Marketing Mix - Cadbury Dairy Milk - Essay Example

MARKETING MIX-Cadbury Dairy Milk As defined by Kotler, marketing mi x is the set of controllable tactical marketing tools -product, price, place andpromotion that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market. We have chosen Cadbury Dairy Milk for this analysis, which can be called a convenience product. "Convenience Products: are consumer products that the customer usually buys frequently, immediately and with minimum of comparison and buying effort example candy, and fast food. Convenience products are usually low priced and marketers place them in many locations to make them readily available when customers need them." (Kotler-Armstrong,pg 295Product and Services Strategy) 4 P'S OF MARKETING MIX Components of 4'Ps CADBURY STRATEGY TARGET CUSTOMER Product Branding Excellent, strong branding which has been uniform across cultures in the sense that CADBURY stands for sentiments in any culture and in any language and deep purple is the color of dairy milk Consistency in branding has built-up an unconscious habit of the brand which is now being passed on from one Cadbury generation to another. Customers tend to have built up brand loyalty due to the sentimental value that the branding has created over the years. For older customers, it may remind them of their own childhood days when their kids eat them and as for kids they will carry the memories on to their net generation. The Target customer of Cadbury associates sentimental value to it and thus Cadbury has become habitual for them. Packaging The packaging has been consistent during the last decades. The only changes have been in sies .The packaging is localized (in local language) to communicate the message of Cadbury to the customers. The packaging emphasizes on the brand color association i.e. Purple and all Cadbury dairy milk chocolates have the same solid purple color in their packaging. The packaging of Cadbury for the customers is convenient. It serves the function of keeping the chocolate fresh and crisp until consumption. It provides the health facts on its packaging for the health conscious people in their local language. The packaging of Cadbury, and the variants that are being offered, are made to suit the requirements of the customers. Thus the target customer of Cadbury dairy Milk seek: - 1. Convenience, the product is available in different sies to suit them 2. Is health Conscious, so the communication on the package carries in-depth information on ingredients is used. Labeling The graphics on the Cadbury Dairy milk chocolate include the net weight, graphics showing the components i.e. milk pouring into chocolate bars, the positioning statement "more to share", barcode indicating shelf life, instructions to discard wrapper in the bin and diagrams showing it is best for consumption of vegetarians The target customer of Cadbury is: - 1. Health Conscious 2. Has positive response to the Cadbury Dairy Milk brand name 3. Likes to share the special moments in life with other people as demonstrated by the positioning statement. 4. Is conscious of the freshness of the product he is consuming 5. Best suited as an in between meals snack for vegetarians. Product support services Unsold bars that have exceeded their shelf life can be returned to the manufacturers The target customer: - 1 wants value for money and is quality conscious and can easily shift to other brands if their favorite brand does not deliver the quality it promises. Price Product mi pricing Cadbury Schweppes, the Australian Cadbury manufacturing company, has a diversified product mi and follows a market segmentation strategy focusing on different market segments some brands include Cherry Ripe, Crunchie, Freddo The target customer of Cadbury is: - Varying tastes The target customers are from different age groups Freddo is strictly for kids, Cadbury is for teenagers The target customers have different, localize tastes in different markets for example the target customers of Australia prefer the cherry flavor so for them the unique brand Cherry ripe has been developed Discount and allowance pricing Discounts are provided in shape of schemes like 25% more on 500 g bar, or10% more on 250g bar but as such discounts in terms of price cuts are rare unless there is an occasion like maybe Christmas on which they have initiated some Christmas deals The target customer of Cadbury is: - Vulnerable to product promotion campaigns and likes to economize. Segmented pricing The various market segments that Cadbury brands are catering to are: - Cadbury gift boxes- for valentine gifts and for special occasions -priced higher Cadbury Freddo-sells at a low price for kids to afford it Cadbury 500 g bar with 10% more chocolate is for familes with many kids The target cutomers of Cadbury belong to different age groups They also have different income levels They have different needs to satisfy i.e. kids look for a frog shaped candy but teenagers are ready to pay higher price for a beautifully gift wrapped chocolate box which can be handed over as a token of love on any occasion. Psychological pricing Cadbury practices a psychological pricing strategy. It is always at par or at a higher side of price factor as compared to its competitors like Mars. However, Swiss Chocolates and French chocolates demand a higher price due to their exclusivity. Cadbury's psychological pricing strategy can be described by the term "Premium Pricing". It is not very highly priced, but is towards the higher end and is comparable to its competitors. This shows that the target customer is: A frequent purchaser Is quality conscious and opts for products that have a higher perceived value. International pricing Cadbury is spread all over the world. The price of bars available in Australia is not the same as the price of Cadbury in Pakistan or Middle East. Since chocolates are frequently consumable goods, they should in principle form a small part of the total income. The smallest bar available in Pakistan is for 5 Rupees as compared to 0.5 $ in US. The target customer of Cadbury is not geographically widespread but has a wide income differential depending on the performance of their respective economies. For this purpose Cadbury has to practice pricing strategies to suit the need of the customer in the region in which it is focusing its sales. Promotion Advertising Cadbury is an impulse product and its purchase does not require much thought. For this purpose, top of the mind recall is necessary to maintain. Advertising plays an integral role in this. Cadbury has extensive campaigns for this purpose. Cadbury campaigns historically in Australia have had a celebrity focus. However, with time this has changed. The target customers of Cadbury are: - Attracted by jingles Are easily influenced by celebrity appeal Respond positively to advertising Place Marketing Distribution Channels Cadbury makes use of all marketing channels available including retailers, wholesalers, and distributors. The strategy is to push the product in the distribution channels to acquire best shelf place Cadbury target customer seeks convenience and opts for any brand that is easily accessible, in reach and does not require much effort to obtain. Locations Availability is maximum Cadbury is available everywhere. This shows that the Cadbury customer has low-level of brand loyalty and can switch easily if their favorite brand is not available at their convenience. From the above table, it can be deduced that Cadbury follows the perfect Marketing Mi combination. And satisfies the four aims i.e. customer convenience, customer cost should be minimized, customers should be provided with a solution and customers should be provided with adequate, consistent and continuous communication. (1252 words) The Characteristics of the Cadbury Customer are: - 1. Health Conscious: - The target customer of Cadbury is health conscious and for this purpose the ingredients are often printed in multiple languages on top of the packaging. 2. Sentimental Association with Cadbury: - the target customers of Cadbury are of different age groups and the older generation has sentimental attachments with this brand and consume Cadbury more out of habit and the fact that it reminds them of the good old days rather then the core nee of the product. 3. Quality Conscious: -The target customers Cadbury are quality conscious and want the maximum value for the money they spend. For this particular purpose the Cadbury dairy Milk bar packaging is premium priced and gives a higher quality look. 4. Convenience Seeking-The target customer of Cadbury seek convenience which is why Cadbury focuses to quite a great extent on availability of chocolate bars in all locations at all times. Also, the packaging is offers variations to suit the needs of different customers at different times. 5. Different Age Groups: The target Customer of Cadbury belongs to different age groups. The brand Freddo caters to kids, whereas Cadbury DaiyMilk is for teenagers. 6. Different Income groups: -Due to the diversity in age groups and geographical location, the target customers of Cadburys belong to different income groups. 7. Celebrity Appeal: The target cutomers of Cadbury show a strong tendency of reacting positively due to celebrity appeal 8. Different tastes: -The target customer of Cadbury has varying tastes. For this purpose, Cadbury has developed localized brands and even otherwise the taste of Cadbury produced in Pakistan would be different and much sweeter than the taste to Cadbury produced in Europe, which would be less sweet perhaps due to the tastes of the people of that particular region. For this purpose Cadbury developed the brand Cherry Ripe that is a unique brand for the Australian Market. 9. Frequent Purchasers: -The target customer of Cadbury frequently purchase chocolates and would substitute any other brand with their preferred brand if it s easily available. (348 words) WORKS CITED Kotler & Armstrong, Principles of Marketing, International Edition, Ninth Edition. Read More