Most people probably have a story to tell about products they remember eating as a kid which they return to years later only to claim with some alarm, “I remember these use to be much bigger”.  In some instances, certainly, this may be due to an increase in size of the person doing the remembering, however in many cases it is more than likely that the product has in fact actually decreased in size.  This marketing ploy is referred to as product shrinkage and is a way of the manufacturers to make a higher rate of return for their product.  There are several benefits for the manufacturer in doing this.

Firstly, few people pay particular attention to how big an item is, for instance how many grams is in a tin of heinz big red tomato soup (its is 420g by the way), and so you don’t actually notice small incremental changes in size.  Generally you will say, “I am going to buy a block of chocolate”, you probably wouldn’t specify how many grams are in that block of chocolate, ie you wouldn’t say “I am going to buy a 250g block of chocolate or a 200g block or a 100g block”, you just get a block.  Now, in general, to make more money, manufacturers can either increase the price of their product or decrease the costs of their product.  Manufacturers are generaly fiercely protective of the quality of their product so there is only so much budge room in terms of the costs associated with the ingredients.  Customers on the other hand are feircely reactive to price increases, so manufacturers need some other way of increasing the rate of return.  They do this by product shrinkage.  By making their products slightly smaller but not changing their price they can increase their rate of return on the product.

A second benefit for manufacturers is that the smaller size means that the volume or weight of the product is now less, so when they transport the same volume or weight of product as before, they are actually transporting more units which gives them an increased return for the price paid for transport.

Lastly because the sizes are now different sizes in difficult multiples of other sizes within their own range, or more importantly that of their competitors, customers can not easily determine which product represents the best value.

Now you would expect highly acquisitive brands like Nestle which own everything from brands of moisturiser to Magi two-minute noodles to the chocolate products that it started out with to do things like that, but good old, reliable, family oriented Cadbury I would have expected better from.  Product shrinkage for a start shows a profound disrespect for your loyal customers as it is a clear attempt to deceive them.

In the case of the recent resizing of all family sized block varieties of Cadbury chocolate an entire marketing campaign was set up around the resize, in all likelihood to specifically disguise the fact that all the products are now smaller.  This involved new block design, which in the case of the fondant varieties (peppermint cream, snack, caramello etc) mean that the cup size is much more shallow, and the squares much more difficult to break.  As a result the cups shatter releasing the fondant over your fingers, the packaging or the ground.

The packaging was redesigned and the blocks now come in cardboard boxes, which looks very nice but likely was only done to both go someway towards replacing the weight that was lost with the resized block so people notice it less and also distracting people with the novelty of the new packaging from noticing that the amount of chocolate they are getting is now less.

They also have big point of sale promotion on for the new blocks which are priced from $3.00 to $3.50 at various retailers at the moment.  At the same time any retailers that have old stock left have kept the 250g blocks at the old prices, which in recent years has risen to the ludicrous price of about $4.70 for a 250g block.  Customers would therefore feel happy about this new look Cadbury then, it costs less, and has a fancy new packaging, without realising that it was only done in order to manipulate them into accepting the new sizing, which they probably haven’t even noticed.

Before the resizing all family blocks of Cadbury chocolate were 250g, except for Breakaway the Cadbury version of the Kit Kat, but now the various flavours have been resized almost randomly to a range of new sizes, eg:

Sure the Cadbury slogan “a glass and a half of full cream dairy milk in every 200g block” has suddenly become more relevant, since the dairy milk block is now back to 200g, as it was originally.  But personally I would prefer the larger blocks, and I would prefer less manipulation by one of the worlds best loved chocolate manufacturer.  Because of the nature of its products, Cadbury sees us though our most meaningful life experiences, from our first love, to supporting us through our breakups, and our celebrations of success and great achievements, to just saying thank you to those who are important to us.  This is what Cadbury means to us, and so for the company to attempt to “market” us into acceptance of its ill-explained resizing is hurtful and I would have expected better from them.

Another product to get the cut recently was Tasty Jack’s chips.  They were formerly by Arnott’s but were purchased by an Australian company, Snack Brands Australia so are now both Australian made and Australian owned.  I found when I was researching this blog entry though that this purchase was actually completed on the 11th of May 2008 (http://www.foodmag.com.au/Article/Bringing-back-the-snack/172203.aspx).  This surprised me as I thought I remembered Arnott’s branded Tasty Jack’s still being available from Coles this year, and certainly late last year.  I also remember Arnott’s Tasty Jack’s chips being 200g like Smith’s chips, but now that they are owned by Snack Brands Australia they seem to be 175g.

If companies have to increase prices, and I don’t for a second agree that they do, but if they do, companies should be honest about it, rather than trying to trick us into thinking we are onto a great thing, when really they are just trying to increase their bottom line.