7 Ways to increase the consumption of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (CDM)

I think this has to rank among the top most priorities that the CDM marketing team faces. They already have it at each and every price point; it is widely distributed, has regular and premium variants and is widely advertised through some of the most iconic marketing campaigns. So they seem to have their 4Ps in place and thus all their bases covered; or do they?

I wanted to bring across some ideas which I would love to see the brand explore and thus gain more traction in the market. Some of them are as below:

1) Healthy variants
CDM has to have another product developed to somehow ride the current, seemingly long term, health consciousness wave in the country. Probably something on the lines of 'CDM Naturals' which has some sort of actual or perceived (Perception is reality; right?) health benefit which the regular CDM doesn't have.
For e.g. if Coca Cola can have a Coke Zero as compared to a regular Coke there is no reason why CDM shouldn’t have such a variant to appeal to the health conscious and weight conscious people in the market

By this I don’t mean just packaging of existing chocolates into festive packs but innovative ‘Mithais’ which have their main ingredient as CDM. This would involve massive amount of local marketing efforts as different parts of the country enjoy different kinds of sweets. But it is none the less at least worth a pilot project in a tier 1 city to begin with.

3) CDM flavored branded Pans.

The Non Branded Chocolate Flavored Mitha Pans (without any kind of unhealthy masalas) sell tremendously well in a big city like Ahmedabad with wide acceptability among all age brackets. A small one costs 30 bucks a piece, a price which can easily be matched or bettered by Mondelez if it decides to invest in product R&D for such a variant. If packaged well (assuming awesome taste) this can give birth to a whole new product category !!

4) Creating more habit based consumption patterns
Increasing consumption in a consistent manner mainly revolves around forming long lasting habits. So bite sized CDM Home Treats or CDM Shots should be marketed as a substitute to Mukhvas across the country. Alternatively CDM could also come up with it's own chocolate flavoured Mukhvas in the market. Basically something which people can have after each and every meal as a habit. If the marketing campaign is successful in capturing this insight then consumption can go up tremendously as people successfully buying into the idea would consume the chocolate at least 2 times a day
The same could also be sold in restaurants as substitutes of Mukhvas which is currently a completely unorganized and untapped market for any chocolate maker. Nobody currently sells such chocolates to restaurants as something to be had after a meal but it is too interesting to be not given a shot

5) Marketing to kids more aggressively
Kinder Joy currently sells at an exorbitant price (40 bucks a pop) coz it gives away toys along with their chocolates.
I think CDM should also try the same.
A good idea would be targeting kids a bit more aggressively by introducing chocolates in various generic fun shapes or in the shape of some famous characters (via a licensing deal) which the T.G associates most with and giving away small toys for free (should cost pretty low but have a high perceived value) which would make the kids force their parents to buy them those chocolates. I have seen the way kids force their parents to have whatever they want. They are the most powerfully persuasive people on the planet!!

Anyone who has ever been to Goa would have gorged on the delightful chocolate flavored cashews in the market. But I don't think any organized chocolate player has any such offering in the market. This again seems to be a very interesting proposition which can again be a sizable market waiting to be taken.

7) A possible brand extension
Last but not the least a smash hit idea could be CDM branded ready to drink (RTD) chocolate milk shakes. As milk is a primary ingredient it also attains health credentials. This would be one of best ways to capitalize on a brand which is synonymous (CDM is to chocolate what Maggi is to Noodles) with chocolates in India. I would personally give such a drink a definite try; over and above any drink in the market; the moment I see it on a retail shelf.

So these were my ideas on how to increase chocolate consumption in the country.