A winning combination

India’s favorite chocolate, the world’s favorite biscuit. Put the two together and you have a winning combination.

The entire snacks and biscuits category in India is about to be given a shake-up with the launch of Oreo under the Cadbury umbrella brand. Cadbury is a much loved heritage brand in India. It appeals across demographics and social class from the very young to the very old, from the very rich to the very poor, from the traditionalist to the modernist. Every Indian remembers their favorite Cadbury ad especially the ‘Real taste of Life’ campaign with the girl dancing on a cricket field, one of my favorites. Today, in India, Cadbury has become a generic for the word ‘chocolate’.

As the burgeoning middle class continues to expand with an ever increasing disposable income, the pre-Independence, plain vanilla, classic Indian glucose biscuit stands to lose out to its cream filled, indulgent new American rival. The Indian tea time ritual of dunking a biscuit in a cup of chai is about to become interesting with a change in consumer behavior from simply ‘dunk’ to ‘twist, lick and dunk’!

Mondelez International faces stiff local competition from Parle and Britannia who together make up about 70% of the Indian biscuit market. So it makes perfect sense for Mondelez International which is still a relatively new entrant to make use of Cadbury’s strong heritage and vast distribution network to increase penetration across both modern and general trade. Cadbury’s Oreo? Why not?

However the most interesting part of this cross branding exercise for me is to see what other products Mondelez International will launch under the Cadbury umbrella brand in India. Cadbury’s Ritz crackers anyone?

By Uttara Masting, Account Director at pi global