Chocolate isn’t Child’s Play

Quick question, what comes to your mind when you think of chocolate?

Sweet? Yummy? Decadent? Indulgent?

Cadbury?

I don’t know about you, but when I think of chocolate, Cadbury is usually one of the first few words to pop in my head. After all, in India people often use Cadbury and chocolate interchangeably, just like Colgate and toothpaste might be.

In the past, chocolate was often thought of as a product for children. It was also thought of as a Western dessert. Adults didn’t gift each other chocolate on festivals like Diwali and Raksha Bandhan. In India, we love our Indian sweets. Laddoos, barfi, gulaab jamun were the common confectionary choice (say that thrice, I dare you) to celebrate our festivities, or really any joyous occasion. After all, the classic Indian paunch is seen as the symbol for prosperity.

But then Cadbury swooped in and changed the game.

In the 90s, with its campaign “Real Taste of Life”, Cadbury rooted the idea in its audience that chocolate wasn’t just a child’s treat, but also an adult’s delight.

In the Indian sweet dominated market, Cadbury replaced our laddoo boxes with their Celebrations box that comprises of an assortment of their product offerings. Commercials for Cadbury Celebrations now crop up around Raksha Bandhan and Diwali period to entice people to buy this box as a gift for their loved ones.

The brand also successfully captured the Indian cultural essence of celebrating with something sweet with its “Kuchh Meetha Ho Jaaye” campaign. Dairy Milk Silk was introduced as a premium chocolate bar that screamed indulgence and guilty pleasure.

“Kiss me, close your eyes, and miss me…”

But this happy, joyous image of Cadbury wasn’t always there. A few years ago, Cadbury was flanked by controversies like having worms and promoting obesity, but Cadbury quickly hushed this down by hiring the nation’s favourite grandfatherly figure, Amitabh Bachhan. As a brand ambassador and the new face of Cadbury, he was able to instill trust, familiarity and wholesomeness to the brand.

Today, Cadbury is seen as the most trustworthy chocolate brand in India, and it outsells all of its competitors in the Indian market.

Cadbury India has a market share of 70%, which is its highest brand share globally. Cadbury India is also seen as the benchmark for all other chocolate in the mid-tier, and is referred to as the “gold standard”. In fact, this international brand hasn’t seen such a response from any other country in the world, even countries where chocolate is the primary confectionary choice.

And all, this because they changed the Indian mindset of only consuming Indian sweets for celebrations. Cadbury brilliantly positioned itself as not just an indulgence, but something that is shared in moments of happiness.

Cadbury sales spike on festivities like Valentines’ Day, Raksha Bandhan, Christmas and Diwali, all because of its unique positioning and brilliant marketing. If you take a close look at Cadbury’s commercials, you will rarely see kids featured in it, which, if you think about it, is quite revolutionary.

Cadbury not only managed to change our confectionary consumption habits but also how we celebrate our festivals.

The local mithai-seller may have baked the cake, but Cadbury happily ate it.

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