1. Situation Analysis
Cadbury Beverages, Inc. is the beverage-manufacturing division of Cadbury Schweppes PLC. It was created in 1969 by a merger of Schweppes PLC (1783,
London, the first world’s soft drink maker) and Cadbury (1830, Birmingham, a major British confectionery manufacturer). In 1989, the Cadbury Schweppes PLC was one of the world’s largest multinational companies and the world’s third largest soft drink marketer (behind Coca-Cola and PepsiCo), with worldwide sales of $4.6 billion, sold in 110 countries. Beverages accounted for 60 percent of company sales and 53 percent of its operating income.
Additionally, at that time, Cadbury Beverages, Inc. was the fourth biggest soft drink marketer in the US (behind Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Dr.Pepper-7Up), with a carbonated soft drink market share of 3.4 percent, and the market leader in some specific soft drinks categories (see exhibit 1).
2. Problem or Opportunity
In January 1990, the Cadbury marketing team decided to take up a challenge of re-launching the Crush, Hires and Sun-Drop soft drink brands, recently acquired from Procter&Gamble (October 1989). In the beginning, the marketing executives intended to focus on re-launching the Crush brand on the soft drinks market.
As a result, three main issues need to be tackled:
• Rebuilding a cooperative relationship with bottlers,
• developing a base brand positioning consistent with the brand equity,
• developing (objectives, strategies) and budgeting the advertising and promotion program.
The Carbonated Soft Drink Industry in the U.S.
Three main actors participate in manufacturing and distribution of carbonated soft drinks in the United States: concentrate producers, bottlers, and retailers. The concentrate producers’ and bottlers’ roles and margins of are different for regular and diet drinks.
There are approximately 40 concentrate manufacturers in the US, but only three of