Revealing opportunities to

strengthen & diversify

portfolio

Chocolate biscuits

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 1

For Cadbury‟s Biscuits, there was a need to understand their category in more detail and

evaluate ways forward for growth. Specifically, the business objectives were to:

Understand why recent product launches and range extensions had not been successful

Establish a clear picture of the structure of the market

Investigate how best to promote their key brands

Determine ways to increase their share of the market

This was translated into research objectives of:

Describe current purchase behaviour

Ascertain competitive brands to Cadbury portfolio

Identify key strengths and weaknesses of their brands and how best to exploit

Quantify and profile consumer segments to target

Model opportunities to increase share in the market

Background

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 2

Utilised TNS OptimaTM approach, with a 25-minute quantitative questionnaire

Interviewed 1000 main grocery buyers in the UK, who had bought and eaten chocolate biscuits

in the past month

Questionnaire covered:

Market behaviour/purchase

Ranking of brands purchased

Reasons for choice

Attitudes to the category and personal values

Project and sample

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 3

Chocolate Biscuit Eaters

27% 12% 12% 23% 13% 13%

Buy

Cadbury

brands

Segmenting consumers on attitudes revealed…

A broad attitudinal split between “Indulgers” and Limiters”

BUT Cadbury brands only reaching 50% of chocolate biscuits consumers

BiscuitBarrels Chocoholics

Chocolate Avoiders Controllers Naturals

Experiment-alists

Indulgers Limiters

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 4

Shorties

Digestives

Choc chip cookies

Wafers

Midler

Orange Creams

NO OVERLAP HIGH OVERLAP

Cadbury’s Brands

Looking at purchase behaviour revealed…

Many of the Cadbury‟s brands are competing with each other - both a strength and a weakness

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 5

So knowing about consumer attitudes and their behaviour

has revealed…

The majority of consumers tend to buy brands from within the same sector

Competition between Cadbury brands is high which is a strength but also a weakness since

Cadbury brands lack presence in the rest of market

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 6

O/LABEL

COOKIES

PENGUIN/

KIT KATC.SNACKS

(BAG)

C.ANIMALS

C.SNACK

(BARS) C.CHOC

FINGERS

C.WAFERS

E.CLASSIC

CREAMS

C.CHOC

CHIP

COOKIES

CHOC HOB

NOBS

Tasty/ eat

anytime

Convenient

Out of home

Children

Hot drink

Treat/ “best”

Chocolate

How are the brands positioned?

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 7

O/LABEL

COOKIES

PENGUIN/

KIT KATC.SNACKS

(BAG)

C.ANIMALS

C.SNACK

(BARS) C.CHOC

FINGERS

C.WAFERS

E.CLASSIC

CREAMS

C.CHOC

CHIP

COOKIES

CHOC HOB

NOBS

This led to the recognition of “Fortress Cadbury's”

“Fortress Cadbury‟s”

was viewed as a

strength – and hence to

be defended

But also a weakness in

terms of lack of

presence in other

(bigger) sectors of the

market

… and raised the

question of how to best

to attack

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 8

And now knowing about consumer attitudes, their

behaviour and Cadbury brands positioning…

Cadbury brands core values are:

Best chocolate

Expensive but worth it

Name I trust

Special occasions/visitors

Gift/attractive pack

Like myself/children like

BUT:

There is little differentiation between Cadbury‟s brands

Limited representation of the total chocolate biscuit market

Immediate next steps:

Identify the key strengths to communicate for its leading brand - Cadbury Fingers

Create a plan to develop other parts of the market for Cadburys – re-positioning or new

brand?

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 9

Like the chocolate 2 1

Nice treat 6 4

Children like them 12 2

Special occasions 19 7

Cheers you up 22 13

Expensive but worth it 23 21

Make I trust 24 15

Best Chocolate 30 14

Rank in

market

Rank for

Cadbury FingersReasons for Choice

For Cadbury Fingers… Communication focus needs to be on chocolate, treat/fun, children.

What did they do?

Developed new packaging and advertising based on fun, family and children

Highest awareness levels post advertising

Sales +15% in period post advertising

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 10

Fox’s Creams

Sector 2

Cookies

Penguin

Kit Kat

Sector 4

Sector 1

Sector 3

OL Cookies

Choc Hob Nob

C. Assortment

Cadbury Fingers

C. Animals

C. Snacks

C. Wafers

Further opportunities to increase share …

Four key brand opportunities identified:

Simulation indicated Sector 4 offered

largest volume potential

Development of Sector 2 indicated

little cannibalisation from existing

brands

Chocolate Biscuits Case Study 11

Acquired brand and production facility to compete in the „Cookies‟ Sector (Sector 4

opportunity):

And subsequently developed new products

Acquired production facility to supply Own Label products to compete with Penguin, Kit Kat

(Sector 2 opportunity)

Identified clear positioning for key brand Cadbury Fingers in the UK

“Optima™ was able to show us the true nature of the market and explain why

new product launches had been cannibalising our existing range.

The analysis then identified opportunities for new products and acquisitions

which have now been exploited successfully, which helped us grow from an

£85m company turnover to £250m ”.

Tony Camp, International Marketing Director, Cadbury Biscuits

Decisions taken following the research