Voice of the customer – Cadbury’s divide chocolate lovers

There are many elements to delivering a great customer experience. And Cadbury seem to have tripped over one at the same time as they’ve succeeded with another.

Cadbury’s recent TV ads have won them many accolades, tweets, posts and comments. The gorrilla feeling the air has nearly 4 million YouTube views, and the eyebrows already have more. I’m sure the word of mouth from these ads has even driven a few extra sales for Cadbury and Phil Collins.

But all is not smooth and milky in Bourville. Cadbury have apparently downsized their Dairy Milk bar to 200g, and customers have rebelled like angry gorrillas. And in the same way that customers can spread the good news about a fun advert, they also have powerful ways of sharing their displeasure. A chocloate lovers action group has sprung up, with a website and twitter account. There’s also a YouTube video, comparing the packaging and showing the reaction of some consumers.

In years gone by, such rumblings may have soon disappeared. But the mainstream media has picked up on it now too, with a story on Campbell Live and a story in the National Business Review by Hazel Phillips. This in turn has inspired one of Cadbury’s local competitors, Whittaker’s, to get on the front foot and create a comparative advert.

Cadbury’s say that they prefer to focus on the ‘fun & enjoyment’ of chocolate, but it goes to show that customer engagement comes from delivering a consistent customer experience across all customer touchpoints.

AirNZ’s ‘bare essentials’ ad campaign becomes an in-flight experience

Something wonderfully strange has happened to Air New Zealand – they’ve developed a personality! Following hot on the heels of their nothing to hide ads, comes their bare essentials in-flight safety briefing. I often rave about VirginBlue adding personality to their safety briefings, but AirNZ have successfully stripped away almost everything except the personality!

This is a great example of brand authenticity. They’ve taken what is already a catchy ad campaign and embeded it into their service proposition. The behind the scenes video shows how the campaign has engaged the brave staff in the ad, and my experience last weekend confirmed it (minus the body paint). The staff on my flight from Auckland seemed to be having more fun, the announcements felt less scripted, and they were giving out double helpings of cookies/lollie mix as standard (always a winner for me).

The customers are getting in on the act too, with a website to let them confess their own ‘nothing to hide’ stories. Putting the advert, safety video and bloopers on YouTube has added to the buzz, with overseas media like the NY Times and Daily Telegraph sharing the story.

The outcome has been game-changing. Airlines regularly struggle to get even a captive audience to watch the safety briefings. Yet AirNZ have already gained  3.5 million armchair viewers! Now that’s world-class thinking!