
second largest population and the world’s
largest under-thirties population. The country is
also spawning one of the world’s fastest-growing
middle-class spenders with surplus incomes.
It should, therefore, be a huge natural
consumer destination for chocolates. But
market destinies are often guided by
ironies. In this case, chocolates are not as
simple to sell as the statistics might imply.
This is because the domestically-made
sweets and confectionery – mithai –
market is so huge, so dispersed, so full of
variety and so inextricably intertwined with
Indian religious, festive and social rituals
and occasions, that trying to mass-market
chocolates – a foreign food – would equal
the task of selling the proverbial
refrigerator to the Eskimo.
That Cadbury has entered this
forbidding market, has stayed in the
chocolate business in India and has
dominated it, is a testament to the
company’s tenacity, resilience and ingenuity.
Compared to the West, per capita
chocolate consumption in India is
extremely low. While Britain, for instance,
consumes eight kilograms per head per
year, India consumes just under 100
grams per capita.
There are other obstacles as well.
Mithais are easily available and usually cooked
fresh at every street corner in towns and
villages. Chocolates not only face serious route-
to-market problems but are also seen as
indulgence products.
While the comparative per capita chocolate
consumption in India may be pretty abysmal,
Cadbury’s performance in this market, however,
merits reams of ink and paper. Cadbury
dominates the Indian chocolate market with a
72% value share (Source: ACNielsen). Cadbury
Dairy Milk (CDM)
constitutes about a
third of Cadbury
India’s turnover.
Today, CDM is
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the largest chocolate brand in India and is the
undisputed leader by a huge margin. CDM
has a market share in excess of 30%
(Source: ACNielsen). Of the approximately
2.7 million Cadbury bars sold each day, CDM
alone accounts for more than a million. For over
half a century Cadbury has been the
preferred gift for
children. Of
course, the child
in many adults –
for whom also it
was an integral
part of growing
up – also roots
for that Cadbury
Dairy Milk
chocolate.
Achievements
For consumers across India, the word Cadbury
is synonymous with chocolates. It’s a classic
example of a brand coming to symbolise a
product category. But even this doesn’t quite
capture the warmth with which people
immediately think of CDM at the very mention
of the word ‘chocolate’.
Cadbury remains at the top of the chocolate
market not only because of its
products but also because it has
made significant strides in
employee satisfaction. The
company believes that
leadership is both deeply
personal and inherently
collective. Thus, one of its
primary performance
measures is the ‘People Care
Index’ that measures the
extent of care that
employees experience
in the work team to
which they belong.
Business Today
magazine has
identified
Cadbury as
one of India’s
best-managed
companies and lauded for its “strategy on
focusing on power brands.”
History
Opening its doors in 1824 at Bull Street,
Birmingham, Cadbury’s history is a fascinating
study of industrial and
social development; it
shows how a small
family business
can be
developed into an
international giant.
The Cadbury
family was a
prominent member of the Society of Friends or
Quakers. Quakers held strong beliefs and ideals
that they carried into campaigns for justice,
equality and social reform, putting an end to
poverty and deprivation. As nonconformists,
Quakers were not permitted to enter the
universities, which in the nineteenth century
were closely linked with the Church. Entry into
the professions was impossible and pacifist
principles precluded the military as a career. The
energies and talents of Quaker families were,
therefore, directed towards business, social
reform and the transformation of social and
industrial society in Victorian Britain.
John Cadbury’s involvement with the
Temperance Society had an influence on the
direction of his business enterprise. By providing
tea, coffee, cocoa and chocolate as an
alternative to alcohol, which was believed to be
one of the causes of poverty and deprivation
amongst working people, he felt that he was
helping to alleviate some of the misery.
In 1831, he rented a small factory in
Birmingham and became a manufacturer of
drinking chocolate and cocoa, the real
foundation of the Cadbury manufacturing
business. Today, Cadbury is the clear leader in
the UK chocolate market with over 50 brands
and 350 packaging variations that fulfil every
need and occasion.
Cadbury began its Indian operations as a
trading concern in 1947. With brands like
Cadbury Dairy Milk, Gems, 5 Star and Perk –

and now additionally with products like
Celebrations, Bytes and Temptations – Cadbury
is India’s chocolate.
Product
Entering the Indian market meant recognising
negative realities and attacking barriers.
Successful initiatives that have succeeded include
the 1994 exercise of repositioning chocolates
from children to adult consumption through
CDM; the launch of Perk – a wafer snack – in
1995; the launch of CDM in a Rs. 5 pack in
1998 and the launch of low unit price packs
(LUPs) offering power brands at Re.1 and Rs. 2.
According to consumer surveys, CDM with
its unique cube feature is the most delicious of
chocolates providing the defining chocolaty
taste. In 2002 Cadbury re-launched CDM in
India, as a part of a global exercise. The
company leveraged the CDM brand equity
across its entire moulded chocolate portfolio
under a master-branding scheme. Brands like
Fruit & Nut, Crackle and Roast Almond were
brought under the CDM fold as a part of
this initiative.
CDM is now available in a new packaging,
featuring aluminium foil enclosed in sealed
poly-flow packs. The larger sized CDM
packs are poly-flow coated, heat-sealed
aluminium foil wrapped in the branded
outer package. The company believes that
these are pioneering initiatives in
chocolate packaging in India.
Recent Developments
In 1998, CDM took on the task of
universalising consumption from the
smallest town in India to the largest
metro. In 2004, this endeavour gained
momentum with the advent of the ‘Kuch
meetha ho jaye’ platform. This helped the
brand become more attractive, interesting
and desirable during those special
moments when the sweet tooth breaks
out into a craving for satisfaction.
CDM today, has variety of differentiated
offerings under its umbrella for children
as well. This was supported by launching
novel offerings – CDM 2-in-1 (brown
and white chocolate in one bar); and
CDM Poppers (with popping candy).
In July 2006, Cadbury launched CDM
Wowie, a product offering that featured
Disney characters embossed in
white chocolate on the traditional
Dairy Milk bar.
Promotion
CDM advertising has always
depicted a rich tapestry of
human emotions and
relationships. In the 1980s,
it was positioned as the
perfect expression
of love captured in
memorable copy ‘Sometimes
Cadbury can say it better
than words’.
During the early
1990s, CDM
emphasised its
international identity,
communicating that it
was the ‘real taste of
chocolate’. In 1994
came the path-breaking
‘real taste of life’ campaign.
These created a dramatic shift in
the way chocolates,
as a category, were
perceived. As a
category they had
increasingly become
trapped in the image
of a reward or bribe for
children and a product largely
consumed by kids.
This campaign unshackled the brand by re-
positioning it to the free-child in every adult.
CDM redefined itself as the perfect expression
of spontaneous, shared good feelings. The
strategy proved a winner. Brand Cadbury grew
by over 50% in sales volumes. Then in 1998, the
next stage of growth for the brand dealt with
popularising consumption in a social context,
especially in more traditional settings like
weddings. The launch of the ‘Khaanein waallon
ko khaanein ka bahana chahiye’ campaign helped
reposition Cadbury and substantially increase
penetration levels. The campaign was launched
in tandem with the award winning ‘Kuchh khaas
hai…’ campaign. The media strategy was to let
the two co-exist towards a common vision: A
Cadbury in every pocket. The brand penetrated
into smaller towns and sales volumes grew by
40% (Source: internal sales data).
In India joyous occasions are always
celebrated and commemorated with the sharing
of sweets. Cadbury’s experience in India had
shown that in order to deepen chocolate
penetration in the Indian market it must multiply
the occasions for consumption in order to
compete with local sweets. That marketing
vision was what prompted the company to
engage megastar Amitabh Bachchan for the
hugely successful commercial ‘Jab Pappu pass ho
jaye kuchh meetha ho jaye’. When Pappu finally
passes his friends pass out chocolates – the
addition of another joyous occasion to be
celebrated with CDM. ‘Pappu pas ho gaya’
actually became a part of street language and
contributed in strengthening consumer affinity
with the brand proposition of celebrating joyous
occasions with CDM.
The interactive campaign – a tie-up with
Reliance India Mobile service that allowed
students to check their exam results using their
mobile service and encouraged those who
passed their examinations to
celebrate with CDM – also
bagged a bronze Lion at the
prestigious Cannes Advertising
Festival 2006 for best use of
internet and new media.
In 2005 Cadbury
Dairy Milk
celebrated 100
years of its
existence.
To commemorate
the occasion, limited
edition vintage packs
of CDM were launched
in India.
Brand Values
Cadbury Dairy Milk stands
for purity: purity of
emotions, feelings and
expressions. Research has
shown that not only is the
colour purple strongly
associated with Cadbury’s,
but also the Cadbury logo
itself has the highest
recognition of any logo
among popular consumer
brands. The glass-and-a-
half emblem, the
corporate purple and the
flowing script have all become
synonymous with this brand.
www.cadburyindia.com
THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT
Cadbury Dairy Milk
Dental researchers have discovered that tannin,
found in all cocoa products inhibits the key
enzyme in the formation of plaque.
Chocolate is the only word of Aztec origin
used regularly in English. Xocoatl was a bitter
water drink made from cocoa beans by the
Aztecs.
CDM has won a number of awards for its
advertising. It has received the Campaign of the
Century award from the Bombay Ad Club for
its ‘real taste of life’ campaign as well as
Campaign of the Year for its advertising films.
CDM emerged as the most trusted brand in
Mumbai for the 2005 edition of Brand Equity's
Most Trusted Brands survey.
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