Devil's Advocate

Ian Moore

I've eventually got round to trying one of Cadbury's latest line extensions, Twisted, which is basically Creme egg in a countline format. Not bad - tastes exactly like Creme Egg, with pretty thick chocolate to boot. Can Cadbury begin to count their chickens? A company quote on TalkingRetail says: "Research revealed that 90% of consumers would like the Creme Egg experience throughout the year and as the 'goo', not the egg-shape, is the key driver for consumption, the new format will appeal to existing and new consumers." On that basis, they can do away with the egg-shape completely, surely? (But I don't think so, somehow.) .................................................................................................................................................. Moreover, the marketing quote recalled my own time at Cadbury in the early 1980s, when research had apparently shown that consumers would love Creme Egg to be on sale all year round. So Cadbury duly obliged, Creme Egg sales duly declined, and the brand suffered terribly. Eventually Cadbury came to the conclusion that they could sell more product in the 3 or so months between Christmas and Easter, and in the nick of time returned to the successful seasonal formula. So what's changed? .................................................................................................................................................. Well - one thing that hasn't changed is that marketers keep believing what consumers tell them in research. Q1. Do you like Creme Eggs? Yes. Q2. Would you like them to be available all year? Yes. Now, why would anyone say no to the second question? (Amazingly apparently 10% did - maybe they never eat Creme Eggs. Are there such people?) What I learned at Cadbury was that just because someone likes a particular confection, unless it can become their 'staple' choice (like Mars or Kit-Kat), they'll stuff their faces with it for a while and then get sick of it. Creme Eggs are pretty induldgent an 'eat' and surely fall into this latter category. Mars and Kit-Kat are actually pretty bland... as is the way of staples in almost every market. .................................................................................................................................................. So I think Cadbury have got a tough task on their hands with Twisted. When you consider that even the mighty Wispa rose and fell to oblivion, despite initially threatening to overturn the incumbent brand leaders - and it achieved levels of trial and publicity that have probably never been seen for a product since. I wish them good luck (should that be goo luck?), as nothing beats Brummie chocolate.