Previous

Part - III

On the distribution front, the company increased the number of its distribution outlets from the present 4 lakh to 5 lakh by the year 2000. To attain the objectives of affordability, over the past two years, Cadbury has been changing its product portfolio from pure chocolate items to confectionery, which includes caramel, nuts, raisins and wafers.
The aim is to bring down the price line and enter other markets than the purely urban ones. In line with this, it launched Googly in early 1997, and followed it up with products like Mocka and English Toffee. The strategy of the company has been to launch one major product and follow it up with smaller products, for instance, the launch of Picnic was followed by Cadbury Gold and a couple of sugar confectionery launches.

Intense competition from Nestle is one of the reasons Cadbury has re-worked its product range and made efforts to enter the mass product segment. In 1998, the company moved into smaller sized versions of Diary Milk and Perk and found to its delight that the introduction of economy priced models led to more people eating chocolate. In the same year, small packs increased chocolate volumes of Cadbury by 19 per cent and market. Nestle, with a 20 per cent share in the chocolates market responded with Munch, a chocolate brand came to counter Picnic.

Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate was first introduced in the early 1900s, it made an immediate impact quickly becoming the market leader. The success story has continued. It is still the top selling chocolate brand in the country and the Cadbury Mega Brand's broad family of products today has an international retail value approaching US$ 1 billion. As an international brand, Cadbury Dairy Milk carries the same distinctive image all over the world. Wherever you buy a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk, the pack design will be exactly the same, only the language will be different.

Next

* Contributed by -
Dr. K. S. Chandrasekar
Institute of Management in Kerala,
University of Kerala, Trivandrum,
Ms. Sumi Suresh,
School of Management and Business Studies,
M. G. University, Kottayam