Cadbury's Silk Route

Marketing in the layman’s language is the process of communicating the value and features of a product to the consumers. But American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

Marketing in the world today has changed the consumer mindset. It has learnt to create a need for a product where there is no need. It is like selling a chocolate to a diabetic patient. With such a huge choice in brands the consumer has a large variety to choose from. All products are distinct from each other through its various features which helps the consumer to distinguish from the brand. Today the products are a part of the consumer’s personality. 

Cadbury Dairy Milk, a dominant leader in the volume segment, decided to strengthen its presence in the value market as well. The new initiative was in the premium segment with the launch of Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk, a brand priced at Rs 49 for 69 grams and Rs 99 for 160 grams available in Milk chocolate, Roast Almond and Fruit & Nut variants. The company aimed to position Silk as ‘smoother, creamier and chunkier.’

The rationale for the launch was simple: distinct products add to growth. To instill distinctiveness in Silk, the company paid keen attention to the recipe. Typically in India, Dairy Milk contains more cocoa-butter than milk-butter as the latter melts at higher temperatures thus making it more conducive for India . The reverse is true in other markets, where milk-butter helps give the chocolate a smoother taste. With the quality of the retail environment changing in India, they could offer smoother creamier dairy milk. If a person chooses Silk it shows that he prefers the premium product as compared to the other brands in that range. Silk commands smoothness and richness in taste.

Silk, the way it has been positioned, has the ability to stand alone today, basically due to the very different product delivery it offers. While Silk is smooth and 'melty' Dairy Milk is hard and chunky. However, at the same time, Dairy milk and its base equity remains. However, a major challenge that such a sub-brand of an existing successful brand has to tackle is how not to alienate lovers of the base product, who have a palate memory that is as old as their childhood.