Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Becoming Indian .... from milk to 'milak'

I was talking with my uncle last week and in his dear Kashmiri accent he was asking me if I at least got a Dairy 'milak' for raakhi from my miserly brothers. It made me think about how mithai has been replaced by the chocolate bar and especially the Cadbury's Dairy milk bar. Of course the reasons are obvious -- when was the last time you bought one or two pieces of sweet? Chocolate is cheaper, easy to carry, has better packaging and some might say is even healthier. But - keeping these practical reasons aside, just the jump from mithai to chocolate is pure marketing magic.

Cadbury's is one of the few brands that has taken a generic product like chocolates and truly crossed over to make it an Indian brand. The entire concept of presenting chocolates as a replacement for the ubiquitous sweets in India is genius! Making Cadbury's a part of the Indian culture and specifically festivals is something Amul chocolates have never been able to do - or perhaps they have always had the constraint of cannibalizing their other milk products which fit in better with the traditional sweets like Srikhand.

The new Cadbury's 'Shubh Aarambh' (meaning a blessed beginning) marketing series is just fantastic! It is a perfect culmination of all those years of 'kuch khaas hai' and 'kuch meetha ho jaye' series. I was thinking about growing up with these ads and how well the dairy milk bar has been represented --









from our national obsession with cricket (and according to this ad - celebration after the match more than the match :) ) ....

to the wonderful ad about mehndi -- something every Indian girl understands ...

.. the 'Celebrations' boxes for festivals - especially advertisements that always come out for Raakhi and Diwali:

and the brilliant Shubh Aarambh campaign -- just pitch perfect! The two ads - one about the cheeky but adorable teenager asking the girl out with a purely indian line (and bringing his mum into it -- aww!) and the other about the middle aged lady wearing jeans for the first time. For me - the second ad is perfectly done - and hits the right note across middle class India where I am sure there are women in every house who would like to try a pair of jeans and this ad just brings out their apprehensions about walking out and their idea of spousal support .... my ad for the year!


The campaign by Ogilvy India has hit the right note in using the concept of something sweet in anticipation of something good that is about to happen. For the Indian ethos this translates into almost everything - from the sweet we eat before we embark on a journey (tie-ups with travel industry perhaps) to the sugar my mother makes me eat before I leave for every exam to the check-up .... so much opportunity ... and such a nice concept!

2 comments:

  1. Awesome post - yes my husband and I have often remarked how the Cadbury's ads have been absolutely super and we've been liking the latest ones too - oh so much - very neatly analysed. This is a super example of a good understanding of one's market before one addresses it - rocking!!!

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  2. Thank you! :) and I agree -- they understand and have also picked the right time to launch the campaign -- they have a nice 3-4 month time-frame on which to build upon this for maximum sales during the festival season -- very nice!

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