Marketing Channel Strategies for Cadbury

Marketing channel strategies:-- The market channel strategies are broad principles by which the firm expects to achieve its distribution objectives for its target market. The design of the channel should contribute to the firm’s quest for Differential Advantage. It is the responsibility of administration of existing channels to secure the cooperation of channel members in achieving the firm’s distribution objectives Anand Kripalu, Cadbury India's managing director, is in favour that Cadbury should focus on exploring new marketing channels and price points in order to turn infrequent customers into regular buyers. These channels are likely to include non-retail chains in a bid to reach new customers or provide existing customers with the opportunity to buy Cadbury brands where they did not expect it. The company is also going to experiment with new price points for its flagship brand Cadbury Dairy Milk, which accounts for 30% of Cadbury India's overall chocolate business. Cadbury is also focusing intensively on achieving distribution equity. Though it takes much more time and effort to build, but once built, distribution equity is hard to erode. With technology and competitive pressure slash in it is becoming increasing difficult for marketers to retain a unique product differentiation for long period. In a product and price parity situation, the brand that sells more is the one that reaches the highest number of customers. India with 1 billion people, 155 million household has over 4 million retail outlets in 5351 urban markets and 552725 villages, spread cross 3.28 million sq. km. Getting there means managing wildly different terrains-climate, language, value system, life style, transport and communication network. To tap this huge potential Cadbury's distribution channels include the manufacturing warehouses where the chocolate production takes place. This is followed by wholesaler