Nestle Milkybar : Dum Hai To Bahar Nikal

Brand : Milkybar

Company : Nestle
Agency : JWT

Brand Analysis Count : 372

Milkybar is the leader in the white chocolate market in India. Launched in 1998, the brand is now making lot of noise in the media as a part of its repositioning exercise. In a typical market challenger strategy of Byepass attack, Nestle always avoided fighting head on with the market leader Cadbury's Dairy Milk.

Nestle chose to attack the market by launching brands like Kit Kat , Munch and Milkybar and thus create a new market for itself away from the market leader. Milkybar is one of such brands.

Milkybar is a white chocolate. White Chocolates are those which contains Cocoa butter, milk and sweets and no cocoa solids.

Milk Chocolates are those which contains milk solids in addiction to chocolate. In some reports, Milkybar is considered as a white chocolate while in some it is referred to as a milk chocolate. Nestle have anothe milk chocolate brand hence Milkybar can be positively confirmed as a white chocolate.

When I was indulging in chocolates, milk/white chocolates were a regular part of my indulgence, especially when bored with brown chocolates.

Although Milkybar was around in Indian market for a while, the brand came into aggressive state during the relaunch in 2006. During that time, Nestle relaunched the brand on the platform of healthy chocolate. The chocolate was fortified with calcium and positioned as a chocolate bar for energy and strength.
"Milkybar gives me power " was the brand's positioning platform.

Milkybar not only created the white chocolate segment but expanded it through product innovations. The brand launched a soft chewy fudge form of Milkybar branded as Milkybar Choo. This was a big hit for the kids who loved the soft fudge form of chocolate. The brand also made itself affordable by pricing the variant at Rs 5.

Currently the brand is running a campaign with a new tagline " Dum hai to bahar nikal " ( if you have guts, get out and play ) . The brand asks the youngsters to just get out and play.

Watch the campaign here : Dum Hai to bahar nikal

The ad is well made and drives a point. The campaign is backed by events and contests to reinforce the new positioning.

What is interesting is that the brand is addressing the higher age group of the target segment . I think that the previous TG audience for Milkybar was the kids of age 5-10 yrs. But the current ad is targeting pre-teens (8-12).

Milkybar is has competition from Milk Treat from Cadbury's.


Milkybar is a global brand from Nestle's portfolio. The brand was born in 1937. Globally the brand is positioned towards small kids. The brand have a mascot which is the " Milkybar Kid".
In India, instead of Milkybar kid, we have the picture of cow to reinforce the " Milk " factor.

The positioning of Milkybar was a healthy chocolate works well with parents. I was surprised when our family doctor suggest that we give milk chocolate to our child rather than the brown one. As a parent, I am also influenced by the " Goodness of Milk " factor. But often kids prefer the brown one over the white one.

Milkybar is a nice example of a brand carving a place for itself in a market which is dominated by an iconic brand. The new positioning may broaden the consumer segment for this brand. But how the older kids are impressed by the brand is something to watch for.