Cadbury’s ‘Kuch meetha ho jaaye’ (Let’s save something sweet) positioning for its Dairy Milk chocolate has just got a fresh lease of life. Over the last 60 years, India’s largest confectioner has tried to cover every feel-good factor there is in everyday life. It all started with ‘The real taste of life’ which was a montage ad showing young girls breaking into a dance, an old man kicking a ball, boys throwing chocolate at a bus and so on. This was followed by the cricket ad where a girl breaks into an impromptu dance. This campaign catapulted the confectioner’s fortunes and market share to new heights.
However, given that this is an impulse category, Cadbury has had to constantly reinvent its campaign and cannot depend on the same advertising. So it next decided to concentrate on consumers in small towns and from lower socio-economic categories, while sticking to the core promise of joy.
In 2003, the company aimed to position the brand as not just an occasion-based chocolate but as more of a casual consumption habit with the ‘Khush hoon khamakha’ (Am happy just like that) commercial.
Then there was a mid-course correction after the worm controversy. Overnight, its market share slid from 73 per cent to 69.4 per cent. Amitabh Bachchan, the country’s most trusted brand ambassador at that time, was roped in to calm frayed nerves. At the same time, it did some improvisation in packaging to ensure that the chocolates remain safe. The move worked wonders, and no further damage was caused.
Bachchan stayed on even after the controversy had died. And the company returned to the celebration story board. The next campaign showed the resident flunky finally clearing his 12th standard exams. The tagline ‘Kuch meetha ho jaye’ underscored the promise. Within the Kuch meetha ho jaye positioning, it tried many different things starting with Bachchan in the Pappu pass ho gaya campaign, and the Miss Palampur ad.
New direction
Last year it came out with the idea of celebrating on payday, and finally now it’s using the theme of auspicious occasions with the new ‘Shubh aarambh’ (auspicious start) campaign. Unmistakably, the common thread is how Cadbury Dairy Milk wants to create a special place during moments of celebration.
“We’d like to see the new ad as a new direction,” says Cadbury Director (chocolates & strategy) V Chandramouli. According to him, the company wants to create more and more celebration situations that will increase the consumption of chocolate. “We simply want to activate a new need space,” he adds. Abhijit Avasthi, the national creative director of Ogilvy & Mather, Cadbury’s long-standing creative agency of 50 years, says: “Shubh aarambh is yet another cut on our long-running and immensely successful Kuch meetha ho jaaye thought for Cadbury Dairy Milk. Though it is rooted in the cultural truth of auspicious beginnings starting with something sweet, we’ve tried to give it a youthful and contemporary flavour.”
The new territory will be used by Cadbury Dairy Milk for the next two or three years at least. The ads that follow will work both on the thought as well as urging consumers to follow the behaviour. For instance, on the weekend the ad broke, two short five-second previews were released across channels. While one ad showed a ribbon being cut, another ad featured a coconut being broken — both the acts stand for new beginnings in the country.
Following that the full ad came out featuring a young girl standing at a bus stop eating a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk. A boy comes up to her and requests her for a piece of the chocolate. Surprised, the girl asks if she knows him, to which he says no. The boy then explains that his mother tells him that before starting anything auspicious, it is a must to have something sweet. Hearing this, she reluctantly gives him a piece of Cadbury Dairy Milk. Still curious, the girl asks what he’s referring to. He smiles and says that he was thinking of dropping her back home.
For several years Cadbury has been trying to make its flagship Dairy Milk, which is primarily seen as children’s indulgence, a permissible product among adults. This is unlike in the West where chocolates are also seen as a snacking option. Naturally, per capita consumption is very high in such markets. India’s per capita chocolate consumption is just 54 gm in a whole year, compared to 10.5 kg in the UK and 10 kg in the US. Clearly, creating more need options for the adult holds the key to growth.
Broadening the base
Last year too, Cadbury reiterated this point with its payday commercial which starts with a cashier giving the protagonist his salary for the month. The young man breaks into a dance and the rest of the office joins him in no time. The man proceeds to pay the milkman and doctor on his way out. He then sees a young child and hands him a Cadbury Dairy Milk. And all this happens to the background score of “meetha hain khana, aaj pehli taarikh hai”. (Let’s eat something sweet, today’s the first day of the month). The retro feel was unmistakable.
To translate the thought into action, Chandramouli and his team have devised a full 360-degree campaign. For example, people will see Cadbury Dairy Milk hoardings at bus stops and railway stations, and college students starting a new term will see boards near their college. “We want to link the thought with the trigger,” says he.
