Cadbury manages a crisis with IMC
Submitted to,
Prof. Jacob Alexander

Submittted by,
Brief Introduction
Cadbury manages a crisis with Integrated Marketing Communications This case study gives us an insight on the importance of integrated marketing communications. This case study is about Cadbury, the crisis it went through during October 2003, its consequences and role of IMC in handling the situation Cadbury India Ltd is the market leader in Indian confectionary segment. Its major product is Dairy Milk which has sales of close to one million bars per day. During October 2003, worms were found in Cadbury bars at eight outlets in Maharashtra. The consequences were terrible and led to dip in sales volume, less co-operation from retailers and morale of employee dwindled. The media publicity spread like wild fire and the common perception of consumers was that every Cadbury bar could have worms in it, which tarnished the brand image of the company.
With through investigation, Cadbury identified that the cause for this was lenience by the retailers who placed the chocolate beside items which were susceptible to worms.
Corrective actions taken by Cadbury
Cadbury took the responsibility for the slack in educating retailers
It launched a three pronged program – Project Vishwas that addressed trade, consumers and media and employees
A retail monitoring and education program was launched that performed quality checks at over 50,000 outlets and educated 190000 wholesalers and retailers regarding storage requirements.
Cadbury’s MD urged the media to assure the consumers that Cadbury was safe to eat. He also emphasized on the care a consumer needs to take before buying a chocolate.
Employees were briefed about actions taken through meetings with senior managers.

With the help of the proper mix of IMC tools they regained their ‘Brand Identity and Equity’