Cadbury To Perk Up Picnic, Gold Brands

Cadbury Gold has seen its market share slip to less than 1 per cent from around 4 per cent in 1998, when it was launched. On the other hand, though Picnic has maintained the 2-2.5 per cent market share since its launch last year, it has not managed to get a firmer foothold in the market.

"We are looking at ways to prop up both Cadbury Gold and Picnic. While the premium positioning has not helped Cadbury Gold, our surveys show that certain consumers do not like the peanuts content in Picnic," Bharat Puri, director, sales and marketing, said.

Puri said the company will maintain the premium positioning of Cadbury Gold, but declined to divulge "strategic" details on the brands repositioning. The premium positioning was primarily to create an image that the brand is not just targeted for the youth but also for adults.

 

On Picnic, Puri said Cadbury was looking at coming out with a variant sans peanuts and may introduce extensions with almonds. "It would happen only after extensive research and test marketing," Puri said. He said that production of Cadbury Gold is being curtailed and distribution restricted to select outlets.

To tackle the downtrading issue, the company has begun to focus on lower-priced and lower-volume products across its product portfolio. The company has recently launched variant of Perk, called Slim Perk, priced at Rs 5 and Rs 10, down from the Rs 13 earlier.

Cadbury India is also planning a major push in semi-urban areas where penetration level is low. The company plans to increase the number of retail outlets from around 4.5 lakh to 5.5 lakh by the end of this fiscal. Puri said the growth in the urban market was merely 10 per cent compared with 20 per cent in the semi-urban market.