Eye-watering chocolate costs coming. No wonder those eyebrows are dancing.

1319935 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:53:00 GMT

Cocoa is now at its highest price for 24 years and the premium brands, those that use the most ‘cocoa solid’ content, will inevitably have to pass those raw material costs on to the consumer first. This swings things favourably for Cadbury’s and Nestlé, as they tend to use less cocoa solid in mass-produced bars, so may be able to hold prices for longer. If you compare the cocoa solids content of Dairy Milk to say, a bar of Green and Black’s you can work out the relative strength of pure chocolate for yourself.

As belts tighten, even for the indulgent, can purity at a price overcome the celebration of a joyful moment expressed in Dairy Milk advertising? The kerfuffle over ‘shrinking’ chocolate sizes (where’s my last rolo gone?) at countline level indicates that when the British consumer thinks about chocolate a tiny bit more than the three seconds it takes to snap up a KitKat as you head out of the tube, manufacturers have to sit up and take notice. Mind you, I liked one succinct Yahoo answer on that question “it’s not the chocolate bars getting smaller, it’s the people getting bigger.” Let’s see how consumers react as wallets get smaller.

Mad Men, the Gorilla and Galaxy

1319935 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:17:00 GMT

One insight from the Mad Men TV Series was just how ‘competitive’ (read selfish and self-obsessed) the ad men were in 1960. Plus ca change? Chatting over a brisk lunch with an old buddy in Soho, we discussed the fall of Fallon’s Gorilla in face of recent research damning the campaign for failing to grow market share. My friend pointed out that there are probably agency people all over town going “ha – it didn’t work! Told you so. One off.” A more detailed look at the numbers showed that the Galaxy’s share has indeed grown by 12%, but size of share relative to Cadbury’s is 40%. Now there is a well travelled view that it’s far ‘easier’ to grow smaller share aggressively, but there does appear to be something behind the change in that Cadbury’s had changed the packaging and the promotion of the product, but haven’t done anything to the product. Galaxy (and Dove as the brand is know in Asia) had changed the packaging and promotion, but also the product. The chunks are smaller, rounder, more appealing to women, as is everything about the brand. Cadbury’s may well have tried to target ‘everyone’ which is always a tricky brief.

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Eye-watering chocolate costs coming. No wonder those eyebrows are dancing.

Mad Men, the Gorilla and Galaxy