THE CADBURY WAY

In 2003, Cadbury India found itself in a sticky pickle. Worms had been found in its flagship Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bar just before Diwali, its busiest season of the year; fresh stocks had just been dispatched when a correspondent from a television channel called in with the news. The company had never faced such a crisis since the time it set up in India in 1948. While it did take some time to swing into damage control and then recovery mode, its efforts paid off handsomely. Nestlé, which finds itself in a similar if not worse situation today, could draw some lessons. What did it do? According to a 2012 case study that was done for The Fletcher School, Tufts University and CEME (Center for Emerging Market Enterprises) by Bharat Puri (Krafts Foods) and Sarah E Clark (The Fletcher School) Cadbury focused on its communication and developed three key messages it wanted to convey to its customers:

1. Infestation was a storage problem;

2. It was safe to eat Cadbury chocolates; and

3. Consumers must exercise the same care in purchasing a chocolate as they would when buying any food item.

As a result, the study says, by June 2004, the intention to consume and gift Cadbury had returned to pre-incident levels. Consumer confidence in the brand was back.

Cadbury’s success, the authors say, was because of a committed and empowered local leadership team. Decision-making was kept centred in India, and the Mumbai team only brought in individuals outside of India on an asneeded basis the study says. The results are there for all to see and learn from.