CA Rahul Malodia
02-05-2025

Cadbury Marketing Strategy in India

Who doesn’t love chocolate?

Everyone enjoys this delicacy, especially as so many different varieties are available in the market, from regular milk chocolate to 50% and 100% dark chocolate. Plus, the premium brands customizing the dessert have enhanced the chocolate experience for everyone. Although several brands worldwide have become famous by selling premium-level chocolates, assorted goodies, and choco candies, Cadbury has a special place, and it can’t be taken.

“Cadbury's parent company, Mondelez International, continues to make significant investments to expand its operations globally. In India, Mondelez has announced a major investment plan of ₹4,000 crore by 2026 to strengthen its manufacturing and supply chain capabilities, reflecting the rising demand in one of its most important markets. Globally, Mondelez holds over 10% of the total market share in the confectionery industry, an impressive feat considering Cadbury is now a subsidiary of this US-based multinational.

Founded in 1824 in Britain, Cadbury has grown over the past 200+ years into more than just a confectionery brand — it’s a part of people’s memories and emotions. Several studies and brand reports highlight how Cadbury has become a symbol of nostalgia and joy, especially in countries like India, where generations recall sharing Dairy Milk bars with friends during childhood. In 2025, Cadbury stands strong not just as a product, but as an emotional connection across age groups.

Top 5 Marketing Strategies of Cadbury in India

Almost two centuries have passed, yet the brand has achieved terrific success due to its unique marketing strategies. “Let’s see what is top marketing strategy of Cadbury is?”

“Working together to create brands people love”

About Cadbury India

Introduced on July 19, 1948, Cadbury is the largest confectionery brand in India. It has its headquarters in Mumbai, under the jurisdiction of Anand Kripalu, the company’s managing director. So far, Capability India has opened several manufacturing facilities in the following:

Thane
Induri in Pune
Malanpur in Gwalior
Hyderabad
Bangalore
Baddi in Himachal Pradesh

On the other hand, the sales offices are currently in Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Kolkata. Although it was introduced in 1948, Cadbury India started developing strategies for improved cocoa cultivation in the country in 1965. It has worked with Kerala Agricultural University for the last two decades for cocoa research. It aims to ensure the maximum quality of cocoa beans harvested from the plantations that are further processed in the manufacturing units to make chocolate.

Facts about Cadbury India

In 2016, Cadbury held a market share of 49% in India, establishing itself as the largest confectionery brand in the country.
By 2021, Mondelez India Foods Pvt Ltd had expanded its market share to 64%, reinforcing its position as the leading chocolate manufacturer in India.
In FY 2024, Mondelez India reported total revenues of ₹12,746.98 crore, a significant rise from previous years, showcasing strong business growth.
The company had earlier projected its India business to touch $2 billion in annual revenues by 2023. As of 2025, Mondelez is on track to achieve this milestone by 2030, reflecting continued expansion and long-term investment in the region.
Approximately 72% of Mondelez International's India revenue continues to come from core Cadbury products — mainly Cadbury Dairy Milk and Cadbury 5 Star, highlighting their dominance in consumer preference.

The target audience of Cadbury

Although India contributes a lot towards the global chocolate industry, its diversity in population ethics, moralities, cultures, and age demographics is challenging for Cadbury. After it was introduced in 1948 in India, the company spent a considerable time understanding the Indian market. Based on the studies, it further concluded that the entire population is divided into different economic strata, and their expectations are varied.

Based on this, Cadbury India introduced a wide range of products to target multiple segments based on economy, age, and regular lifestyle expectations. To understand the target audience of Cadbury India and its strategies, we have presented a couple of illustrations in this section below.

Cadbury Bournvita, a healthy drink, was introduced to the market at an affordable price so that people from every economic stratum could afford it. Considering this, the company aimed to develop health and nutritional concepts nationwide, targeting people from lower, middle, and higher economic classes.
Cadbury 5 Star, Cadbury Perk, and Cadbury Dairy Milk are the company’s three primary products that are dedicated to the lower and middle economic sections. These are also suitable for kids, teenagers and adolescents, and adults.
Cadbury’s Bournville and temptation range have been targeted toward adolescents and adults. Based on the economic scale, these products are a little costlier, so the capability targets the middle and upper economic sections.

Based on this study, it’s evident how the company has focused on different segments of the Indian population based on age, geography, desire, taste, and economy. Perhaps that’s why it is still the largest confectionery brand in the country, even though several other companies have already penetrated the market and are willing to achieve a more significant share of the market in the coming years.

1. Cadbury’s social media marketing strategies

Cadbury India has multiple brands under its parent company, so it has opened different channels across multiple social media platforms for each brand. There are several reasons to do so. Below are some primary factors that influenced Cadbury India to open profiles for each brand across various social media channels.

First and foremost, it aimed to promote and spread brand awareness individually rather than compiling and doing the advertising work.
As the target audience of different brands differed, Capability India played smartly and segmented the Indian market of confectionery and chocolate through brand-specific profiles on social media channels.
It became much easier for the company to keep track of and analyze the performance of brand-specific social media profiles across multiple channels.

Facebook and Instagram

Facebook and Instagram have served as the two greatest platforms for promoting Cadbury India and increasing the overall outreach on the digital platform. The following are the followers of different Cadbury brands on Instagram and Facebook:

For Dairy Milk Silk, the number of Instagram followers is 317K, while that of Facebook is 5.9 M.
For Oreo, the number of followers on Facebook is 41M, while that on Instagram is 3.7 M.
For Cadbury Gems, the number of Instagram followers is 54.3k, while that of Facebook is 134k.
For Cadbury Bournvita, the number of followers on Instagram is 60.4k, while that on Facebook is 218 K.

From this comparison explanation, one can understand that Cadbury India has gained more exposure and popularity on Facebook when compared to Instagram. However, the company is trying and putting lots of effort into balancing the ratio and gaining more followers on Instagram through various celebrity endorsements, advertisements, and social media strategies.

Twitter

Cadbury India has established a firm position in the confectionery and dessert market on Twitter. The Dairy Milk profile has a follower list of 105K, while the Cadbury Celebrations profile has a follower list of 16.1 K. Similarly, Cadbury 5 star has 29.2K followers, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has 49.1 K followers, Cadbury Bournville has 3761 followers, and so on. The number of followers is still on the lower side because Cadbury India opened these Twitter profiles recently, probably after 2010. It was during this time that Mondelez in the US acquired it.

Cadbury’s brands on YouTube

Cadbury India prefers to use YouTube as its primary advertising and promotional social media channel because it has a larger customer base, outreach, and various advertisement options. Just like any other social media channels we discussed above, it has opened different profiles for various brands, and the channels are updated regularly, proving how capability India is dedicated to YouTube. Based on the subscribers for individual brand channels, the following results can be inferred:

Dairy Milk has a subscriber count of 1.55 M
Bournvita has a subscriber count of 143 K
Perk has a subscriber count of 75K
The Cadbury brand itself has 621k subscribers
Cadbury Silk has 1.12 M subscribers
Cadbury Celebrations has 589k subscribers

2. Cadbury product strategy

Since India is quite a diverse country with a population of people from various cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, economic classes, and so on, Cadbury products in India didn’t limit their product strategy to only a single brand. Instead, it transformed the major products into brands themselves. For example, Cadbury Dairy Milk is not just a product. Instead, it is a brand identified as a Cadbury India subsidiary. Similarly, Cadbury Bournvita, Cadbury Celebrations, Cadbury Silk, Cadbury Perk, and so many other such subsidiaries are brands of the parent company.

The primary reason for establishing these products as brands was to increase the outreach and target a greater section of the audience. Besides, the company wanted the products to be aligned with the sentiments and emotions of people. This is why the products were transformed into brands, and they now have an individual presence in the Indian confectionery market.

From introducing affordable products like Dairy Milk and five-star to premium range chocolates like Silk and Boonville, Cadbury products in India have ensured to revolutionize the products so that they can easily target different audience segments. Plus, the company wanted to establish a seamless connection between the target audience and its products, so segmentation and differentiation were prioritized.

3. Cadbury price/pricing strategy

Cadbury India has also focused more on optimizing its pricing plans based on the economic status of various segments of the Indian population. The pricing strategy is one of the primary reasons for its massive success since 1948. The company has continuously revamped its strategies to ensure that it can continue maximizing its gains while offering affordable products, but not compromising product quality.

Some of the primary pricing strategies Cadbury India has implemented so far are:

The primary pricing strategy Cadbury India has implemented and is using so far is cost-plus pricing. According to this plan, the company has set the selling price of each unit of the product at a certain percentage higher than the manufacturing cost. This has significantly helped the company maximize gains on bulk sales since manufacturing costs have been lowered with the increasing quality of cocoa and other raw materials.
The supply and demand chain has also influenced the pricing strategies of Cadbury India. The company has focused more on analyzing the current market demand for each product, from the eclairs to the premium chocolates like Celebrations and Bournville. Accordingly, it changed the prices to meet the demand chain and ensured the revenue earned from supply matched their expectations and forecasted values.
Bundle pricing has recently helped Carpet India to increase revenues after the company launched products in combos and packages. For example, the Cadbury perk was available for INR 5, INR 10, and INR 20. But now, chocolate lovers can buy an entire pack of 50 units, where each unit costs INR 5 at a marked price of INR 99.

4. Cadbury's place and distribution strategy

The number of manufacturing units of Cadbury India in the country is 7; the company has assured to increase the shelf availability further. This is why the distribution channels have been performing much better lately, ensuring every retail and wholesale store can have maximum units of popular Cadbury India products without any hassle. Apart from this, Cadbury India has also launched mini chocolates, ensuring that the products are at least available in smaller quantities if not larger ones.

5. Cadbury’s promotion and advertising strategy

Cadbury India has focused more on promotion and advertisements, even though people already love chocolates. In 2000, the sales of Cadbury chocolates took a downturn, after which Cadbury Dairy Milk collaborated with Amitabh Bachchan. As a result, the brand’s value increased, and it is now one of the most preferred chocolates around the country. Some of the significant marketing campaigns the brand has launched so far are:

Cadbury Tagline:-

Kuchh Khas He Zindagi Mein: This is the oldest campaign of Cadbury India, launched in the 90s in honor of the Indian cricket team.
Mann Mein Laddoo Phoota is one of the famous advertising statements that became popular around 2005 to 2008. The statement was released as a promotional advertisement for Cadbury shots, and the advertising video changed in consecutive years based on the response it received from the Indian audience.
Kiss me: one of the most successful promotional and advertising campaigns of Cadbury India is Kiss Me, which was launched to promote Dairy Milk Silk. It is, in fact, one of the best ads viewed to date.

Conclusion

Cadbury India undeniably occupies a unique position in the market, whether due to the marketing campaigns that align with the sentiments of the Indian audience or the wide range of products. A confectionery brand introduced to the Indian market in 1948 has now occupied approximately 50% of the market share, especially after it was acquired under the rule of Mondelez.

The success story of Cadbury India is entirely emotional and conflicting, but inspiring. So, people looking forward to starting a successful business like this should connect with one of the best business coaches in India, Rahul Malodia. He launched a business program named “Vyapari to CEO” to teach entrepreneurs and startups how to devise marketing strategies like successful brands and become topmost players across various sectors and industries.