Year 9 Geographers visit Cadburys – October 2015

October 19, 2015

Year 9 embarked on the much anticipated visit to the Cadbury factory located in Bournville, Birmingham.

This field trip is designed to show pupils how a transnational company (Kraft Foods) operates in today’s global market place.  On arrival the girls were taken on a guided walk of the ‘Garden Village,’ built by the Cadbury family in order to create an alternative to the nearby polluted industrial city of Birmingham.  Pupils then proceeded to their factory tour investigating the historic roots of chocolate and the Cadbury family.  They extended their understanding of chocolate making, Cadbury’s links with Ghana, and how Cadburys has advertised and marketed its products over the years.

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After lunch pupils had the opportunity to listen to an excellent talk presented by Cadburys Education Manager, Mr Colin Pitt.  They were able to find out why Kraft Foods bought Cadburys in 2010, and in 2012 why Cadburys was incorporated into a new global snacks business, Mondelez International.  It was interesting to discover that Cadburys caring philosophy towards its workers and cocoa producers in the developing world continues today.  Each year Cadbury workers are involved in many charitable fund raising activities, money raised is matched by the company for charities in the UK and beyond.  Cadburys has a special foundation for supporting rural cocoa farmers and their communities, called Cocoa Life (further information can be found at www.mondelezinternational.com).  Colin was also able to explain to the girls the psychology behind television adverts, conveyed through ‘experiential storytelling.’ The recent Puddles product advert, with its star ‘Duckie,’ a stuffed toy duck was used as an example.  The art of persuasion through planting ‘earworms’ in consumer’s heads through the use of catchy songs, tag lines and humour, was fascinating to hear about.  As always Colin was overwhelmed with a multitude of though-provoking questions and praised the girls for their insight and interest.

A fantastic time was had by all, who would expect there would be so much geography in a humble bar of chocolate?  Year 9 would like to extend their thanks to accompanying staff who valiantly volunteered for chocolate quality control duties.

Mr Meek

Pupil comments:

“I really enjoyed finding out how the Cadbury family built a village for their workers and how much they cared for them”. Elinor

“I enjoyed the Cadbury trip as it was fun as well as educational.  I learnt many things I didn’t know before.” Megan

“I really enjoyed the field trip.  Cadbury’s chocolate has quite a milky taste; Japanese chocolate tastes more of the cocoa bean so it was interesting for me to compare them.” Runa