Case Study Of The Swot Analysis Of Cadbury

Executive Summary

The company I chose to do my report on is Cadbury, which is a well-known British confectionary company that has been in operation since 1824. I chose this company because it is one of the largest confectionary brands in the world.

This report is an analysis of the current position of Cadbury which discusses the micro and macro environment of the company, using a SWOT analysis to outline the opportunities and threats which face Cadbury and includes a description of the company 's target customer segments as well as its positioning strategy.

The micro environment of Cadbury

Company

Cadbury is a large multinational company with a huge number of staff and many different departments. The total number of staff working for Cadbury

Cadbury has good relationships with its various marketing intermediaries because it is such a recognizable and strong brand worldwide. This is evident in the fact that Cadbury products can be found in the majority of food retailers in the UK, Ireland and around the world.

Competitors

Being the second largest confectionary company in the world, Cadbury is in a very good position and although it has many direct and indirect competitors manufacturing similar products, they do not pose as much of a threat to Cadbury as they would to, for example, a start-up confectionary company. Cadbury is in a leading position in the market place coming before other well-known brands like Nestle and Hershey’s which puts the company in a very powerful and advantageous position over its competitors.

Of the main direct competitors to Cadbury, Mars is the only company which outperforms it.

Publics

Cadbury puts a significant effort into managing its relationships with its publics which would include its suppliers, customers and distributors, all of which contribute to the company’s outstanding reputation

Cadbury knows that a lot of its sales are based around occasion related buying. For example a consumer would buy chocolates for special occasions such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas and Easter, or simply the "occasion" of taking a break and they produce specific products for these occasions such as the Cadbury Roses tin which is available at Christmas season, the Cadbury Easter eggs which are normally an egg accompanied by one of their bars available at Easter and the special Cadbury "With Love" heart shaped chocolate box which is available coming up to Valentine’s day.

As well as this, Cadbury also takes advantage of its knowledge of consumer behaviour by sizing its products differently according to where the consumer is going to eat the bar. For example Dairy Milk Mint Crisp is available in a large block size for taking home and eating and is sold in newsagents in a smaller version for eating on a lunch break. Cadbury also knows that for many people confectionary products are an impulse purchase and so strategically positions its products at checkout counters to encourage more people to buy them.

These examples show how Cadbury is aware that buyers are influenced by a number of factors and adjusts develops its marketing mix accordingly.

Positioning strategy of