You will be completing this question in timed conditions on Monday 15th April
Cadbury has been in existence for over 100 years and has been producing Cadbury Dairy Milk since 1905. It has approximately 32% of the confectionary market’s total annual sales of about £5.9 billion. Customers spend about £1 million a day on Cadbury Dairy Milk in the UK.
In 2003, mother branding was introduced, with Cadbury using Cadbury Dairy Milk and Flake as mother brands. The Flake mother brand encompassed the traditional Flake, along with Flake Dark, Flake Dipped, Flake Praline and Snow Flake. Wispa was replaced by Cadbury Dairy Milk (only to be ‘revived’ in 2008 due to increasing demand) and Cadbury Caramel by Cadbury Diary Milk with Caramel. A large number of other products were also launched under this Cadbury Dairy Milk mother brand.
Cadbury aimed to create product equilibrium by redesigning wrappers. By standardising packaging for all its Cadbury Dairy Milk products, it created a ‘purple patch’ on the shelves. It was hoped that the greater visual impact created would encourage customers to buy Cadbury over other brands, especially as 60%- 70% of chocolate is brought on impulse. Cadbury is careful to keep a close eye on competitors and their products and it uses competitor- based pricing where it aims to match its prices with those of competitors in the market. (e.g. Cadbury Dairy Milk matched Galaxy and Flake with Ripple both manufactured by Mars).
In 2005, Cadbury brought Green & Black’s a successful business well known for making high quality, intense flavour chocolate using only organic ingredients. This is marketed as a stand alone brand aimed at the luxury end of the confectionary market. There is no purple packaging or Cadbury label present on these chocolate bars.
Consequently, capacity utilisation at the Swedish Cadbury’s factory is at a high level. e.g. in 1 month alone, 3500 workers produced 56000 Dairy Milk, and 4500 workers produced 200000 Green & Blacks. Cadburys is known for its excellent workforce planning. However, in comparison, the London
The years 2007/2008 saw the launch of 2 distinctive and different advertising campaigns by Cadbury. After ditching the Cadbury Flake Girl in 2004, she was revitalised in the form of supermodel Alyssa Sutherland in 2007 in a £5 million advertising campaign. This campaign was, however, short lived and in March 2008 singer Joss Stone become the new face of Cadbury Flake. The advert departs from previous Flake advertisements and is in a documentary style- Joss Stone takes a break from recording in a studio, picks up a Flake and sings the well known Flake jingle which was first created in 1920.
The year 2007 also saw the end of Cadbury’s 11 year, £10 million sponsorship of Coronation Street and the launch of a radical advertising campaign. The commercial does not show chocolate or even mention the word, but instead showed a drumming gorilla playing ‘In the Air Tonight’. This £9 million advertising campaign sees Cadbury moving away from traditional methods of advertisement that focuses on the product and its taste and concentrate instead in creating an impact.
Discuss the extent to which Cadbury’s current marketing mix might improve sales of its products. (15)
