| 5 Star tries to get into a new mould to improve market share
|
| |
| Adoddering old man flings books in the air as he climbs a ladder to reach the top of the rack in a library — all to ferret out a 5 Star bar hidden behind the books.
|
| |
| The old man’s sweet tooth turns sour when he finds an empty wrapper. The irate man faces his son, the librarian, with suspicious eyes. By then the son has just bitten into a big chunk of the chocolate bar.
|
| |
| Expecting to catch the son red-handed, the father wags his finger and recites the famous nursery rhyme. Johnny, Johnny. Yes, papa. Eating chocolate? No papa. Open your mouth. Ha ha ha! And as is predictable, there is no trace of 5 Star in the son’s mouth.
|
| |
| Launched recently, the new campaign for the Rs 804-crore Cadbury India’s 36-year-old brand 5 Star, announces that the chunky bar need not be chewed because it now melts in the mouth. The change also marks the ninth rebirth of Cadbury 5 Star in the past 13 years. The company has also changed the product formulation.
|
| |
| Since 1997-98, the company has been changing tack from Mera own energy zone, Dil hai tho josh hai and Rok sako tho rok lo to the now “So soft it melts in your mouth”. The energy proposition is actually a creation of the 1990s.
|
| |
| In the 1980s, the brand stood for togetherness when the TV commercials showed couples enjoying 5 Star together.
|
| |
| According to Vivek Sharma, business director at Ogilvy & Mather (the ad agency for 5 Star), the brand needed rejuvenation because it had not been growing well on the earlier platform of “non-stop energy”. “It didn’t connect with the people simply because energy is not something one seeks in chocolates.
|
| |
| Instead, energy is something that fruit drinks, juices, glucose and so on deliver spontaneously, ” he explains. However, worldwide, most bars in the count chocolate category (the category in which 5 Star falls) such as Mars and Nestle’s Bar One are sold on the energy platform.
|
| |
| Adds Sanjay Purohit, general manager, marketing, Cadbury India, “By choosing the ‘energy’ proposition, we did not focus directly on the core value of the product. However, the new ‘melting’ positioning does that.”
|
| |
| Till now, the product had to bear the brunt of a strategy that the company chose for it. Chew on this.
|
| |
| In an approximately 3,000-tonne (or Rs 650 crore) chocolate market, 5 Star had been losing relevance as well as the market share. Its market share dropped from 11.5 per cent (volume share) in 2001 to a shade under 9 per cent last year.
|
| |
| Before that, the volume market shares of the brand dropped from 14.8 per cent in 1998 to 13.8 per cent in 2000 (The Strategist, 2001).
|
| |
| But the company now says that the product has regained the lost share to an extent after the recent relaunch. Quoting figures from the retail house ORG-MARG, the company claims that 5 Star currently holds 11 per cent-plus market share.
|
| |
| Although Purohit does not divulge the exact sales figures, he claims that out of all the relaunches in the past, this one has proved to be the most successful one, registering high volume growth.
|
| |
| Purohit admits that the prime reason for the melting share of the company’s number two brand was that the company started focusing all its energy on its cash cow, Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) and wafer chocolate offering Perk.
|
| |
| Other than its melting market share, 5 Star was also losing its star-status amongst the consumers. The company conducted research among 500 to 600 consumers across the country and the findings were surprising — consumers did not appreciate a chocolate that sticks to the teeth and was hard to chew on.
|
| |
| It meant that the fundamental promise — of the delivered product being a chewy bar — was being questioned. The energy proposition was not convincing as it did not deliver spontaneous energy. Plus, the product appearance was perceived to be jaded.
|
| |
| So to entice the palate yet again, 5 Star needed to offer a completely new eating experience. Consequently, the company changed the recipe (though the ingredients remained the same — caramel, nougat and CDM) and reformulated it to make it softer and less chewy. But what about the loyalists who swear by the lingering taste of the 5 Star?
|
| |
| Says Purohit, “Surprisingly, they have also welcomed the product in its new avatar as it offers a better eating experience.”
|
| |
| As for the packaging, the new vibrant gold and purple coloured pack is meant to give the product a younger look which is why it is slimmer and longer.
|
| |
| Says Sharma of O&M, “The fuddy-duddy look of the product had to be done away with. With a slim bar, the whole product perception changes as consumers think they are getting more.”
|
| |
| Retailers claim that the new, relaunched 5 Star is moving from the shelves much faster than its chunkier version. Though the bar now retails for the same price of Rs 5 and Rs 10, the company claims to have increased the grammage to 18 gm from the earlier 14 gm for a Rs 5-bar, and from 32 gm earlier to 33 gram now for a Rs-10 bar.
|
| |
| The new communication also charts out a new imagery for the brand. This is the first time when the company has used humour in its communication for 5 Star.
|
| |
| Till now, the 5 Star stood for togetherness, where people were shown enjoying the pleasure of eating it together, followed by the “energy” bar emphasising both physical and mental energy — both in some way trying to strike an emotional chord.
|
| |
| While both the company and the agency ascribe to humour as one of the emotions, according to analysts, it could lead to some sort of confusion in the consumers’ minds.
|
| |
| Says an analyst, “The consumer no longer knows what the brand stands for — togetherness, energy or the simple pleasure of eating a chocolate.”
|
| |
| Says Sharma, “Strategically, we want to recruit new users, connect with a younger audience and gain back the lapsed users.” The brand will now target people in the age group 14-18 years as against all age groups earlier.
|
| |
| But surprisingly, the new communication doesn’t seem to echo a similar thought with the 40-plus son and his 70-something father. Explaining the rationale, Purohit says that one doesn’t need to necessarily project the image of the brand through its communication.
|
| |
| But will this logic work with the youth? Says an analyst, “Traditionally, Indian consumers have been believing what they see.”
|
| |
| For now, 5 Star aims to achieve a 12.5 per cent market share by the end of the year. Time will tell if the chocolate is actually for those in-between times. |
| |
Content Guide
