MARKETING STRATEGY ANALYSIS OF

COMPETITORS IN INDIAN TOOTHPASTE INDUSTRY

COLGATE Vs PEPSODENT
Background
In terms of in dental hygiene, India is still a nascent country, with majority of the
population still not having access to modern dental care and is still relying on
substances like coal ash and neem sticks. Traditional materials like neem and tobacco
are popular for cleaning teeth in the rural areas. The oral care industry in India is
worth Rs. 5,400 Cr annually & comprises of Toothpastes (60%), Tooth powder (23%)
and Toothbrushes (17%). Currently, toothpaste enjoys a country wide penetration level
of 55 %, with only 15 % of them brush twice a day. The per capita consumption in
India stands at 127gms/year one of the lowest in the world.

Given the low per capita consumption and penetration rates, toothpaste demand is
mainly being driven by the overall market growth of 810 %. The penetration levels of
dentifrice in the country have been on an upward trend over the last few years driven
by strong improvements in toothpaste penetration. The toothpaste segment in India is
largely a two player industry, Colgate & Hindustan Unilever (Pepsodent) which
account for almost 76% of the entire market.

Opportunities present in the Indian market

Almost one third of the Indian population does not have access to any of the modern
oral healthcare facilities, making it a lucrative prospect market for the leading players.
With the per capita consumption of toothpaste in India at about 146g, it is the lowest in
the world. Furthermore, toothpaste industry analysis revealed that dental cavities and
other problems are prevalent in 63% of 15 year olds, while approximately 8% of adults
in the age groups of 35-44 suffer from the same problems. Moreover, a study of the
demographics also shows that the Indian population suffers extensively from gum
problems, especially periodontal diseases and other tooth sensitivity issues. The data
analyzed predicts that the Indian toothpaste market can grow by 90% if the per capita
consumption of toothpaste were to match that of China. Growth has already been
recorded in sub segments like mouthwash and toothpastes that addresses sensitivity
problems, citing which market experts are speculating growth of the segment as a
whole.
Market predictions
With the oral care segment poised to grow substantially, the toothpaste market size in
India is also likely to improve as more and more people upgrade from tooth powder or
local remedial solutions to toothpastes. Further driving growth will be the initiative
being spread among consumers pushing them to brush twice a day as opposed to
only once. This means that toothpaste sales volumes will continue to grow as people
also upgrade from the basic to the premium products.
Brief Overview of the Brands
Colgate.
Colgate-Palmolive is a $13.8 billion global company serving people in
more than 200 countries and territories with consumer products that make lives
healthier and more enjoyable. Colgate focuses on strong global brands in its core
businesses Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care and Pet Nutrition. Colgate is
delivering strong global growth by following a tightly defined strategy to increase
market leadership positions for key products, such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, bar
and liquid soaps, deodorants/antiperspirants, dishwashing detergents, household
cleaners, fabric conditioners and specialty pet food. The main toothpaste products by
the brand are as indicated below:

Colgate Dental Cream

Colgate Total 12
Colgate Sensitive
Colgate Max Fresh
Colgate Kids Toothpaste
Colgate Fresh Energy Gel
Colgate Herbal
Colgate Cibaca Family Protection
Colgate Advanced Whitening
Colgate Active Salt
Colgate Whitening

Pepsodent. Pepsodent was a very popular brand before the mid '50s, but its makers
were slow to add fluoride to its formula to counter the rise of other highly promoted
brands such as Crest and Gleem toothpaste by Procter & Gamble, and Colgate's
eponymous product sales of Pepsodent plummeted. Today Pepsodent is a value
brand marketed primarily in discount stores and retails for roughly half the price of
similarly-sized tubes of Crest or of Colgate. Pepsodent is sold as a Unilever property
in India, Indonesia, Chile, Finland, and several other countries. The main toothpaste
products by the brand are as indicated below:

Complete + Gum Care

Complete 12 Pepsodent
Herbal Pepsodent
Pepsodent Milk Teeth Orange
Pepsodent Milk Teeth Strawberry
Pepsodent Sensitive
Pepsodent Whitening
Pepsodent Cavity Prevention

SWOT Analysis
Colgate

Strength

Weakness

Pepsodent

Offers total cavity protection.

Endorsed by FDI (Largest dental
association globally).
Great mint taste freshens breath.
Among the most trusted brands.
Protects against root caries.
Cleans & makes teeth whiter and Fights germs to protect teeth
against cavities.
repairs early decay spots.

Solution
to problems like
Extremely popular brand and high
bleeding gum &sensitive teeth.
brand awareness.
High dependence of the company Colgate is the top-of-the-mind
toothpaste
brand
hence
on a single category.
intense
competition.
Reduction
in
advertisement
expenditure in order to maintain Low penetration in the rural
areas.
growth.

Leverage on most trusted brand

Innovative
marketing
like
Pepsodent
packs
with
a
Germ
ranking in India from 2003 07.
Indicator.
Focus on innovation and new

Campaigns
which aims at
Oppurtunity
product launches by deploying
educating consumers.
advanced technologies.
Smaller packaging for rural
Growth in emerging markets both
markets, tie-ups with hotels.
rural and semi-urban.
High competition from brands like Tough Competition from brand
like Colgate.
Pepsodent.
Threats
Increasing commodity prices for Oral hygiene still lacks in the
rural parts of the country.
manufacturing.

Promotion Policy
Colgate.
Colgate-Palmolive informs its customers about its new products as well
as the product that is being used by the customers. Colgate-Palmolive persuades and
convinces its new as well as old customers to purchase its new product. Adopting a
good promotional strategy Colgate has succeeded to retain its customers and image.
By this Colgate strongly focuses on different promotional strategies i.e. mass selling,
advertising, publicity and sale promotion etc. Colgate-Palmolive has proved itself as a
keen observer of the market and the culture all around itself. The brand is targeting
the young kids through effective promotion campaigns. Colgate- Palmolive is
promoting kids products by labeling the cartoon Characters like Looney tunes, Barbie,
Barney and many more which are being loved by the children. It also educating
Children by a slogan Stronger say bhe Strong, Mera Colgate. Colgate-Palmolive has
list of products targeting this segment such as:

Oral health for children.

Toothpastes.
Toothbrushes.
Great Flavor.
Games.
Track for Brushing.

By adopting a strong promotion through the media such as TV, radio, newspaper etc,
the brand is able to capture the mass market, making it a product of mass selling.
Besides the traditional advertising media for its Promotion, it is using the electronic
advertising media such as internet, facebook etc to ensure a faster reach to the
targeted customers. Colgate also promotes its product through sales Promotion to
attract its customers.
Pepsodent. Pepsodent packs included a Germ Indicator in February-May 2002,
which allowed consumers to see the efficacy in fighting germs for themselves. As a
follow-up, in October 2002, Pepsodent offered Dental Insurance to all its consumers to
demonstrate the confidence the company has in the technical superiority of the
product.
Pepsodent connects directly with kids and their parents. Pepsodent has always
worked in the direction of an overall awareness of dental health. The relaunch
campaign in October 2003 widened the context to "sweet and sticky" food and
leveraged the truth that children do not rinse their mouths every time they eat,
demonstrating that this makes their teeth vulnerable to germ attack.
Pepsodent's most recent campaign aims at educating consumers on the need for
germ protection through the night. Pepsodent also includes a range of toothbrushes.
Pepsodent, Unilevers leading oral care brand, recently announced its collaboration
with the Indian Dental Association (IDA) in conjunction with World Dental Federation
(FDI) to help improve the oral health and hygiene standards in India.
This project is part of a wider global collaboration between Pepsodents parent
company, Unilever and FDI, the international organisation which represents nearly

one million dentists globally. This unique partnership aims to increase oral health
education and promotion in countries in both the developed and developing world.
The Pepsodent-FDI collaboration, established in 2005, now operates 42 projects in 38
countries. The new partnership in India will build on existing programmes that
Pepsodent and the IDA have been running in schools targeting behaviour change
amongst children. Going forward, the programme will focus on increasing awareness
of good oral habits and concentrate on the importance of twice daily brushing, and
particularly night brushing amongst children. The Oral Health initiative will feature
many practical elements including dental check-ups, live demonstrations with audiovisual aids and the distribution of oral health educational materials. It will also involve
schoolteachers and rural health workers working to educate children about the
benefits of better oral health and hygiene.
Market Share
Colgate.
The CPIL is the market leader in the Indian oral care market with a
market share of 51 per cent in the toothpaste segment, 48 per cent in toothpowder
segment and 30 per cent in the toothbrush segment. The Company has reported Net
Sales for nine months ended at Rs. 1239.4 crores, an increase of 15% over the same
period of the previous year. Net profit for nine months period stood at Rs. 213.2
crores, an increase of 21% over net profit recorded in same period of the previous
year.
The growth of 14% achieved over the same quarter of the previous year has been led
by a steady 14% volume growth in the toothpaste category, with the Company
maintaining its leadership position at 49.6% market share. Major brands such as
Colgate Dental Cream, Active Salt, and Cibaca continue to contribute to this
consistent growth.
The Toothbrush category market share saw an increase of 2.8% taking Colgates
share to 38% during Jan08Dec08. In the Toothpowder category, the Companys
market share has also increased by 2.9% to 48.9% . The Company continues its
thrust in spreading oral health awareness and good oral hygiene practices through
various programs conducted across the country, mainly targeting consumption
building in rural areas. The Company observed October 2008 as Oral Health Month
(OHM) in association with the Indian Dental Association. OHM covers a wide
spectrum of activities designed to spread oral health awareness and good oral
hygiene practices, its mission being Zero Tooth Decay. The program involved 10,000
dentists spread across 200 towns. Colgates unique Little Dentist program covered
1.5 lakh children from 190 schools across 7 cities.
Pepsodent. Pepsodent, Hindustan Lever Ltd s leading oral care brand, announced
the launch of Pepsodent Dental Insurance, a first of its kind initiative in the oral care
category in India. Undertaken through a partnership with the New India Assurance,
India s largest General Insurance Company, Pepsodent now offers its consumers free
dental insurance of Rs. 1000/- on purchase of any pack of Pepsodent.
Under this initiative Pepsodent offers its consumers insurance cover against expenses
for the extraction of a permanent tooth or teeth due to severe Caries and Periodontitis
including cost of medication in relation there to. Caries and Periodontitis are two of the
most widespread dental ailments in India. Announcing the launch of Pepsodent Dental

Insurance Pradeep Banerjee, Category Head - Oral Care, HLL, said, "Pepsodent
Dental Insurance is a unique concept and first of its kind in the Oral Care category in
India. The initiative not only strengthens Pepsodent s proposition of being a germprotector but also displays our commitment towards improving oral hygiene for our
consumers."
Elaborating further on the concept of Dental Insurance, Pradeep said "Pepsodent
Dental Insurance is a unique concept in this category and will further strengthen the
equity of Pepsodent in the minds of the consumers. Insurance cover under
Pepsodent Dental Insurance will be provided for one year, which comes into effect
after a period of six months from the date of issue of the Pepsodent Dental Insurance
Certificate. Pepsodent Dental Insurance forms will be soon available in all Superior
Pepsodent packs of 100 and 200 gms as well as select retail outlets. The company
also plans to make the forms available through advertising in the print media starting
November.
Pepsodent has steadily gained market share from 16.4 % last year to 17.3 % in Aug
02. HLL Oral Care, today commands an overall market share of 34.9 % in the
toothpaste market with its range of toothpastes under the Close Up and Pepsodent
brands. With a strong focus on promoting oral care and hygiene amongst consumers,
HLL Oral Care under its Pepsodent brand conducts various oral care and hygiene
programs across the country including dental check-up programs in community.
Packaging
Colgate.
The packaging and labels can be used by marketers to encourage
potential buyers to purchase the product. Package design has been an important and
constantly evolving phenomenon for dozens of years. Colgate uses attractive
packaging which visible it from competitors brand. They have used following colours:
White - Classic color, Accurate background, Sophistication & agility of
company, Natural colour
Red - Strength, energy, love, excitement, leadership, power, Active,
exciting, good luck, Young Generation.
Blue - Research process, Calmness and peace, Innovation, Freshness
Yellow - Sunlight, joy, happiness, wealth (gold), hope .
Green - Nature, spring, fertility, youth, environment, wealth, money (US), good
luck, vigor, generosity, go, grass , Green also symbolizes
go because of its use in
traffic signal
Colgate also focuses mainly on the following factors at the time of packaging:
Reducing the Environmental Impact of Packaging:
Colgate is always looking for ways to minimize the impact of its
packaging
on the environment, and has been an industry leader in
the continuous use of a
type of post-consumer recycled plastic known as PET.

Global sustainability packaging strategy focuses on the 4 Rs:

Reduce the weight of the packaging where feasible

Remove secondary and tertiary packaging where possible

Recycle increase the use of recycled materials and convert to more

recycling-friendly materials

Reuse/Refill design packages to be reusable and focus on refill package

development

Guidelines have been developed to help the packaging designers and engineers to
create more sustainable packaging starting from the concept stage. packaging teams
publish monthly internal Packaging Sustainability Newsletters to share best practices,
news and market trends from around the world
Reducing Material in Toothpaste Tubes
Colgate continues its effort to reduce the amount of material in its toothpaste tubes
while maintaining the required dispensing performance, toothpaste quality and
packaging integrity. From 2000 to 2008, the packaging reductions resulted in over
30% reduction in consumption of energy and natural resources. Colgate's progress in
this area was recognized as a "Sustainability Success Story" by a major retail
customer. For example, in Latin America: The tube weight reduction resulted in 1,150
metric tons of savings in 2006 and 2007. The cap weights were reduced in 2008,
resulting in an annual savings of 400 metric tons of plastic. At Colgate, sustainability is
a critical criterion for any new package design and development. Through our core
value of continuous improvement, we constantly search for ways to minimize the
environmental impact of product packaging.
Pepsodent. Their approach towards responsible packaging seeks to take into
account environmental, social and economic considerations. In 2007 the company
created a Sustainable Packaging Steering Team to define a strategy. This team is
building on the work already carried out over the past few years by the Unilever
Packaging Group. Achieving truly sustainable packaging is a complex challenge.
Some energy is always required to make packaging and some waste is inevitable
even with highly effective reuse and recycling schemes.
The approach is based on three elements:

Consideration of the whole product, not just packaging in isolation

Assessment via our new vitality metric, which covers the waste generated
taking into account all the different kinds of packaging a product requires. It
also takes into account an estimate of the recycling, reuse and recovery rates
of the materials as used in a particular region

Use of leading-edge design techniques and choice of materials to minimise

impacts.

Guiding principles
Underlying this strategy are five guiding principles that they seek to apply: remove,
reduce, reuse, renew and recycle. Sustainable Packaging Steering Team implements
this approach across Unilever. More on the five guiding principles: (4R)
Remove: to eliminate, where possible, unnecessary layers of packaging such as outer
cartons and shrink-wrap film.
Reduce: to reduce the material we use in our packages and ensure they are the
optimal size and weight for their contents.
Reuse: to reuse packaging from the materials we receive at our factories.
Renew: to maximise the proportion of packaging from recycled and renewable
resources and to investigate the technical feasibility of biodegradable and
compostable materials
Recycle: to increase the use of recyclable and single-material components in
packaging for easy sorting and recycling at the end of its use.
* Enhancing design
Innovative packaging design can minimise the environmental impact of packaging
itself. But it can also enhance a product's lifecycle impacts. For example, effective
packaging can reduce product leakage and consequent waste during transportation.
* Sustainable paper sourcing
A significant proportion of packaging relies on paper. They estimate that most of the
paper purchased for European business comes either from recycled material or
sustainably managed forests. While this is an encouraging picture for Europe, the
situation in other regions can be very different as sustainable forestry practices differ
greatly. The company is working with the Rainforest Alliance to develop a sustainable
sourcing policy for paper.
* Litter in the developing world
A particular concern is the volume of sachets we use to package single-use products,
especially in developing and emerging markets. These may end up as litter where
there are no appropriate disposal facilities.
The approach is to:
implement design improvements to create sachets that use less material or material
with less environmental impact
support litter awareness programmes
work with others to explore economic models which create incentives for collection
and reuse of our packaging.

Working with others

Effective solutions require a partnership approach. Unilever is a founding member of
the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, which has over 160 members, including
packaging producers, users and retailers. We are also members of EUROPEN (the
European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment).
Conclusion
The toothpaste industry is going to be more competitive in the near future. The profit
margin is going down over the year and going to be continuing for the future also. So
the main mantra for the companies to be successful is to satisfy the consumers and
develop brand image and brand loyalty amongst them. So it has become very
necessary for the consumers to understand the Indian consumers very well. So in the
future the companies who come up with new products at competitive prices and with
good quality are going to the successful one. Promotional activities are also going to
play an important role that should to be for both retailers and consumers. So we are
going to see a market which is going to heat up in the near future where mainly two
major players Colgate and HLL will fight the war.