Marketing Plan For Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate

Brand Diagnosis

Marketing Plan is an important document of any company that includes different aspects, which are required for promoting and advertising products and services of organization. A company prepares marketing plan, when it makes efforts to bring its products and services to the marketplace. An organization can be assesses by its strategic position in market as compared to its competitors. This report includes an extended marketing plan on one of the largest confectionary organization all over the world, i.e. Cadbury. The company is introducing a new chocolate pack under its Cadbury Dairy Milk brand.

The below report includes the discussion about the brand diagnosis about the brand and its products and services. Under brand diagnosis, it consists of target customer, competitors, marketing mix and SWOT analysis for its brand. Furthermore, it includes the marketing strategy and marketing plan, which is created to promote the products and services among its target customers. In its marketing plan, marketing mix tool is used that will be used by the organization to attain its marketing strategies and marketing objectives. This will be the major focus of the organization to develop an effective marketing plan, so that it can approach its mission and vision and achieve its predetermined objectives.

Cadbury is a British multinational organization in the confectionary industry, which is owned by Mondelez International since the year 2010. Founded in the year 1824, the organization is world’s second largest confectionary firm after Wrigley’s and headquartered in Uxbridge, West London. Currently, it is operating its business operations in over 50 countries all over the world. Cadbury is popular worldwide for its Crème Egg, Dairy Milk Chocolate, Roses selection box and some other confectionary items. It successfully employs more over 45000 employees in more than 50 nations. Cadbury is strategically positioned on fourth position among highest suppliers of sugar and chocolate confectionary worldwide (Cadbury, 2017). From all the products, the most successful brand and product is its Dairy Milk, which was introduced in the year 1905. It has become very famous melted chocolate in United Kingdom with other chocolates globally in terms of profits and revenues. There are three major pillars in the success of company are such as; higher quality, value of money and string advertisement and promotion process.

When a company plans to create a marketing plan, first it conducts brand diagnosis. Under this, it evaluates the prospective industry, target market, competitive scenario and SWOT analysis of the brand. Further, it will evaluate that marketing mix of brand is consistent with the brand’s positioning. Brand diagnosis of the Cadbury brand is stated below;

Marketing Strategy

When Cadbury Organization has established its market, it is essential to target the customers in different segments. The company looks for the target segment to offer its products and services, so that it can meet the demands and needs of potential customers. For this, Cadbury requires identifying the hyper and super markets, convenient stores, retail stores, where chocolate consumption is comparatively higher (Abril, and Rodriguez-Cánovas, 2016). Currently, company is serving a broad range of market including the adults to children. The new products under Cadbury brand are very attractive, which will be produced by targeting teenagers and female adults as they love to eat the chocolates most. It will be beneficial for the organization as the female population is the largest customer of chocolates not only in UK market but also in other countries’ markets.

As discussed above, Cadbury is the leading brand in confectionary industry and offering quality products for satisfying its potential customers. Thus, the company is experiencing a significant growth in its revenues and its market share (Armstrong et al, 2014). Currently, the market share of the company is growing with a significant growth rate. It shows that company’s future will be better than other competitor in the confectionary industry.

           

Figure 1: Cadbury Market Share

Source: (Cadbury, 2017)

According to a global market research, it is analyzed that Cadbury consists of 70% market share worldwide. From this, the Dairy Milk alone is accountable for the 30% of all over market. Apart from this, this research found that approximate number of chocolate bars, sold each year is 120 billion and around 60 million of them are manufactured by Cadbury Organization. Now, the company has become world’s second largest organization in confectionary industry (Bakker, 2014).

Figure 2: Global Market Share

Source: (Cadbury, 2017)

From the above diagram, it can be understood that company is covering a large market share in the global confectionary industry. The major factor behind this growth is to offer quality chocolates by considering the needs and wants of customers in the market place. It is growing very fast in developing markets as Cadbury is delivering strong performance continuously (Cadbury, 2017).

In the global confectionary industry, there are so many players, which are posing intense competition for Cadbury. However, Cadbury is the market leader in this industry, but still the competition has affected the growth of company. Some of its competitors are such as; Hershey’s, Nestle, Wrigley’s etc. These competitors of the company are discussed below;

Marketing Plan

Hershey’s

One of the major competitors of the Cadbury is Hershey, which also had a considerable market share in the confectionary industry. In the United States, the company has various well-established brands in Chocolate industry, like; Reese’s, Hershey’s, Twizzlers and Jolly Rancher. There were different legal cases between Hershey’s and Cadbury. The chocolate of Cadbury is UK lists the milk as a number one ingredient, whereas Hershey’s chocolate has sugar as top ingredient. Hershey holds an exclusive position in the industry because it acts not only as a competitor but also as a distributor of the products of Cadbury (Cortez et al, 2014).

Nestle

Nestle is one of the largest food organizations in the world and covers various segments of the market. The chocolate market is the smallest market, but still it has good market share in this industry. The company has grown via several mergers and acquisitions, through which it has control on different brands, like; Kit-Kat, Gerber Baby Food, Smarties etc.

Wrigley’s

Wrigley’s is the well-established brand in the global confectionary industry and working as a private company. The company is the first largest company in the industry and leads the Cadbury. There are some chocolate brands of this company, like; Snickers, M&M, Starburst, Twix & Skittles etc. Same as Cadbury, this company also has a strong market share in the confectionary market and increased sales (Dhariyal, Negi and Kothari, 2017).

Yes, the marketing mix of the company is consistent with its strategic positioning. The company needs to make its marketing mix elements, primarily the product mix consistently emphasized on the positioning objective.

Product

Cadbury is offering its products and services in different segments, like; chocolates, biscuits and other food products. Under its product strategy, the company is focused on delivering higher quality and customer satisfaction (Eden, and Ackermann, 2013). Some of the chocolates of the company are like; Dairy Milk, Bournvile, Five Star, Perk etc.

Price

As Cadbury is offering the products and services with higher quality, so the prices of its products is very high in some of the cases. Sometimes, it is very reasonable and affordable for the target customers, like; Five Star, Perk, Eclairs etc. From all the brands, Dairy Milk is considered as expensive and premium brand of Chocolates because of its positioning.

Place

Distribution of the company is widespread and delivering its products and services in different areas of the world. The company is using different distribution channels for approaching its customers. Due to different distribution channels, the distribution costs of the company are comparatively higher. From the manufacturing premises, the products are delivered to distributors, then retailers and then to final consumers. The products can be availed from retail stores and super markets all over the world (Foxall, 2014).

Marketing Metrics

Promotion  

Cadbury is a leading player in the international confectionary industry and serving a large customer base with its chocolates and other confectionary items. It is experiencing a significant growth due to its strong promotion and advertisements. It is using different sources, like; print media, online media, social media etc.

Apart from this, the positioning statement of the company is “to offer the quality products for fulfilling the needs and wants of target customers”. Under this positioning statement, the company is designing the products according to the festive seasons also, like; Valentine, Christmas, Father’s and Mother’s day and some other special occasions. The above given 4Ps are consistent with its product positioning as they are making strategy to attain and approach this statement (Gallarza-Granizo, Gil-Saura, and Ruiz-Molina, 2016).

SWOT analysis is the tool, which can be used for analyzing the different factors of internal and external environment, which may affect the growth and success of company in the market. The SWOT analysis for Cadbury is stated below;

Strengths

• Well-established brand in the global confectionary industry
• Strong distribution channels
• Strong Brand Loyalty
• Variety of products
• Strong promotions and advertisements

Weakness

• Higher sugar ingredients
• Controversies with other brands, like; Hershey’s
• Intense Competition
• Need of strong Quality Control

Opportunities

• Brand Expansion
• Product differentiation
• Business expansion in other emerging markets
• Introduction of products in an exclusive and unique way
• Utilization of different and effective marketing strategies

Threats

• Entry of other products and players in confectionary industry
• Changes in the current external environment
• Intense competition
• People are becoming more concerned about health
• Low switching costs (Hollensen, 2015)

After Analyzing the brand, it can be resulted that company needs to develop some effective marketing strategies. The marketing managers of the Cadbury have the major responsibility for their marketing strategies with its products and services, like; attractive chocolates under Cadbury Dairy Milk brand (Hill, Jones, and Schilling, 2014).  

Business Level Strategy

After evaluating the brand, the company needs to develop a business level strategy for its brands and products. It will increase the size of chocolate consumption via focusing on distribution and low priced chocolate packs. In addition to this, the company should try to maintain its brand image by developing an excellent marketing mix. Under its business level strategy, the company is make efforts to increase targeting the regular customers of chocolate via generating desires and increased presence in the emerging market. It will offer the chocolates in gift and celebration packs on affordable prices (Kelley, Sheehan, and Jugenheimer, 2013).

Corporate Strategy

Under its corporate level strategy, Cadbury should implement a corporate level strategy, which can assist the organization in making different decisions that affect its entire brand. Cadbury will divide its corporate strategy in three different parts, like; delight the global chocolate lovers, unleash the power of heritage brands and create a valuable and performance driven company. By implementing these strategies, Cadbury will be able to maintain its corporate level activities effectively. By this, it will be able to recognize the skills and abilities of the human resources, which are needed to enhance the growth of organization (Paliwoda, and Thomas, 2013). At Cadbury, it is significant that management is able to create and execute the corporate level strategies for attaining the goals and objectives of firm and maintaining its competitive advantage over its leading competitors.

Competitive Analysis

Functional Strategy 

Functional strategy is one of the major strategies, which can assist the organization in attaining its predetermined goals and objectives. An organization develops this strategy to back up its other strategies, like; business level strategy and corporate-level strategy. This strategy includes different functions of an organization, like; human resource, finance, marketing etc. In this context, Cadbury needs to make focus on enhancing the operational efficiency of the organization. It should conduct the training and development process for its employees about the quality and customer satisfaction (Peppard, and Ward, 2016). It should focus on the functional areas of the company, which play an important role and contribute to the growth and success of the company. Under this strategy, Cadbury should focus on its functional and operational objectives, like; to increase awareness about the products and services, to increase global market share and to enhance the sales by a significant percentage (Rothaermel, 2015).

After considering these three level strategies of Cadbury, it can be said that there is no need to reposition the brand. The existing target group is beneficial for the growth and sales of the organization. There is no need to make shift from this target market. By strengthening its human resources, financial resources and operations, the company can attain its objectives, which are mentioned in the functional level strategy.  The above mentioned strategies of Cadbury will be assisting the organization for attaining long term growth in international confectionary industry. The company should go ahead with these strategies in today’s competitive business environment (Rosenbaum-Elliott, Percy, and Pervan, 2015).

Marketing mix has been considered as an approach or mechanism or a set of actions which can be adopted by the business entity for promoting and creating awareness of the products and services. This approach proves very much beneficial for bring hike in the sales and profitability. The below executed is the description of the extended marketing mix of Cadbury:

Product: Cadbury have a diversified range of products which has been considered as one of the biggest strength for the business entity. The business corporation operates in service industry and is almost distinctive in being owned by a major manufacturer. The products vary and are also classified according to the seasons and regions in which the entity is operating the business. The other Cadbury products are based on festive occasions, for instance Christmas, Halloween etc. On the basis of the research it has also been observed that the business corporation also segregates the products on the basis of the demographics areas (Russell-Jones, 2014). Moreover, the entity has also ventured in the segments of ice-creams and biscuits. The business corporation has a huge impact on the industry and is continuing to grow with a rapid rate. The business entity has also been expecting to launch a new product line in Dairy Milk which is one of the well-known products. The new product will be a sugar free version of Dairy Milk with attractive packaging.

Marketing Mix

Price: The pricing range of the products of the business corporation is based on the quality of the products. The prices of the products vary, for instance some of the products are of premium range such as Bourneville. There are some of the products which are of low prices and these are designed and manufactured to carter the needs of the other consumer segments. The organization has focused on strategically based approach for determining the price of the products so as to attain all the targeted segments (Schlegelmilch, 2016).  

Place: The business entity operates the activities all over the globe and this has been considered as one of the strength of Business Corporation. Distribution channels are the major component which has impacted largely over the global markets. The main concern of the entity is to carter the needs and requirements of the consumers all over the globe as the firm have a huge customer base. The availability of the products has been made in both urban and rural regions. The places of distribution have made the availability of the products to a large customer base and which results in an increase in the profitability (Sert, and Köse, 2014).

Promotion: Cadbury makes use of diverse range of promotional tools and mechanisms for promoting and advertising the products and services all over the globe. It has been observed that the business entity has been making use of television, newspapers, radio, posters, hoardings and online mediums for marketing the products. The business corporation has adopted some slogans for enhancing the marketing efforts of the team. For instance, “Kuch meetha ho jaaye” is one of the famous tag line which has been used for one of the product that is Dairy Milk. This approach aids in stimulating a number of consumer segments. Cadbury also make promotions by sponsoring some type of sports events and promotional events are also organized. The business entity also has brand ambassadors for deferent products line and which aids in stimulating a large number of consumers (Shah, 2014).

People: The People are the most significant factor for any of the business entity and same is for Cadbury. The business entity has a diversified range of human resource which aids in offering services to the consumers on global level. The workforce is well-trained and skilled for serving the consumers and letting them attain high level of satisfaction.

Process: The business corporation makes use of eco-friendly manufacturing processes for producing the products and offering the services to the consumers. The entity serves with a quality of products to the consumers by making adoption of most advanced operations and functionalities while manufacturing the products (Sharma, 2014).

Product

Physical evidence: Cadbury is an international manufacturing corporation and has been operating the business all over the globe. The products are made easily available for the consumption at the stores, supermarkets etc. The business entity also has diverse and huge physical resources which aids and assist the entity in reaping huge revenues.

As each and every marketing plan is prepared with some specific objectives, which the company wants to attain by introducing its products and services. These objectives may be related to its functional area, operations and customer satisfaction. Under its marketing plan, Cadbury will set some specific objectives to gain a significant market share, increasing brand awareness among people and providing higher customer satisfaction to its potential customers (Sheth, Sinha, and Shah, 2016). Till now, the business of Cadbury has considerable untapped capacity both in the terms of returns and growth. By developing the strength of leadership to grow its marketing share and increase the revenues and profits.  

In the global confectionary industry, Cadbury covers a significant market share over its competitors. In the next time frame of three years, Cadbury aims to increase its market share by 50% over its leading competitors, like; Hershey’s, Nestle and Wrigley’s. The company is well-established in the confectionary industry and offering quality products with standard sugar and milk ingredients (Slack, 2015). Providing quality products on affordable prices will assist the organization attaining its marketing objective related to enhanced market share.

Offering full customer satisfaction is a very important marketing objective of organization that is set in its marketing plan. Cadbury will make efforts to offer higher customer satisfaction by considering the needs and wants of the customers. Before manufacturing these new products under Dairy Milk brand, the company will conduct marketing research, which will assist the organization in delivering their desired products. The company is expecting the optimum level of customer satisfaction from the consumption of these new chocolate products. Each and every organization wants to provide 100% customer satisfaction through its new products (Solomon, 2014).

Brand awareness is an extent to which the people are familiar with the image or volume of any particular brand of products and services. Through this marketing plan, Cadbury will emphasize on increase the brand awareness among most of the population. For this, the company will aim on declining the effect of competition and attaining the internal objectives (Wolde, 2016). It can enhance its brand awareness by increasing its presence on social media sites, like; Facebook, Twitter etc. It will sponsor different events and contribute to the charity events. The company will expect to increase the brand awareness by a significant percentage, i.e. 80%. This new product of Cadbury will definitely assist the organization in making the customers aware about its chocolates and cookies.

Price

Profit maximization is one of the major objectives, which is set by an organization, while implementing a marketing plan. Under its marketing plan, the company aims to increase its revenues and profits by 7% every year. It will focus on enhancing its sales with a significant percentage. To attain this marketing objective, the company will implement different business and growth strategies, which align with its positioning statement and other goals. However, Cadbury is experiencing growth in the global confectionary industry, so it is making higher profits and revenues over its competitors in the industry (Wolde, 2016).

Thus, Cadbury wants to attain these marketing objectives under this marketing plan for its new products and services. By executing new strategies, the company will be able to attain these objectives in preset timeframe.

Conclusion 

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that Cadbury is a leading player in the confectionary industry. Cadbury has a strong brand image in the world’s biggest confectionary market. Thus, it is very important for the organization to consider the internal and external factors before creating a marketing plan. The company needs to give attention on attaining a sustainable competitive advantage. The brand diagnosis of Cadbury results that company is already a well-established company and targeting a large market of customers. It is conducting market research before manufacturing its new chocolates and other products. Thus, the company holds strong brand reputation in the sector. The firm should implement some strategies for attracting customers and increase brand awareness among customers. Apart from this, Cadbury should work for the society and its people and protect the company’s goodwill and brand equity. Thus, the company should focus on different factors for understanding the markets and customers.

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