The dark truth about Cadbury Bournville

Cadbury India is using social media marketing to strengthen the positioning of its premium dark chocolate brand, Bournville, among its target audience.

The brand, positioned on the plank of 'You don't just buy a Bournville, you earn it' has mainly used traditional media such as TV, print and outdoor so far.

For the social media, Cadbury has opted to create a blog, titled The Dark Truth, and developed a virtual character called Old Hound, who is the author of the blog.

Why has Cadbury opted for a blog? Nikhil Rao, associate vice-president, marketing, Cadbury India, tells afaqs!, "Dark chocolate is a new category in India. With Bournville, Cadbury is trying to create that category.

Instead of bombarding our target audience (represented by SEC A1) with banner ads, we want to engage them on a higher level so as to create the right imagery of the dark chocolate brand in India."

The social media campaign is handled by a Mumbai based interactive agency, Phonethics. To further engage readers, the agency has introduced another virtual character called Mark, who is a childhood friend of Old Hound.

In one story, Mark ate Bournville and went missing afterwards. While searching for him, Old Hound receives a clue that if he collects 100 stories about people receiving something only after they have earned it, he will come to know where Mark is. The story is still in the process.

In one of the blog posts, the agency reveals that the-dark-truth.com is read by about 2,000 loyal readers every day.

To boost the conversational power of the stories and the blog, the company has also created a group, The Dark Truth, on Facebook, where it posts links of stories released on the blog and also invites members to share mysterious stories with other members. The group has more than 700 members.