Cadbury’s Roses spruce up
24th October 2016
As one of the biggest confectioners in the world, with such competition as Nestle and Lindt, it’s important for such a brand to keep their identity and their products as up to date as possible as well as maintaining their tradition; and over the past few years we’ve seen Cadbury’s start to dip their toe in the controversial pool. From early 2016, where we saw the giant change their recipe of their ever popular ‘Creme egg’ chocolate and reduced their box of 6 eggs down to 5 to cut costs, one of which caused uproar and saw the company lose more than £6m in sales. Presenting Cadbury’s as a brand that is clearly not afraid of changing things up a bit. So it was no surprise that earlier this year, another nostalgic favourite churned up the tabloids with Cadbury’s Roses packaging.
From research conducted in 2014, Cadbury’s found that customers had great issue with the fiddly wrappers which seemed to taint the flavour of other chocolates in the tin. In response, the confectionery giant have seen away with their ‘twist’ wrappers in exchange for the new easy to open ‘Miniature Heroes’ looking packaging. But is this a good move or not?
Cadbury’s Roses date back to 1938 and were created to directly compete with the ‘twisted wrapper’ market at the time. If we look at most chocolate today we can see that the likes of ‘Celebrations’ and other confectioners are opting for a looser fit wrapper, to ensure ease in packaging and a tighter seal to maintain freshness for longer. This seems to be purely about keeping up to date with new trends and listening to its customers and acting on it.
However, from a design pov, the new packaging presents a knock back effect, fading Roses into the endless shelves of easy to open wrappered chocolates. The original foil seemed to part the brand from its competitors and with its 80 year tradition, it’s a shame that the brand has conformed and seemed to lose their nostalgia, ditching the metallic in favour of block colour. However, in a world that is more than ever aware of health and safety, it follows suit with our demand for deep product flavour and freshness – reducing contamination, so we can understand the step they’ve chosen from a product pov. It’s just a shame. What do you think?
