Cadbury Marketing Strategies and Challenges

This assignment delves into Cadbury's diverse marketing strategies, encompassing product development, advertising campaigns, brand identity, and digital marketing initiatives. It analyzes successful campaigns like the 'flavor-matching vending machine,' personalized video content, and the iconic Dairy Milk wrapper. However, it also addresses challenges faced by Cadbury, including past product safety issues (e.g., the 2008 milk scandal) and criticisms surrounding their environmental practices. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of Cadbury's marketing landscape, highlighting both successes and areas requiring improvement.

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Cadbury
Name
Course
Instructor
University

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Table of Contents
Overview..........................................................................................................................................3
Key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function................................................................4
Marketing: Need, want and demand............................................................................................4
Impact of external environment on marketing activities of Cadbury..........................................4
Marketing Functions....................................................................................................................5
Interrelation of marketing with other business units.......................................................................7
Finance.........................................................................................................................................7
Human resources..........................................................................................................................8
Production and operations............................................................................................................8
Sales department..........................................................................................................................9
Research and development...........................................................................................................9
Marketing mix and its application to achieve business objectives..................................................9
Product.......................................................................................................................................10
Price...........................................................................................................................................10
Place...........................................................................................................................................11
Promotion...................................................................................................................................11
Extended Marketing Mix...........................................................................................................12
People.....................................................................................................................................12
Process....................................................................................................................................13
Physical Evidence...................................................................................................................13
Market plan for Cadbury...............................................................................................................14
Segmentation..............................................................................................................................15
Strategies....................................................................................................................................15
Control measures........................................................................................................................16
Conclusion and recommendations.................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17

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Cadbury
Overview
I have selected Cadbury for carrying out a detailed marketing analysis as a newly
appointed assistant to the Marketing Manager for this company. Cadbury is a multinational
organization based in UK having its headquarters in Uxbridge, London, UK and this company is
entirely retained by an American Organization Mondelez International. It was established in
1824 (Cadbury, n.d.) in Birmingham, UK by John Cadbury. Besides Chocolates, Cadbury was
selling other stuff as well which was cocoa, drinking chocolates, tea, coffee etc. Cadbury has
been manufacturing chocolates for over 200 years. Cadbury chocolates are manufactured in over
15 nations all over the world and it had a net income of over $3 billion by 2016 (2017 fact sheet,
n.d.). Cadbury is a democratic management style of an organization where decisions are made on
the basis of discussion with different representatives of the organization. It has a less complex
structure and it is decentralized. It has a downward flow of transmission of communication-based
on hierarchical structure. Decisions are made by higher management after discussion with their
team members, then communicated and passed down to other staff members. As per Charles
handy model of Organizational culture, Cadbury has a role culture where decisions are made by
top management by consulting it with other team members and then instructions are
communicated in hierarchical position. Staff members in Cadbury have defined tasks to
accomplish. The objective of this paper is to study the responsibilities of marketing function at
Cadbury and how these responsibilities relate to other functional units. It also studies a
marketing plan that applies the use of the 7Ps to achieve overall marketing objectives for
Cadbury.

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Key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function
Marketing: Need, want and demand
Marketing may be defined as a concept which is widely used in business and
organizations to attract and satisfy the wants of customers. Marketing is a process which ensures
that the tool which a company has been using to promote its product and services always address
its clients. Marketing is completely based on strategies and approaches, and it creates the need
for a product in the minds of consumers. Needs, wants, and demands are very essential
constituents of the marketing concept. Need is something which is essential for a person to live
in this world such as water, food, and air etc. Want may be a commodity that a person is willing
to have and customer’s ability to buy something he needs or wants, create the demand. These
three elements take the marketing concept further and assist the marketing function to decide
how a particular product and service can be sold to its customers.
Impact of external environment on marketing activities of Cadbury
Marketing process derives the changes in the strategies of a company considering the
external and internal environment to gain a competitive edge in the market. The marketing
process is dynamic in nature and keeps changing with changing current and future trends in the
market.
According to the latest trends in chocolate consumption by the consumers, they have
become more concerned about their consumption as compared to past trends. Consumers are
more cautious regarding sugar and cocoa content, originality, flavor, and ingredients etc. To keep
the image intact in the market, Cadbury keeps trying innovation in its products and marketing
strategies as consumers in today’s era are becoming more educated and concerned for their
choices.

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Cadbury draws its marketing strategies after evaluating other factors as well. It keeps
innovating its technology regularly for production and packaging techniques by considering the
changing market trends for example adoption of pathogen testing techniques
(bakeryandsnacks.com, 2008) for checking the food-borne bacteria. Moreover, transitions in
government policies, taxes, and other political factors also affect company’s operations and
marketing activities which pressurize the company to increase their product prices. These factors
also impact the sales of their chocolate products.
Marketing Functions
The marketing function is an essential process which assists the organization to recognize
prosperous products and services and popularize them using different techniques. There are
seven essential functions of marketing such as marketing information system, distribution,
product and service management, promotion, pricing, selling, and financing.
 Marketing information system: It may be defined as an information system that helps in
making decisions related to marketing. This system gathers all the data of marketing analyze it
and distribute among the members as per their needs. In Cadbury, Marketing information system
is used to gain brilliance in day-to-day activities, attain customer satisfaction, upgrade market
strategies, and to deal with the competition.
 Distribution: Distribution is a function that decides how the products of a company will
reach to the end consumer or business user. It may be through wholesalers, small retail shops,
and supermarkets etc. Cadbury also sells its variety of products to wholesalers, retailers,
pharmacy shops, airports, retail stores etc. Cadbury uses numerous channels in the distribution of
its products. For example, Cadbury sells some of its products directly to business users and some

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of the products are sent to the retailer and the retailer sells them to consumers. In some channels,
it first moves to wholesaler than to retailer and finally to the consumers.
 Product/Service Management: It is the management of products and services as per
demands of consumers. Various transitions and up gradations are made in products and services
as per the changing trends in the market. Cadbury makes different varieties of products such as
bournvita, gems, chocolates, rolls, beverages, cocoa powder, biscuits etc. and each product is
designed to target particular segments of people. Most of the advertisements of its products are
targeted to kids and adults and it tries to make their emotional connection (Consumer goods
technology, 2015) with the products. The packaging of its products is very attractive and secure
as it provides a three-layer packaging. Pricing: Setting an appropriate price for a product is very essential for any company. It
should be decided after considering the earning capacity of target group and price of similar kind
of products of different brands. It can be done by conducting market research. Cadbury has also
set prices for its products that consumers are able to pay and these are almost similar to the prices
of competitor products. Cadbury decides its prices after calculating the company profits and the
ability of consumers to pay for the product. Promotion: promotions are the techniques used to create awareness and need for a
product. It may be in the form of ad campaigns, brochures, news media, social media etc.
Cadbury’s mostly products are targeted to kids and it also tries to depict from its advertisements
that there is a kid in every human being irrespective of his age. Advertisements f Cadbury are
mostly emotionally driven that attract attention of customers. Selling: Selling comes when needs of the customers have been identified and the product

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is ready to take to the consumers. This attribute explains the selling of a product to the
appropriate set of target customers at right time. Cadbury sells its products to almost all age
group of people. It makes sure that its products are distributed properly and sells it using
different promotional techniques
 Financing: A company has to make enough investment in promoting its products to
the front of customers. After making it popular, company’s responsibility is to make the product
available for every type of consumer who is interested in buying it. It can be done using different
pricing techniques, discount offers etc. Cadbury also makes plenty of investments in innovating
its ad campaigns to attract more and more customers. For example, it made an investment of
around 7.5 million pounds (The Drum, 2014) in one of its ad campaign in 2014.
Interrelation of marketing with other business units
For making a business plan for an organization, it is very important for marketing
department to coordinate with other functional units such as production, R&D, administration,
customer service, distribution, sales, Hr, finance etc. marketing plans should be consistent with
other business functions only then the overall objective of an organization can be achieved.
Some of the important functions of Cadbury which interrelate with marketing to achieve the
common objective are explained here.
Finance
Finance department deals with budgetary requirements and money. This is a functional
unit which has the responsibility to maintain all the financial records and control the expenditure
of various other departments. Budgetary requirements of marketing department are also settled
by the finance department. In Cadbury also, marketing managers have to liaison with finance

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department to meet its financial needs related to marketing activities such as finances related to
ad campaigns and other promotional events.
Human resources
HR is a department that takes care of remuneration, promotions and other needs of
employees. It is responsible for delivering the salaries and necessary training to employees. It is
the responsibility of HR unit to select a right candidate who could contribute towards the growth
of a company. Marketing department in Cadbury coordinates with HR to recruit a right candidate
for their department who is effective in making marketing strategies. They also coordinate with
HR people to get their employees effectively trained in particular areas.
IT
Information technology department in any company supports all other departments and it
takes care of all printing and writing activities. Security, Storage, and management of data in
computers is also a responsibility of IT function. Keeping records of each and every information
of a business is handled by this department. The marketing team at Cadbury is interrelated to IT
as all the marketing related activities such as printing, emailing, and invoicing etc is handled by
IT department. For any kind of information access also, marketing team coordinates with IT.
Production and operations
This department is responsible for the production of items to meet the needs of
consumers and to ensure the smooth working and minimum wastage of food. The marketing
team at Cadbury closely works with production and operations as it recognizes the wants of the
customer and communicates the same to the production team. The marketing team at Cadbury
also keeps a track that the number of orders made is in line with the numbers of products
demanded by the customers. The marketing team informs the production team for any added

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features in products as per changing demands of the consumers. They work together to create the
products that could satisfy the need of customers.
Sales department
Sales department keeps a track on the sales of the company and also forecast the future
sales of a company. It also determines the factors responsible for increasing or decreasing sales.
Marketing people at Cadbury work with sales team to know the sales data and develop their
marketing strategy accordingly. Decreasing sales of a product at Cadbury indicates the failed ad
campaign and marketing strategies related to that product. It helps marketing team at Cadbury to
improvise its strategies to increase the sales.
Research and development
R&D department in any organization is responsible for developing and improve the
existing product after considering the needs of consumers and sales of the company. It conducts
plenty of research regarding a product and makes necessary changes in the development of a
product. Marketing and research department in Cadbury work hand in hand. Marketing
department identifies the need of the customer and works with R&D in the creation of a product.
It also determines the reasons behind declining sales of a particular product and fills the gap to
improve it by working closely with R&D team. It also develops suitable marketing strategies for
the new and improvised product to increase its demand among customers.
Marketing mix and its application to achieve business objectives
The marketing mix is made up of 4 Ps of marketing which together serve the product
needs of consumers. These 4 Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. This concept was

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introduced by E. Jerome McCarthy (Adapting McCarthy’s Four Ps, 1999) to establish a
successful marketing approach
Product
It defines the attributes of the products or services that are designed to meet the customer
needs. Products are the tangible items that are consumed by the users having definite weight and
measurement while the services are intangible processes that cannot be measured and these can
only be experienced. The product consists of packaging, taste, appearance, placement etc.
products and services are designed in such a way that can be differentiated from the product and
services of the competitors.
The product range of Cadbury is so large. It consists of a number of a variety of products
such as dairy milk, gems, perks, five star, sugar confectionery, beverages, drinking chocolates,
cocoa powder, malted foods, gum etc. Cadbury has developed the taste of its products among
consumers and people crave for its milk chocolates, pure chocolates, and other tasty items. It has
divided its products as per demographic area. The company has expanded itself into ice cream
and cookies items as well. Cadbury products are the most preferred products among consumers
during various occasions such as Christmas, Birthday parties, Halloween, New Year etc.
Cadbury has made a big impact on the chocolate industry due to its varied range of products and
it is continuously growing.
Price
Pricing strategy for any company is to determine the price of the product that customers
are willing to pay. It is decided after conducting market research and comparing the prices to the
competitor’s products. A product undergoes a number of processes before reaching to the end

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consumer. It has to undergo processing, distribution, promotion etc. Final Price of the product is
decided after calculating all the costs incurred during different processes.
Cadbury has a varied range of products having different prices. Price of various products
of Cadbury is decided to cater to the needs of different segments of people having different
income capacities. Prices are also decided on the basis of existing competition, ingredients used
to make products, packaging, demand etc. Cadbury also make gift packs of products for certain
occasions which are purchased by customers to gift to their relatives and friends. Customers can
also customize their gift hampers (Cadbury gifts direct, n.d.) as per their needs and Cadbury has
designed a website for the same. Prices of these gift packs are also decided strategically that
customers are willing to pay.
Place
It refers to the areas where the products of a company are sold. It refers to all the
distribution channels that take the products to the consumers. These can be made available in
retail stores, supermarkets, online etc.
Cadbury products serve a large customer base and available in a number of countries all
over the world. Distribution channels of Cadbury are very effective and available in small as well
as large cities. Distribution channels of Cadbury serve a large number of people and generate
huge profit for the company in terms of revenue. Due to its effective distribution channels, huge
customer base and good quality of products, it is known as one of the best British brands.
Promotion
Promotion refers to the activities used to promote products or services. Using various
promotional methods, marketers position a product to its target customers by delivering an
effective and useful message. The promotional techniques that are used to communicate the

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messages to the consumers are known as marketing communication mix and it consists of
advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing.
Cadbury uses various types of advertisements to promote its products. It uses different
advertising mediums such as television, radio, newspaper, social media etc. to showcase its
advertisements. It targets its products with the help of various taglines and by making the people
aware of the products. Some of its advertisements connect people emotionally with the product.
For example, one of this ad was launched in India representing premium Cadbury gift flow
chocolates (Gehringer, 2017) and other was launched in Australia for which a Flavour Matching
(Campaign Brief Australia, 2014) app was designed with the use of personalized video. Both
these ad campaigns were highly successful and revealed engagement of customers with the
products.
Extended Marketing Mix
When services came into existence and its demand increased than 4ps of marketing mix
were not enough to satisfy customer needs. Three more elements were introduced into marketing
mix to justify the marketing of services. These three Ps consists of people, process, and physical
evidence. The whole marketing mix now consists of 7 Ps where initial 4 Ps constitute product
marketing mix of products and extended three constitute Service marketing mix for services.
People
People are very important elements of the product as well as service marketing mix.
People are responsible to develop the taste and design of products and they also satisfy the
customers by imparting good services (The Marketing Mix, n.d.). For example, A restaurant is
famous in the town for the taste of dishes made by a specific cook and always preferred by
people over other restaurants. While Some restaurants are preferred by people because of its

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awesome services imparted by waiters and other staff who are always very cooperated with their
customers. People always prefer to visit these kinds of restaurants over other restaurants, where
their visit is turned into a delightful experience.
People in Cadbury are responsible for making world-class products and designing the
effective marketing strategies. There is a dedicated team to conduct a market research and to
develop products and strategies as per customer demands.
Process
The process is the element that makes the activities and operations convenient as per the
needs of the customers. For example, for running a restaurant process is made to decide the
number of table setups and waiters to serve each table. It also decides the number of cooks,
chefs, and requirements of managers to run the activities smoothly. Processes are designed after
making the research that could meet the client’s expectations.
In Cadbury, there are separate processes for every department which are interrelated and
work together to meet the customer needs. In production, the raw material is procured from
particular places, they are processed and the chocolate products are made by mixing the
proportionate amount of ingredients. There are effective distribution channels to take the
products to the consumers. Marketing processes are also there to understand the needs of
consumers and to derive strategies accordingly. Similarly, other departments in Cadbury also
have their set processes to ensure the effective working and to meet the company objectives.
Physical Evidence
These are the attributes added to a product or service to differentiate them from their
competitive brands. For example, a low budget restaurant may have only necessary amenities
like table chairs and enough space for sitting that only serve good foods and limited services

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while a high budget restaurant may have a nice ambiance, music, extraordinary services and
other offerings to delight the customers. In products, physical evidence refers to its packaging,
color, looks etc of product.
Cadbury chocolates and candy have iconic packaging that keeps changing with time and
changing trends. Its chocolates are designed as blocks having Cadbury endorsed in them which
are quite captivating and easy to break. With increasing demand, it started packing its products
as easy to carry products that look attractive as well. Earlier, Cadbury used gold and purple
wrapper for packing chocolates. Later, it started packing its chocolates in full plastic wrappers to
provide freshness (The Packaging Company, 2017). Moreover, it also provides its products in
large decorative packaging for using at certain occasions and for gifting purposes. Its other
beverages and other products also come in secure and attractive packagings which differentiate
its products from its competitive brands.
Market plan for Cadbury
An effective market plan helps to establish products and services that fulfill the
requirements of target customers. Good marketing strategies help customers to understand the
quality of products and services and help them to compare the same with other competitive
products available in the market. A marketing plan also makes people aware of their needs of the
products. A marketing plan is a wide process; it provides a roadmap to the different departments
of an organization to achieve overall objectives.
Marketing plans, strategies, and objectives are interrelated and dependent on each other.
A marketing plan provides a roadmap to derive marketing strategies which ultimately help to
achieve the marketing objectives. Objectives and strategies are actually considered as the
components of the marketing plan. Marketing Objectives are the goals that represent more

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specific results that marketing department tends to achieve. Marketing strategies decide the
techniques of achieving those objectives. For example marketing objective is to take the share of
a particular product to a particular level at a specified time and various ad campaigns are
designed to use as strategies to achieve that objective.
Segmentation
Cadbury is considered as a leader in chocolates all over the world. It is also known for
it’s a large distribution channel. It has a number of strong brands in the market which have a very
good reputation and demand in the market. Cadbury products have great brand image and loyalty
for its products. It is targeting almost all age group of people from child to the older generation
of people. Although it has a number of strengths and a level that every FMCG company wants to
achieve, there is always a scope to improve and achieve more. Moreover, competition is rising
and other competitors are trying hard to become the market leader by adopting different
strategies.
There are still a number of people in the rural areas of developing countries who have
tasted chocolates. Cadbury should try to cover each and every small area to make its products
available throughout the world.
Strategies
Cadbury has the largest share of the market and it is the best-known brand of chocolate. It
completely relies on customers and does all the possible research to identify changing needs of
customers. Marketing objective of Cadbury is to keep evolving new products and search out for
new opportunities to enhance the value of prevailing products (Macrontech, 2015).
Cadbury is favorite of all in its chocolate products but some of its products are lacking
behind compared to other brands, for example, biscuits, ice creams, beverages and other desserts.

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Cadbury should smartly design its techniques to increase the sale of mentioned products as well.
It should spread the awareness of these products among consumers. They should also increase
the product portfolio of those products which has less demand among people. Nowadays,
customers have become conscious regarding their consumption of sugar content and their
demands are continuously changing. Cadbury should develop products with fewer sugar contents
and educate the customers regarding their product ingredients. Development of such products
may bring happiness to the consumers who were not consuming chocolates for their particular
reasons. They should also develop more products of different flavors by evaluating the changing
needs of customers.
Control measures
Cadbury is always known for its quality so, Cadbury should ensure that any plan or
strategy opted by Cadbury doesn’t impact its image regarding the quality of products. In past,
many events happened where consumers had complaints regarding worms (Consumer
complaints, n.d.) found in Cadbury chocolates in some countries. Melamine milk scandal of
China (Huang, 2014) is one more example that badly affected the image of Cadbury and other
dairy products. These kinds of issues should be very well handled by the company by adopting
appropriate strategies and they should try to rebuild its image among people. Some of the
products of Cadbury as explained above have very low performance; the company should focus
on those products to become a market leader in other product ranges as well.
Conclusion and recommendations
Hence, this paper has successfully discussed the brief introduction of cadbury and the
roles and responsibilities of the marketing functions at cadbury. It also explained how marketing

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functions at cadbury are related to other organizational departments. The paper has also
evaluated the ways that Cadbury use to apply marketing mix to achieve company objectives.
Lastly, a market plan has been produced which cadbury should consider to achieve overall
marketing objectives. There is a lot of scope for chocolate industry in the world to grow. It’s a
combination of taste, consumption patterns, income level, and beliefs of people. Understanding
these needs can lead Cadbury to grow more in this industry. It should try to maintain the quality
of products by avoiding events that have happened in past. It should expand its reach to rural
areas and focus on its low selling products to become a leader in all categories of products.
Cadbury should educate the customers regarding their products and also adopt social
responsibility programs to maintain its positive image among the public.

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References
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