Cadbury Dairy Milk: Who moved my chocolate?

Ravi Balakrishnan, ET Bureau Aug 20, 2014, 05.10AM IST
(Habit or treat, most of us…)


Piyush Pandey, chairman and creative director, O&M South Asia has a challenge for all ad strategists: "I would like the best planner to write me a strategy document on the target audience for a laddu. I believe the target audience for a chocolate or a laddu is every human being with an urge for a moment of joy." And that's the core group for Cadbury Dairy Milk at least over the last 20 years, through which it's moved from a product aimed at children to one that reaches out to everyone.

Prior to 1994's 'The Real Taste of Life' campaign, Cadbury Dairy Milk aka CDM aka "Cadbury" , the generic word for chocolate in large parts of the country, was already a well recognised brand. Early commercials saw indulgent parents bestow CDM on kids after trips out of town or for the tots lacing their own boots unassisted.

Around the late 80s, the pressure of stagnation set in. Cadbury's India realised it needed to widen its base. There were adults who ate chocolate but in a furtive manner, guilty about such a childish indulgence. Cadbury and Ogilvy made tentative attempts at reaching out: a film from the late 80s showed a father wolfing down a bar of chocolate under the pretext of telling his children a story. But the brand remained reluctant to make a clean break from its primary target audience.

In 1993, the account went up for a pitch, sending panic through O&M. Pandey, then on a vacation in Hawaii, rushed back to India. While miffed at having to cut short a long awaited break, he had an idea for a new direction: "One of our relatives who'd just had a bypass drove 150 km to pick us from the airport.

While talking to him, we found he'd been on a ride at Disney which was specifically forbidden to people with heart conditions. He said 'I wanted to check if the doctor had done a good job.' I thought that was a great mindset."

Further inspiration hit Pandey at a toy store in San Francisco filled with signs that said 'By order of the management, you are obliged to play'. He spied an elderly couple crawling out from beneath a table in hot pursuit of a toy. Says Pandey, "I wrote the jingle to 'The Real Taste of Life' on the back of a boarding pass."

The ad was presented and the account retained. Pandey recalls, "Rajeev Bakshi who was on the brand at the time decided not to research it. He said, 'Let's make it first and research it later.'"

The first film was a montage featuring several of O&M's staffers at the time among others since the agency wanted people who looked "real" as opposed to models. Next up was the iconic cricket commercial featuring first time model Shimona breaking out into a spontaneous jig at a match. It's an ad that Pandey claims still gets applause even when played to an audience too young to have seen it the first time around.

Says Siddharth Mukherjee, director - chocolate category & media, Mondelez India, "The ads very consciously showed adults consuming the chocolate in a very public setting. It was the first major leap forward to make the category acceptable for adult consumption."

Distribution was expanded and smaller packs introduced at more affordable prices. Mukherjee says, "It led to 20% plus growth for 3 to 4 straight years. The category doubled in size." The campaign continued with several variations, the most significant of which was 'Khaane Waalon Ko Khaane Ka Bahana Chahiye' featuring Cyrus Brocha distributing CDM at a wedding.

Says Mukherjee, "The challenge was to get a functional message across in what's not a functional category." There were also a couple of campaigns that died a quick death. Pandey says, "We followed research which is a mistake I don't make very often. People said they get perked up by a chocolate when they feel low. So we had two commercials about how to accept defeat with the line 'saat rahe har pal'. We soon discovered that whatever people said in research, they didn't want to see it on air."

In 2003, however, CDM itself was on the defensive after a controversy about worms in the chocolates gained traction. Celebrity spokesperson Amitabh Bachchan was roped in to give it a clean chit.

Pandey recalls, "Instead of arguing about who was right and wrong they looked at the brand and its responsibility. The speed at which they brought in new machinery on the back of a few stray incidents was testament to their belief in a relationship with consumers. The other great learning is when a consumer loves a brand, he gives it a chance and is forgiving."

It was a transitional time, with Cadbury dabbling with taglines like 'Kush Hoon Khamaka' (Happy for the heck of it) and a world cup special campaign called 'Maza Aa Gaya', none of which lasted. The time was right for a big change.