As the market leader in the Rs 1,500-crore chocolate category, Cadbury India is constantly grappling with an immensely tricky issue: How to increase consumption of chocolates in a country used to eating sweets or mithai in the name of celebration. It?s a known fact that Indians love mithai and the depth and range of sweets only add to the delight of consuming it.
The mithai market by some estimates is almost Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 crore in size. ?A large part of it is unorganised,? points out Kawal Shoor, president, planning at Ogilvy & Mather, Cadbury India?s advertising agency. Even then the chocolate market is merely a fraction of the larger mithai market. Naturally, the category leader Cadbury India has to find ways and means to help people get into the habit of eating chocolates. This way market share for its products especially the flagship Dairy Milk will only go up.
Not that Dairy Milk isn?t big at the moment. It is the single largest brand in the chocolate market with a value share of 34.8% for the month of June, according to research agency The Nielsen Company. This is not all. Cadbury India?s entire chocolate portfolio has a value share of 70.7% to arch rival Nestle India?s 24.6% (figures for the month of June; The Nielsen Company).
Though these figures assert Cadbury India?s domination in the chocolate market, the company doesn?t plan to simply sit on its laurels. ?Growing the category always helps,? points Nikhil Rao, vice-president, marketing, chocolate, Cadbury India.
But the point is increasing consumption of chocolates isn?t that easy since breaking old habits is really hard. Yet, Cadbury has not given up on its endeavour to improve consumption of chocolates in India. Over the years, the company has tweaked its advertising for Dairy Milk to make the product relevant to the times, and, above all, get more consumers into its fold.
This becomes even more imperative for Cadbury since the Dairy Milk has hardly changed in terms of composition over the years. Depending on one consumer segment then, kids, to be precise, can be risky, say analysts. ?It?s always better to broadbase,? points R Sridhar, chief executive officer of Bangalore-based brand consultancy BrandComm.
Cadbury has attempted to do this quite intelligently over the decades. Cadbury Dairy Milk has slowly but steadily made the transition from being a kids-only product, something that parents would bring home to their children signifying warmth and affection?a concept/ positioning that Cadbury?s played on through the decades of the 1980s and early 1990s?to being a product that an individual, especially an adult, could indulge in on special occasions, primarily during moments of celebration. This was epitomised by the jingle, Kuch khas hai zindagi mein (there is something special in your life) from the award-winning Real Taste of Life advertising campaign of 1993-94. Then it moved on to becoming a product that one could consume on any occasion?Khanewalo ko khane ka bahana chahiye (the ones who love eating just need an excuse to do so)?in the late 1990s and the early part of this decade.
With every creative leap, Cadbury Dairy Milk has tried extending its consumer base. As Rao of Cadbury India explains, ?There was a need to address teenagers and young adults, Real Taste of Life attempted to do that. In a sense, it was the first big shift from the core kids segment that the brand was addressing earlier.
The campaign tried highlighting the fact that chocolates were not meant for kids alone, even adults could consume it; even enjoy it.?
Says Abhijit Avasthi, executive creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather, who is also the creative head of Cadbury, ?Real Taste of Life tried bringing chocolate-eating out of the closet so to speak. Adults were never comfortable eating chocolates in public. The campaign spoke about how there was no harm in doing so.?
Of course, Khanewalo ko khane ka bahana chahiye took this premise even further. That adults could go to any lengths to get their bar of chocolate was what the ads featuring funny man Cyrus Broacha tried projecting. ?This was an interesting take on grown-ups consuming chocolates,? says Samrat Bedi, vice-president, client servicing, O&M.
But the big leap for Cadbury came somewhere in 2004 after the company had put to rest the worm controversy of the previous year. Ad agency O&M came up with the tagline Kuch meetha ho jaye (let?s have something sweet), which positioned Cadbury?s Dairy Milk as an alternative to mithai. This was audacious in many ways given the predisposition of Indians towards mithai, but the company and agency were prepared to take on the mithai market head on.
?Taking share from the mithai market is imperative if you want to grow. Our advertising had to reflect that. Having Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador only added to the magic. It was a plus point for us,? says Rao of Cadbury India. Bedi of Ogilvy says, ?Kuch meetha is fertile ground where a number of ideas can germinate.? This point is reiterated by Shoor as well. ?You can address a number of people, bring in different moments. There is a lot you can do with Kuch meetha ho jaye.?
That is precisely what Cadbury has attempted to do with its current round of advertising for Dairy Milk. If earlier ads featuring Bachchan addressed largely urban families with its projection of celebration at the time of weddings/get-togethers etc, not to mention the focus on teenagers with the Pappu pass ho gaya series, the current adverts use the meetha highground to dwell on a key moment in the life of salaried individuals?the day they receive their pay, largely on the first of every month. ?It?s a crucial moment for an individual who lives from salary to salary,? says Rao.
?He celebrates it in his own little way by consuming mithai,? says Avasthi. ?The ads of course show that you can consume chocolates instead of mithai on this key day.?
This has been done using a retro style ad complete with characters dancing to a popular Kishore Kumar number Din Hai Suhaana Aaj Paheli Tarikh Hai from the 1954 movie Paheli Tarikh. ?This was meant to make it interesting for audiences,? says Rao.
Cadbury?s focus on individuals from a lower socio-economic class is not new. In 2008, there was the popular Kenya Jeet Gaya ad as well as the Radha Miss Palampur Ban Gayee commercial?both aimed at addressing audiences in small towns, rural markets, who are not really the most voracious consumers of chocolates. ?These ads came from a crucial insight we got,? says Shoor of O&M. ?Small-town and adult penetration of chocolates increased more than 20% in the last five years. We had to address this segment.?
Cadbury?s endeavour to lower price points to make the product affordable is also to a certain extent aimed at driving penetration in this segment. Dairy Milk, for instance, is available at the Rs 5, Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 90 price points. The spherical Dairy Milk Shots come for Rs 2 only. Variants such as Fruit & Nut, Roast Almond and Crackle are a bit higher in terms of price. Fruit & Nut, for the record, is available at Rs 30, Rs 55 and Rs 90. Roast Almond comes for Rs 30 and Rs 55, while Crackle stands at Rs 25 and Rs 90. One more variant Wowie is available at a competitive Rs 13. ?Wowie is a variant specifically targeted at children in specific. You have Disney characters embossed on the chocolate in white,? says Rao. ?There is a play value attached to it. Kids love it.?
Of course, the Rs 2, Rs 5 and Rs 10 price points are something the company cannot miss out on. ?Those are the price points where a lot of impulse purchasing happens,? says Rao. ?Shots, in fact, has helped us get a lot of these fringe users who cannot afford an stock keeping unit (SKU) at a higher price point. This is a product we are pushing in the small towns, rural market etc.? Even as the impulse consumer has been targeted with different SKUs, the discerning consumer hasn?t been left out. ?Cadbury?s Dairy Milk is flexible. That is key to get more consumers into the fold. We intend to keep it that way,? says Rao.