Cadbury Dairy Milk: An India Story

Cadbury Dairy Milk has enjoyed a long and celebrated history of consumption in India. With about 30% share of the Indian branded chocolate market currently, it is by far the most popular brand in the country.

Dairy Milk has also been a sustained advertiser, churning out new campaigns year after year and spending generously on the choicest of media spots.

Dairy Milk TV campaigns were always about celebrating life. Remember the 'Real Taste of Life' campaign that swept award shows in the mid '90s (view here)? The audience was broad (the cricket setting); the spots were simple in concept but accompanied by thoughtful execution. They made you smile, and you didn't quite know why.

It was about 5-6 years back that the chocolate maker started to follow a noticeable trend in its targeting. We began to see occasion-based themes such as 'Pappu Pass Ho Gaya', in which Dairy Milk was pitched as the celebratory food that everyone must partake in. Dairy Milk was shown as the obvious and most easily distributable of sweets on such occasions. One also began to notice a pronounced Indianness in the spots. Where there were location-neutral settings, we began to see rural or typical urban Indian settings. Where the themes were general, we began to see campaigns built around very specific insights into Indian consumption of sweets.

A recent, deeply insightful campaign has been 'Shubh Aarambh', meaning 'Prosperous Beginning'.

There is a widely followed tradition in India that before a person sets out to do something positive or enterprising, he or she must be fed a morsel of something sweet. If he/she consumes this before stepping out of the premises, it is believed the attempt will proceed successfully and the result will be positive. Indians aren't known to be skeptical when it comes to beliefs. Even the most skeptical ones will rather follow a tradition than risk inviting the wrath of being a non-believer. Capitalizing on this, Cadbury has deftly positioned Dairy Milk as an accepted foodstuff for this tradition (like yogurt sweetened with sugar). A piece of Dairy Milk chocolate, by virtue of its sweetness, appears as the new-age replacement of the traditional morsel. The ads are light-hearted and show situations that are not too significant in terms of stakes involved (view here). This may be deliberate so as to avoid illusion of false promise and invite bitter feedback in case of failure. But with a series of well-written spots supported by sensitive production, the brand will win hearts. Perhaps not beliefs yet, but hearts, definitely (view here).

The positioning opens up a huge opportunity to expand sales simply by virtue of India's size. It also pushes Dairy Milk into the league of must-haves in one's house for the purpose of tradition - a great achievement for any consumer brand. When a brand moves into the ethos of a people, it stays there. Remember 'Hamara Bajaj' with its 'Buland Bharat Ki Buland Tasveer'? Cadbury Dairy Milk is trying hard to do the same.

Following the Shubh Aarambh campaign is a cute ad released just recently. It is built around another very Indian want / need of consuming sweets after a meal. The trend is aptly presented by the ubiquitous question that pops up at every Indian dining table, 'Bhai meethe mein kya hai?', or 'Tell us, what's for dessert?' Now, every meal need not be followed by an elaborate dessert ; people simply want a sliver of something sweet; they want to be left with a sweet taste in the mouth. Dairy Milk fits this profile because chocolate, unlike traditional Indian sweets, has longer shelf life, occupies lesser fridge space and is much, much cheaper to stock for homemakers. Cadbury has presented Dairy Milk as a perfect option - little pieces of chocolate for everyone, satisfying the entire family. The spot has tried to position Dairy Milk as the obvious, convenient answer to the above question (view here). The message seems to have gotten a bit lost in the story, which features some brilliant acting by the little girl. Yet, the spot has recall value, has become popular and will help Cadbury's concentrated push into the Indian home. The brand's goal is in progress but clear: for every Indian occasion that calls for sweets, Cadbury Dairy Milk is the answer.

Micromax: How great advertising can do wonders for brand image

If done correctly, advertising truly has the power to influence public perception of a brand.

Micromax Mobile broke into public consciousness only recently, in 2008. At the time, its share of the Indian mobile handset market was a meager 0.59%. The company was largely viewed by the public as a maker of low-cost desi phones, famous for their market-changing dual-sim feature. The phone-maker, however, was not content with the low-cost, value-deliverer tag it had been labeled with. It had bigger plans - to target the high-spending urban buyer who is as brand-conscious as he is feature-conscious. Here, Micromax faced an uphill task. Creating brand equity is not easy. It is even tougher if you are jostling for attention with a slew of similarly-positioned domestic brands like Maxx, Karbonn, Spice, Lemon and Lava, all promoting themselves with high-visibility campaigns at big sporting events and on TV channels. More importantly, Micromax was also competing with the amassed brand attachment and trust enjoyed by industry bigwigs like Nokia and Samsung.

So then, how did the company build its brand value? It advertised heavily to make itself visible, as other competitors did. But there was one significant difference. The Micromax campaigns were spiffy, polished, and unapologetic about the brand's nascency. The Twinkle Khanna ad for Bling, the ‘Really Sorry’ ad for Q7 (view ad here), the recent war-themed ad for Qube - all had an international look and feel, an air of plucky, smarty-pants confidence - vanity even - that you'd normally associate with an evolved brand’s communication. The 'Nothing Like Anything' tagline too, though a tad diluted, points to its aggressive, better-notice-me posturing. Kudos to the phone-maker for partnering with a prestigious agency like Lowe Lintas.

The most impressive ad, however, is the new one for the Android phone, the Andro A60 (view ad here). Slickly-produced and watchable repeatedly, it is a clear indication that Micromax is targeting the young, upscale user who understands the significance of the Android OS. Hence the campaign 'What’ll you do to get your first Android?' In fact, the company’s decision to embrace Android and feature the platform so prominently in its communication is itself progressive, and should help build the brand’s cool-quotient. The ad has no flim-flam, no preaching, no listing of features. Just attitude. The fact that the company has shunned the use of a celebrity for this ad is also gratifying, and shows its understanding of this audience, which isn't swayed by big names… this is a self-aware tribe who's loyalty needs to be earned, not bought. It speaks volumes of the maturity of the company’s marketers.

They have rightly strategized that stand-out marketing is the way to support their innovative and value-delivering product line. And the results are for all to see. With its market share now up to 6.24% in just 2 years, Micromax is already the largest Indian mobile handsets company in terms of units shipped. The only way ahead should be upward.

Sugar Free Gold: A Study in Advertising Effectiveness

The Sugar Free Gold campaign, 'First Step to Fitness', is a lesson in advertising effectiveness.

The ad (view ad here) shows a slim and sultry Bipasha walking us through a malaise that most individuals suffer from.. the desire to stay fit but the absence of action. We do plenty of thinking about staying fit, but don't end up acting on our thoughts. She goes on to promote Sugar Free Gold, the 'low-calorie sugar substitute', as a starting point to getting fit.

The ad stands out because it illustrates this problem of failure to launch cleverly and clearly. Through familiar scenes like an unused treadmill and the 'unavoidable' partaking of sweets, the spot illustrates the problem in a way that makes you nod sheepishly and say to yourself , 'Yeah, that's me..'. It gets your attention, because it’s talking about you in real life faced with realistic situations that get your fitness goat. No preposterous or over the top advertising here.

It also shows that the planners have done their job. They've studied the audience's behavior in this area and understood how the mind works - most people are bullish on staying fit, but most often its the start, the launch, that's daunting. People are wary about the fitness regime, the grind, and they create excuses to skip it or delay it or simply not begin an exercise routine. The ad has a solution...a simple one, a familiar one that gives that friendly little mental push needed to begin the journey.

'The First Step to Fitness.'

It need not be a big deal, Bipasha says. Start small. Little everyday habits can help you meet your goal. Don't take the elevator, take the stairs instead. It's that simple. And in place of sugar, take Sugar-Free Gold.

Piece of cake, isn't it? That's advertising!

The marketing message has cleverly juxtaposed the product with a social message. By placing the product as the secondary solution that simply accompanies the first, the ad takes the spotlight away from the product. It tries to indicate that the real concern is our well-being instead. By providing a solution that we know is do-able, is good for us, the ad creates trust, and then it very matter-of-factly, almost casually, slips the product before our eyes ("Lift ke jagah stairs lijiye, aur cheeni ki jagah, Sugar-Free Gold"); meaning, 'in place of the elevator, take the stairs, and in place of sugar, take Sugar Free Gold'.
They've refrained from directly selling the product. They've made it look less like advertising and more like community health advice. They know, we're more likely to digest the second pill.

The marketers have tried to kickstart a revolution that requires their product. Positioning Sugar-Free Gold as the first (and most convenient, mind you!) step to fitness is sure to have consumers switching to it to prove to themselves that they're officially on a fitness regime! It is bound to be effective.