Cadbury block chop under fire
CADBURY’S decision to downsize its chocolate blocks is the latest in a series of blunders by the confectionery giant, says its former marketing manager.
In a Facebook post Cadbury said that in order to keep its chocolate ‘‘affordable for families across New Zealand’’ it was reducing its family-sized 220g blocks by one row, or 10 per cent, as confectionery companies worldwide feel the squeeze from increasing costs.
On a weight basis, Cadbury chocolate will also become more expensive than its rival Whittaker’s, standard prices charged by Countdown supermarkets show.
The price of a block of Cadbury chocolate will increase from $1.81 per 100 grams to $1.99/100g. Whittaker’s sells its standard 250g block of chocolate for $4.80, or $1.92 per 100g.
Cadbury said it could no longer absorb increasing costs and had to either increase the price or decrease the size.
Brandon Wilcox, who was Cadbury’s chocolate marketing manager from 1989 to 1992, said reducing the block size was the wrong decision and Cadbury would have been better off raising the price.
‘‘People are resigned to price increases but they hate having something taken away from them,’’ he said.
Wilcox, who is now director of marketing agency Evolve Marketing, said consumers would ‘‘feel robbed’’ if they had to pay the same price for a block of chocolate with one fewer rows than before.
Cadbury should still be in reputation-rebuilding mode after the confectionery giant caused a furore in 2009 when it was revealed it had substituted cocoa butter with vegetable fat, including the environmentally unfriendly ingredient palm oil.
Cadbury’s chocolate block size reduction comes just weeks after the company changed the recipe of its Creme Eggs, replacing Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate with dard cocoa mix chocolate.
‘‘Removing Cadbury Dairy Milk milk chocolate from the Creme Egg recipe is another example of people having something taken off them,’’ Wilcox said.
The only winner from the whole ordeal would be Whittaker’s, he said. Whittaker’s has
stan- been named New Zealand’s most trusted brand for three years in a row in a survey commissioned by New Zealand Reader’s Digest.
‘‘Whittaker’s have replaced Cadbury as the quintessential kiwi brand. Every time Cadbury stumbles, Whittaker’s win.’’
Wilcox said Evolve Marketing had no connection to Whittaker’s.
Victoria University marketing professor Peter Thirkell said companies looking to improve margins were better off increasing the price of a product than tampering with it.
‘‘Personally I tend to favour swallowing hard and moving price,’’ Thirkell said.
If Cadbury’s cost structure was in line with its competitors’, then others would be facing the same cost pressures.
Thirkell said it was not a bad decision by Cadbury but it did come with more risk. ‘‘It is a little bit of an erosion of overall perception of brand quality.’’
Cadbury spokeswoman Adelle Keely said the company understood that people would not like receiving less chocolate for their money, but higher manufacturing costs meant it had to make a choice.