Easter is the largest occasion in spring and confectionery plays a key role with sales worth £273m. This year with Easter Sunday falling on 23 March, the season is only twelve weeks long – three weeks shorter than in previous years. This means it is more important than ever to offer consumers an exciting range of products and ensure they are on-shelf from the beginning of January and are available right up until Easter weekend.
Acting Head of Customer Relations at CTB, Kate Harding says: “People are looking for more of the tradition and ritual to return to the Easter occasion. We are introducing a range of chocolate eggs and products that will offer this and importantly, will also use less packaging as part of our efforts to reduce the impact on our environment.”
‘Purple goes green’ this Easter
CTB will be reducing the PVC in small and medium shell eggs to save 247 tonnes of plastic. The amount of cardboard used in packaging will also be reduced by using a new backless tray in outers, saving 115 tonnes of cardboard, an equivalent of nearly 2,000 trees. All Easter packaging will feature a recycling symbol and CTB is contributing £150,000 to the National Trust Ancient Trees and Woodland conservation programme as part of the company’s Easter Egg trail activity.
Eggs for the environment: Cadbury Treasure Eggs
New for Easter 2008, Cadbury Treasure Eggs are a great way for consumers to enjoy their favourite Cadbury brands – Mini Eggs, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel – whilst limiting the impact on the environment. Treasure Eggs are foil wrapped but do not have an outer box. They are being trialed in all channels for 2008 with CTB planning a full launch in 2009 depending on the level of consumer interest in reduced packaging Easter eggs.
The eggs contain sweets inside to appeal to consumers’ nostalgia for more traditional style chocolate eggs; consumers can crack open the eggs to find the treats inside. In addition, retailers will benefit from the reduced packaging taking up less shelf space.
Harding comments: “More than one third of consumers make the effort to buy products that are ethically produced or kinder to the environment, and 45% of consumers actively seek to purchase products with minimum or no packaging . As well as appealing to these consumers, Treasure Eggs are also a great top-up gift.”
On the hunt: Cadbury introduces Easter Egg Trails
As part of the Easter Egg trail initiative, CTB has invested £1million in support of the National Trust Easter Egg Trails. There are over 200 Easter Egg Trails at National Trust properties across the UK due to take place in 2008. Awareness for the Easter Egg Trails will be driven via on-pack flashes on Cadbury shell eggs, National Trust newsletters and a dedicated website [l=http:// www.eastereggtrail.com]www.eastereggtrail.com.
CTB is introducing the Cadbury Easter Egg Trail Pack for the first time this year. Designed to appeal to families, it contains a mixture of hollow eggs, Cadbury Creme Egg Minis and Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel Eggs Minis. The pack is interactive with arrows on the back which can be cut out, and links to the Egg Trails website.
Harding adds: “For families, egg hunts are an important ritual associated with Easter. More than half of families with children take part in an egg hunt and now parents can buy a specific pack from Cadbury to stage their own hunt. The new Cadbury Easter Egg Trail Packs contain 18 eggs meaning they can easily be shared.”
Shelling out the favourites
CTB’s standard shell range includes Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel, Cadbury Mini Eggs, Cadbury Flake, Cadbury Crunchie, Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons and Cadbury Creme Egg and have all, except CDM and CDM Caramel, been given new packaging.
Each brand has been given its own distinctive identity to bring it more in-line with the individual Cadbury brand personality. The packs will also feature springtime imagery to create a seasonal feel and games on the back.
In addition, CTB is for the first time introducing the Cadbury Bournville Deeply Dark Chocolate Egg following the continued success of dark chocolate, which is currently growing at 30% year on year . Cadbury Bournville Deeply Dark Chocolate Egg is expected to appeal to a wider age range of consumers than traditional Bournville chocolate.
Something special – Luxury Shell
In addition to its wide range of shell eggs, CTB is revamping its luxury range with the introduction of The Collection Egg – a trio of truffle eggs inside two thick milk chocolate eggs.
The new Collection Egg, includes some of the features of its previous incarnation as Cadbury Easter Egg delight such as the extra thick luxurious chocolate and the ‘egg within an egg’ concept. However, it also has more premium graphics with reusable and recyclable tin packaging. All three varieties (Milk Chocolate, Vanilla and Caramel) come under the Cadbury chocolate brand and will be replacing Cadbury Easter Egg Delight.
