Just a few years ago, customer feedback was usually gathered by way of focus groups and highly targeted research. Not any more. Today’s ‘iconic’ brands can get an insight into exactly what their customers are thinking within hours by checking out online chat-rooms, blogs and even mainstream media polls.

Cadbury’s plan to reduce the size of its chocolate bars, and add palm-oil, was met with widespread resistance for several reasons.

Auckland Zoo was so opposed to its inclusion in Cadbury products that it boycotted Cadbury products and removed them from sale.

What should have been a minor change to a recipe rapidly turned into what threatened to become a reputational and PR nightmare – especially for New Zealand’s ‘most trusted’ brand.

All credit to Cadbury, they responded swiftly and confirmed they would retain the ‘old’ recipe without palm-oil, noting price wouldn’t be affected.

In a New Zealand Herald article, Cadbury NZ managing director Matthew Oldham said:

“the decision to bring back the old recipe was a direct response to consumer feedback.”

He went on:

“we genuinely believed we were making the right decision, for the right reasons. But we got it wrong. Now we’re putting things right as soon as we possibly can, and hope Kiwis will forgive us.”

I think consumers probably will forgive them. The fact that they acknowledged the level of consumer concern, and acted swiftly in confirming their reversion to the existing recipe, certainly worked in their favour.

They also came out ahead in a taste-test against rival manufacturer Whittaker’s, although Whittaker’s definitely gained the upper hand in terms of positive comparative marketing.

Making sure your customers are likely to support any changes you propose is a wise move. And for that, market research is useful.