Cadbury’s Reduce Christmas Tin Box – Terminology in Business

It was reported yesterday that Cadbury’s are planning to reduce the size of their Heroes tins, by about 11 chocolates per box. Why are they doing this? So that they don’t have to increase their prices.

More and more in recent times are companies using these type of tactics to pass on price rises. There is no hiding it, unless you are an idiot, everyone knows what is really happening. If you suddenly reduce the weight of what you’re selling, it means each sweet costs more, which in turn means that the prices are going up. They are only staying the same, so that people believe that they are the same.

In all honesty, when you are shopping and just pick up one of these tins, you aren’t going to realise, but it is the principle of the matter, which, well, matters.

Let’s Do Some Sums!

I haven’t got a clue how many sweets are in the tin, I could probably go and find out, but let’s make the numbers easy so that we can follow it easier.

Let’s say there are 100 sweets in each tin. A tin costs £5 (Half Price at Tesco) so that means each sweet is 5 divided by 100, which equals 0.05p. If we take 11 sweets from that box then we are losing 55p worth of sweets. It may not seem a lot, but that is over 10% of the contents of that box.

It’s Happening Everywhere

Nestlé’s Quality Street tins will remain at 2lb 3oz after it shed 3.5oz last year, while Mars’s Celebrations tubs remain at 1lb 14oz, after shrinking from 2lb 2.5oz two years ago.

It doesn’t annoy me because they are reducing the size; it’s the way they are doing it. It’s a marketing ploy, if they reduce the size people won’t notice, unless they have seen it on the news etc. If they reduce the price, everyone will notice and they will lose sales. Yes it’s a classic example of how to market and sell, and at some point every businessman will probably have to do something of the sort.

However, in my opinion, wouldn’t telling the truth be best? Yes keep the price the same, I will be more inclined to buy if they price is the same and I get less sweets. You could even market it as a healthier way to enjoy the sweets? (Yeah bad idea). But if you market it saying that it has a few less sweets, at least then you aren’t lying and websites and news channels all over the country won’t report on it and give you a bad reputation.

Comments are always welcome.

Quote: Telegraph – Cadbury cuts the size of its chocolate tins

Image: Irish Florists – Cadbury’s Roses