Advertising earns Kandia $1.5 million

Ask any marketing manager in Romania about his worst nightmare, and he will most likely tell you that it’s the “Romanian consumer’s lack of brand loyalty.” However, he will also tell you that Romanians are willing to try anything once, as long as the new or repositioned product is being advertised.

One example in this regard would be the Kandia chocolate, a traditional product of the company bearing the same name, which was re-launched this year by Excelent, after having purchased the licence for the brand.

“We have invested $2.5 million in re-launching Kandia, and we can say that sales have greatly improved. In the last 42 days of 2003, Kandia sales revolved around $1.5 million, more than the sales posted by Excelenta (also an Excelent brand) in the first nine months of last year,” Excelent’s general manager Sorin Alexandru told Ziarul Financiar.

Sales worth $1.5m in only 42 days can be deemed as a very good result, since the entire Romanian market of chocolate tablets is estimated at $50-60 million annually. However, this is hardly breaking news on a market where aggressive advertising campaigns are known to have sent sales through the roof. Primola, for instance (a brand made by Supreme Chocolats) attained 12% market share in a single year (2002), after an advertising campaign worth $3.8 million (rate card).

Kandia’s re-launch (new taste, ingredients and packaging) was also joined last November by a TV and outdoor advertising programme, called “Chocolate with love.”

According to Sorin Alexandru, the $2.5m investments are aimed at both advertising and improvement of the product’s technical characteristics.

“The re-launch helped us to position Kandia on the premium segment, where it competes against Heidi and Milka. The product’s debut makes us believe the brand will continue to grow,” Alexandru said. Excelent’s main competitors on the chocolate market include Kraft Foods (with Milka and Poiana), Nestle, Heidi and Supreme Chocolats.

Excelent has reported preliminary financials for 2003 on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The company last year logged $29 million turnover and net income worth 3.5 million dollars.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro