Kuch mishti ho jaye

Cadbury Dairy Milk is taking its famous tag line forward by partnering with leading sweetmeat chains in Kolkata

If you are fond of rasogolla (known as rasgulla everywhere except Bengal), here is your chance to check out Chocogolla. Taking a fresh leap in the Indian chocolate market, Cadbury Dairy Milk is now for the first time tasting the sweetmeat sector which was dominated by unorganised local players till now.

In a first-of-its kind campaign, Cadbury has tied up with Kolkata’s famous mishti shops to create their own fusion variety of Cadbury chocolates. A move, which is widely believed to be the firm’s effort to aggressively foray into the unexplored traditional sweat market, that will sit well with its tag line kuch meetha ho jaye.

Making the campaign a success, more than 800,000 Kolkatans have cast their votes for their favourite sweet since the competition began a little over a week ago. The contest is open till next Wednesday (February 8).

“Cadbury Dairy Milk has been positioned as a sweet dish/dessert through the kuch meetha ho jaye campaign. Our activities in Kolkata have always been in alignment with our larger concept of positioning the chocolate as a universal sweet dish. Kolkata is a big mithai market and a fusion of chocolate and mithai presents a great opportunity for Cadbury Kraft Foods to further build relevance in this market,” says Chandramouli Venkatesan, director, snacking and strategy, Cadbury Kraft Foods.

For the initiative, Cadbury has tied up with nine leading mithai chains in the city — Balaram Mullick, Bhim Nag, Ganguram, Girish Nakur, Gupta Brothers, Hindusthan Sweets, Jadab Chandra Das, K C Das and Sen Mahasay. During this period, the products will be up for voting and the mithai and chain which get the most number of votes will be declared winners. While conceptualising the campaign along with a media partner, it is also providing chocolates for local shops.

While Cadbury Dairy Milk is eyeing to capture sweetmeat taste buds of the buyers, it’s the promotion and visibility factor that drew the confectioners to the campaign. “The sweetmeat industry in the city is highly unorganised and does not have adequate resource and medium to showcase our products. Therefore, the campaign is giving both visibility to our products to create our individual brand goodwill,” says Biman Das, proprietor, K.C. Das Confectioners. Das believes that Cadbury’s offering as an alternative to the Bengali sweetmeat will not be a threat to the industry. “Cadbury cannot replace Bengal’s traditional sweetmeat market as the target clientele is different,” adds Das.

Sudip Mullick, owner of Balaram Mullick, has also jumped on to the bandwagon with his innovative sweetmeat products like ‘Chocolate fudge Sandesh’, ‘Gilato Sandesh’ and the ‘Mud pie Sandesh’ made from Cadbury Dairy Milk. Despite the promotional factor and its involvement in the campaign, Mullick believes that the Bengali sweetmeat market could soon feel the heat of Cadbury’s aggressive drive.

“With the Cadbury celebration packs, Dairy Milk has already impacted the seasonal festive market of the ‘Mishti’ or the traditional sweetmeat in a big way, and Cadbury’s offering as an alternative to the daily sweet requirements of households could cut through the traditional market in the near future.

Cadbury’s effort is also backed by a marketing campaign that says “It’s time to vote once again in Kolkata”. As a promotional incentive, several noted Tollywood stars have been roped in as celebrity ambassadors.

Experts say Cadbury’s move to chase new market segments makes sense as per capita consumption of chocolates and confectionery in India is minuscule at 20gms in India as compared to around five to eight kgs in most European countries. Penetration of chocolate products averages at 4.2 per cent at all India level.