Marketing Strategy and SWOT analysis of Cadbury

Loved in 160+ countries around the world, Cadbury is an international giant in the chocolate and confectionery market. Now part of Mondelez International since 2010, the brand has 200 years of history filling the snack drawers of our homes and we still can’t get enough. Cadbury encompasses a wide variety of products: multi-flavored chocolate bars and blocks, candy, biscuits, ice cream, drinks, baking products, and counting. They are good at what they do, right? To confirm this statement, I’ll go through the Marketing Strategy of Cadbury and a brief SWOT Analysis.

It is a no-brainer that the mission and vision statements will help us dig into the brains of this choco-bomb operation.

Mission Statement of Cadbury

The mission of the brand is“Cadbury means quality; this is our promise. Our reputation is built upon quality; our commitment to continuous improvement will ensure that our promise is delivered.” The focus on quality is hardly news for any brand and it is the most cliché statement to make about a product.

That’s at a first glance. At a second glance, the meaning of “quality” changes over time, and the commitment to continuous improvement is a commitment to quality. I’ll talk about this later in the Strengths section of the SWOT analysis.

Vision Statement of Cadbury

The vision statement reads “Working together to create brands people love”. The company is trying to make its product familiar and close to the heart of the consumer. What is even more engaging, is that it invites the customer to create the brand with them, to become part of the Cadbury family.

In such a competitive market, where innovation is easily replicable, such branding is extremely effective. We don’t analyze the contents of a candy bar or mind the difference of cents in prices between brands. We go for what we love.

Let’s have a look at something that the company did just about a month ago that perfectly shows its marketing strategy and demonstrates its positioning.

Of course, we’re talking about them changing the logo and packaging of its entire product line!!!

One might ask why to spend a million dollars to replace a well-established and recognized logo, taking into account that you also need to disturb the manufacturing process all around the global network. First of all, the “Cadbury” signature has changed to look more cursive, to resemble original writing. Meanwhile, “Dairy Milk” is in print font, which creates a contrast between elements and lets each shine on their own.

The background pattern and the placement of chocolate create a deeper dimension to the image. Some other minor altercations have the aim to “capture John Cadbury’s warmth, humanity, and authenticity with the new look”. Still, they kept the signature purple-gold combo that usually identifies with luxury, power, creativity, and magic.

Cadbury belongs to the Jester brand archetype, as most sweets brands do. We can observe the characteristics of the archetype in this social media post, which shows a mixture of real-life and cartoon objects.

Jester Brand Archetype is mainly presented by cartoonish characters and behaviors. The bite-size caricatures are laying on the book pages in a cozy setting, almost immersed in comfort. The image suggests that the chocolate would make you detach from reality and sink into wishful bliss. 

The worst thing that Jesters can hear about themselves is being boring or too serious. So, Cadbury is constantly creating new ways to connect with its customers through pop-up shops, online games, various philanthropic campaigns, and online challenges. One of the most memorable moments in the brand’s history is the Gorilla Ad released in 2007. Spoilers ahead! Before I get into it, I’d advise you to have a look.

Back then, the advertising game was focused on product quality and feature display, whereas the entire Cadbury Gorilla Ad did not include a single bit of candy. This is one of the pioneer marketing campaigns that were more concerned with an emotional connection with the customer.

They didn’t have to tell us that the chocolate would make us happy. They just made us laugh and convinced us that we would feel that again consuming their product.

• Desire: Living in the moment and enjoying life to the fullest, (and some more)!
• Aim: Lightening up the world, helping people loosen up.
• Strategy: Using humor and playfulness to forget the hardships of life. Creating an alternate, more colorful world.

Here are the messaging levels of the Jester.

Level One: Life is a game, let loose and let’s play!

Level Two: There is nothing and no one you can’t make fun of, sometimes even tricky to get your way.

Level Three: Live as if there is no tomorrow.

The Jester Archetype is a promising identity for your brand if:

1. It creates a sense of belonging for people.
2. It helps them have some fun, despite the routine.
3. The product is not expensive and the brand doesn’t think much of itself. It is grounded and never too serious.

Brand Archetypes. Why do we need them in practice?

Our communication strategy may have multiple messaging approaches. But there is some logic that unifies all these and it is called communication-based on archetypal branding. A company may have many messages, but they do not have something in common. For example “Do everything easily”, “Go ahead and be powerful” or Dig deeper and be experienced”.

These 3 quotes have different goals and bring different subconscious effects. One is about Being a Hero, another is about gaining more experience. These are 2 different directions of messaging and the logic of Brand archetypes brings more uniqueness and clarity here. Just read the book “8 steps to a complete archetypal branding” and you will have more experience in communication-based on archetypes.

After identifying Cadbury’s brand archetype, we can dig deeper into the business strategy, with a SWOT Analysis.

Strengths

Global presence and rating: An international online study has confirmed that Cadbury Dairy Milk is the top chocolate bar in the world. It emerges as the most popular product in 78 countries. The brand is not only recognizable in more than 160 countries, but also one of the consumer favorites. This is one of the very few brands that have been able to connect with and capture the huge Indian market, with its family-oriented positioning.

Wide variety: The product lines of Cadbury are hardly countable. They are making sure that anyone can find something they love in the vast array of options.

Star products: Some Cadbury sub-brands and collaborations have made a name for themselves and are considered cash cows in almost all markets. These include Dairy Milk, Oreo, Bournville, 5-star, Toblerone, and else. 

Relevance: The brand is constantly trying to stay up to date with its marketing campaign and product alterations. One of the most significant ones is when the UK Government introduced a ‘sugar tax’ in 2018, the company responded with a step further, a new option of Dairy Milk with 30% less sugar content.

Even recently, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are making donations and repurposing chocolate sculpture 3D printers to produce medical visors. Cadbury has also released the “This doesn’t need to end” campaign, encouraging people to continue with kindness towards each other when the lockdown is over.

Fairtrade: Cadbury has joined Fair Trade certification to discourage child labor in cocoa farms and factories in West Africa.

Weaknesses 

Controversies and product recall: There have been a few instances when products have been called back because of inaccurate labeling, containing hazardous bacteria and even insects and rodents were found. The quality control has hopefully improved.

Access to the US market: More than 30 years ago the company has sold the rights to produce Cadbury chocolate products in the United States to Hershey’s Company. This is a drawback also for the US consumers because evidently the Cadbury original products by Hershey’s taste differently and the new product lines are not accessible there.

Opportunities

Product diversification: The producer of chocolate and confectionary can easily tap into related food products with its technology, ingredient supply, and global distribution. Its competitors Nestle, for example, having production in a wider range of food and non-food segments, can easily rehabilitate from surges in the confectionery market and can utilize the profit streams to feed each segment at the right time.

Untapped markets: While the US market is a no-go for Cadbury, East Asia, and the Pacific are emerging consumer markets that have growing welfare an increasing demand for sweets as opposed to Europe.

Healthier options: The market for sugary and fatty products, especially in the First World countries, is declining as never before. We all love a sweet bite but it’s not worth the added pounds or the heart disease in the end. This does not mean that candy is a thing of the past, but there are healthier options; bars with dried fruits, nuts, and seeds. Fewer calories, please.

Threats

Most of the above opportunities have occurred because the company and the industry as a whole are facing challenges. Cadbury has been successful in responding well to the emergence of the ‘sugar tax’ and can still diversify its production to include healthy alternatives, however…

Reduced demand: In an effort to lead healthy lifestyle customers may steer away from chocolate products entirely. The scams and false advertising of supposedly healthy products have destroyed consumer confidence in brands. They have become much more cautious and distrustful of large companies.

Fierce competition: I would not want to be one going against conglomerates such as Mars, Nestle, and Hershey’s. Cadbury should focus on its competitive advantages to not cave under the giant blows of these companies.

Now I would ask the question of what Cadbury is leveraging to stay afloat in the market. What is the target segment?

To demonstrate that, we’ve chosen the 2015 Egg n’ Spoon Advert. The half-a-minute video is more than enough to show its message. The setting is simple. A family of three is unpacking groceries in the kitchen and among quite boring everyday products is this bright purple box of Egg n’ Spoon.

Seems like that tiny box of chocolate sets up this upbeat and fun father-daughter dance routine. They’ve probably tasted it before because eating the chocolate is part of the dance, but it’s still exciting. In the end, the mother joins as well. This ad portrays how Cadbury wakes the child in everyone, their carefree, and unbothered nature. At the same time, it is exciting in a loving and familiar setting, an adventure within one’s comfort.

This characteristic is found in the “Floaters” market segment. 

Lifestyle and Values:

Floaters are family people. Family and home lives are the centers of their lives and the main source of happiness. They are perfect family members as well because they care so much about their loved ones. Taking on the traditional roles in the family, men and women Floaters don’t mind putting all their time and effort towards designing a comfortable life. They rarely have extravagant spending desires and always save to provide for children. 

They Float in the aspect of professional life, don’t strive for top-earning careers but rather settle for stable jobs to provide for their family. The ones that have not formed families yet are trying to find lasting relationships. The ideas of hangouts just for fun or self-searching missions are not for them. A quiet movie-night or a game-night cozied up at home is more their style.

Shopping Preferences:

Shopping for Floaters is a practical task. It usually involves a well-planned shopping list, lots of coupons, discounts, and special offers. The well-known brands aren’t their thing, neither are exclusive and extravagant purchases. The practicality of the product and the price/quality ratio are the most important. Style doesn’t matter, neither do the passing fads and trends. 

Here are some interesting facts about Floaters:

1. Floaters are usually the last to catch up on trends. New things often disturb their comfort zone and they have to get acquainted and quite familiar with the product to purchase it in the first place.

2. The best way to get through to a Floater is through TV. Now, that their all-time favorite daily and Sunday newspapers are out of the picture, the next best (traditional) channel is the television. They watch the news, sports, and shows, but all things local and familiar. The internet is a no-show for this market segment until they get comfortable and set up their scene somewhat detached from the scary parts of the web.

3. Their leisure time is often organized around big family gatherings, rather than events on the social scene. They are not necessarily keen on sports as pastime either: the only exercise they get is a walk from one relative’s house to the other.

4. Floaters care to make their families happy. Even though for some the family bubble is boring, they will create a joyful little world for themselves inside the home. This is Cadbury’s main premise; fun in a cozy environment.

16 Personalities (why do you need them in your business?)

Floaters are people aged 40-55 who have families and children. The female clients of this segment mainly spend their daily life at home, do cleaning, take care of the children. Floaters do not like to take on additional responsibilities in the workplace, they work in the same position for many years.  To find more about the Floaters you can check out our new e-book “16 personalities”.

Cadbury has put a smile on people’s faces for about two centuries now. Hopefully, the SWOT analysis and the overview of marketing strategy has helped you understand why it has been so successful. Have a look at more posts like this on the main page of our website.