re people really interested in joining communities for toothpaste? Our guess is disappointingly enough, no. Except dentists, it will be very few that will be interested in this product even though we use it two or three times a day. It’s just not an engaging product and people are not really passionate about it. All our discussed brands in this blog are represented on different social websites such as Twitter and Facebook. The problem though, is that these sites have a quite low visiting and following rate. Colgate is the brand that clearly tries to take advantages of touch points such as Facebook and use them more frequently than what their competitors do. The other companies are not relying on these social media sites but are trying to implement their communities and engagement with their customers on their own websites. Firstly, Aquafresh have created Nurdles (animated figures), which are used to communicate with the target group. These Nurdles help the consumers to identify the different brand elements. On their site they have several games and other fun activities that engage the customers, mainly the kids. They manage to create the collaboration among their consumers on a basis that on their website they can share information with each other, in addition to talk about validation of the brand. This in effect of discussing why Aquafresh is better and why they prefer them over the other actors on the market.
Colgate’s approach is a little different. They focus on their advertisements and try to capture the attention of their target by tailoring their communication using emotions and feelings. When they rolled out the campaign “bye bye les accessories” they wanted to diversify and relate to the lifestyle of the young consumers. They created a story that the target can easily identify itself with. Moreover, they also administrate a Facebook page called Colgate smile. Her it is possible to join in discussions and find oral care tips. In addition, customers can find different apps for mobile phones where you in example can upload you own Colgate smile, while at the same time look at other contributions made by consumers.
Source: http://www.colgate.fr
Signal is as described, also present at different social media sites. But they also use their own website as the main touch point with their consumers. On their website they communicate how they would like to be perceived by their consumers. They clearly emphasize their corporate social responsibility program, an initiative they call “Signal Oral Care Service”. They appeal to consumers emotions and from this they are building a strong brand personality, which again is important when building their brand community. They identify themselves with a special segment, the emotional consumers. By taking this approach they are able to distinguish themselves from their competitors.
Fluocaril has the most interactive site of the mentioned brands. They are trying to create a community by inviting the consumer to participate in surveys and express their feelings about the brand. Fluocaril share the results of the surveys and lets the consumers see and comment on them. All signs point in the direction of success for Fluocaril. They have a large customer base and on their site there are many of them who participate and leave comments. This culminates in a controlled community around the brand, which Fluocaril uses for their advantage.
The last brand is Email Diamant. With exception from their website, they have not created a special community for their consumers when thinking of social interaction between the consumers themselves, or between the company and the consumers. It exist no place where consumers can express or share thought arounds Email Diamant. Product and advertisement wise, they appeal to the consumers through the tradition and the expertise of the brand. What they are trying to do though is sticking with their originally packaging. From this they manage to form a relationship with many of their consumers which trust them. It shouldn’t be too hard for them to establish a community when having a customer base, which is as segmented as theirs.
So, to sum up, we see that all brands except Email Diamant have an approach towards building a community, but they are all doing it in different ways. In our generation it is almost required for a firm to be a part of the digital world and to have a platform for sharing. Our guess is, that is if they haven’t already, Email Diamant will engage in such communication pretty soon.
ow, go into the real life. How do you evaluate the toothpaste brands? After having covered the brand management techniques of few brands, we decided to question consumers to test the awareness of various toothpaste brands. This is an interesting way to test the real impact of brand communication strategies.
We asked 10 people to mention spontaneously 3 toothpaste brands and to give us their perceptions of those brands. The answers are often liked to both the communication campaign and their own consumption. An interesting mix…
Here we can see that Colgate is evocative for 80 % of the people inquired. Furthermore, out of these 10 people, this brand is 4 times the top of mind brand. Colgate enjoys a special perception from consumers. As a matter of fact, depending of the age, Colgate is evaluated as young (and fun) or more innovative. The younger people we questioned clearly identified its image as a young one or a funny one. Then, with older generation, the innovative part of the brand image is important. We can here say that the Colgate’s brand awareness is huge among a wide range of people.
The brand awareness of signal is also considerable as it generated spontaneously toothpaste purchase at a 70% rate of our respondents, and 3 of them gave a top of mind position to Signal.
We can notice that excepted for Colgate, the perception of the brands does not change according to the age criteria. Furthermore, the perceived image is much similar to the brand value. That is why we can confirm the efficiency of their communication campaign.
Now, lets take a closer look at each brand.
∗ Signal is associated to a reliable, polyvalent and traditional brand. It has always the same and stable image. Therefore, we can consider that the target and the product match. This brand seems to represent the Respect side of the lovemark by Kevin Roberts: performance, trust and reputation.
∗ Aquafresh is also qualified as reliable, and polyvalent, but also adapted for families. It corresponds to the image designed by the communication campaign we studied before.
∗ For Fluocaril, the medical and specialist aspect is strongly assimilated by the consumers. This brand also succeeds with its communication strategy, professional and medical oriented as we saw before.
∗ Email Diamant has also a top of mind position in our study. It is perceived as a female brand, which is the target. So, we can consider their campaign as efficient.
This study allowed confronting the brand objectives to the real perception of the consumers and it was also a tool to define the top of mind podium.
Based on our study, the top of mind podium is:
We made this research with to face to face interviews. We are grateful to the respondents who participated and made the survey possible.
ompanies are known for paying top dollar to get ahead, and marketers have never been more creative in finding new ways of creating that little edge for their brands. Shelf location has been used for a long time to get the competitive advantage. The intuition is clear enough ‘the more likely consumers are to see your brand, the more likely they are to buy it’. In many countries competitive legislation prevent brand conglomerates from paying for the best shelf space. However, paying for the best shelf space is common practice in France as well as many other European counties. So what does the typical French toothpaste rack look like?
A typical set of racks
The distribution of toothpaste is quite easily interpreted. At Leclerc it seems that all toothpaste except the whiteners, has a full shelf dedicated to their brand. Among the whiteners it seems that Colgate, Signal and Email Diamant all pay more than Sensodyne to get the best brand space. This is of course assuming that Leclerc forces their suppliers to pay for their positions, which is an not to bold assumption.
Carrefour seems to use much of the same scheme as Leclerc. Again, we observe the horizontal bulks of brands standing side by side. The whiteners seems to also bulk together. A difference however, seems to be that Carrefour carriers a larger part whiteners. An element we also noticed at both Leclerc and Carrefour, is that upright plastic is placed at the top of the shelves, the paper cover tubes in the middle and the bare tubes get the lowest shelf places.
We can see that private labels are close to the French market leader Signal, so that people can easily compare the price. It is their only chance to sell the product as people usually buy branded toothpaste and not the one from the retailer. Moreover, all brands occupy the space proportionally to their market share.
General Packing characteristics
Toothpaste packaging is an effective tool marketers use to convey their products features. In general packaging comes in three different varieties.
The tall upright tube is often associated with the Aquafresh total toothpaste. Today, however, tall upright is available for most brands. The toothpaste the packaging is combined with is often marketed as high quality multi feature products. Retail prices are high for this kind of packaging.
Paper packaging is by far the most common packaging in Carrefour and Leclerc. The toothpaste often coupled with paper packaging is medium to high in price range. In general there is seemingly no toothpaste feature like fresh breath, white teeth, minty flavor, icing prevention or total protection, which is more common than others. Overall a paper packaging offers a tangible feel to the toothpaste than what a beat tube does, and it also offers more printable space.
The last packaging option is the bare tube. It is often paired with low price toothpaste. Common toothpaste varieties are of a more core characteristics.
Great Packaging Example
The Brazilian packaging design company Casa Rex recently got the challenge to redesign signals line in various markets. Casa Rex says that Signals old tubes where hard for consumers to interpret, they just lacked that ‘something’. The diagnosis was clear and the cure was eminent! Namely, color coding and illustration works forcing the consumers to understand the features of the products. Product features should be clear and quick to grasp.
Creating Successful Packaging
Jenn David Design offers some great guidelines when evaluating good packaging design. First of all packing is not just labels it’s so much more, to effectively grasp it one should perhaps think of packaging as personalities. Who is Campbell’s soup tin, who is the original white on red Colgate? Do you know them? Are they friendly? Who would you introduce them to? All of these questions define the packaging, but the ultimate question is ‘was it love at first sight?’ Most products max get 2 to 3 seconds before they jay or nay, so in the very end it is all about love at first sight!
In short, the company gives the following rules of thumb to create love.
The store environment– a toothpaste rack delivers hundreds of marketing messages at once. How can your packaging help set the brands apart.
Communicate clearly and quickly – a product should differentiate itself from comparable substitutes in seconds, and yet be so comparable that consumers understand which segment it belongs to.
Being different – do something else than what your competitions design. Being bold is not always the answer, if everybody else has screaming packing it might be best to be quite.
Close the deal – packaging often helps to attract first time buyers, to go from first timers to repeaters the product must meet the needs of the consumer. If the product is a ill fit or just poor, few will buy it again.
Loud, but great packaging
Even if marketers spend lots of time on toothpaste packaging, it is not exactly renowned for revolutionary design. However, there is one brand which really sets itself apart. Email Diamant clearly sets itself apart when it comes to packaging. With a Spanish matador greeting you and a bright yellow color it can be defined as quite unique.
hat do your customers think when they consider your brand? That is a vital question! The aim of each company is to occupy a distinctive place in consumer's minds in comparison to the competition, this is called positioning.
What is important when you want to create a successful positioning? 1. Your competitive frame of reference 2. Points of difference (PODs) 3. Points of parity (POPs) 4. Brand motto
The competitive frame of reference It is basically the set of products that compete with your brand.
For toothpaste manufacturers, Aquafresh, Colgate and Signal, Fluocaril and Email Diamant (and so many others) compete with each other.
PODs Points of difference are attributes that customers strongly associate with a brand and think not to find with another brand. For example, Volvo equals security while Mercedes Benz means quality and prestige, as for BMW, it is associated with style and exciting ride.
They are based on different criteria:
- Desirability (relevance, distinctiveness and believability)
- Deliverability (feasibility, communication and sustainability)
POPs Points of parity are benefits associated with the brand that are not unique and can be shared with other brands.
Name
POD
POP
Aquafresh
Permormant
Family-oriented
Innovative
Colgate
Fun
Innovative
Polyvalent
Email Diamant
Tradition
Elegance
Whiteness specialist
Fluocaril
Health
Oral B specialist in drug stores
Signal
Philanthropist
Innovative
Family-oriented Polyvalent
Brand mottos
Brands often use mottoes to state their positioning in order to help customers to get right associated ideas with their brand. Hereafter, toothpaste brand mottoes:
The perception map helps brands to assess their positioning in comparison with competition.
Email Diamant is highly specialized in whiteness.
Fluocaril has a space for kids and is also considered being a drug stores specialist.
Aquafresh is deeply established on the family market with a special space dedicated to mums and children. It is also very innovative - Iso-active toothpaste is a proof of their expertise.
Signal is philanthropist and ethically involved (initiatives in developing countries) and is mainly designed for families.
As for Colgate, it is considered being polyvalent (Colgate Total), innovative (lots of products launched), and more fun than other brands. In fact, it remains scientific oriented for toothpastes such as Colgate Pro relief and Total, but plays on fun for Colgate Max Fresh or Max one. Here is an example of a Colgate fun ad starring Billy Crawford for Colgate Fresh Confidence.
The following ad plays on scientific demonstrations and the voice and the music are nearly the same as in the Aquafresh ad for Iso-Active toothpaste (you can watch it here).
- "for a brand to succeed in a society in which the volume of mass communication far exceeded what consumers could digest,it must own asimple, focused position in the prospect’s mind".
- "This position should be based upon what was important in the product category, usually a valued benefit or aspirational identity."
- "learn the transcendental truth of the brand, and then stay true to the course, consistently communicating these associations in everything the brand does."
- "it’s a one-size-fits-all solution."
- "For low involvement, functional brands such as Colgate or Gillette, mind share works reasonably well."
The author explains that the mind-sharebranding model is not the ultimate one to build iconic brands today. However, it seems that it can be a convenient one for toothpaste brands for example because it is mainly a functional brand. If you ask a customer about toothpaste and its direct benefits and he says "Colgate", then you have achieved dominance in terms of mindshare.
The website http://www.peopalove.com/ made a very interesting survey to prove that Colgate is now an must brand in the toothpaste market. Please find below the results:
Have you heard of Colgate? • 100% respond with a resounding “Yes”.
Is Colgate behind your smile? • 71% use Colgate.
What the people perceive as Colgate’s Unique Selling Proposition? • 95% associate Colgate with 12-hour total teeth protection, protection of gum diseases, fresher breath and whiter teeth.
What are the colours of the Colgate logo? • 91% are aware that red and white are the colours.
Colgate takes advantage of the mind-share branding model. Like the other toothpaste brands, they are really focused on the benefits of the product. They capture category benefits and sometimes grab hold of desired lifestyle imagery. Signal for example won the "Most preferred Brand Award" award during the National Icon Awards in Sri Lanka in 2005 (http://www.island.lk/2005/04/05/business3.html) thanks to its benefits perceived by the population.
The toothpaste market is currently changing a bit and the different brands, evoked before in the blog, try to create "lifestyle" and "identity" categories with the culture-share branding model. Signal for example launched Signaline (http://www.signaline.fr/#/accueil), a club for kids and Colgate launched SmileTalk (http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/OC/SmileTalk/HomePage.cvsp). They try to investigate the cultural side of the oral care market thanks to the community and the social media but it remains amind-share branding model.
It is quite difficult for toothpaste brands to "Target a cultural contradiction", "Act as a natural activist", "Create original expressive culture" and "Develop an authentic populist voice". For now, toothpaste brands like Colgate still play on the mind-share branding model. The next challenge for the toothpaste model may be to consider the culture-share branding model which "creates stories that people will identify with and use in their everyday lives" as Douglas Holt says. However, it is really hard for such a product category.
quafresh", it does sound appealing right? It gives you instant associations to water, purity, cleanness and good taste. The brand has over the last years become the brand to beat. They are an innovation centered, leading oral care brand. Their product line has a wide range including toothpaste, toothbrushes and floss. In addition, they are continuously launching new innovative toothpastes both in form of texture but also packaging.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
Aquafresh is distinguished by its colored striped paste. The stripes are in white, blue and red. This three striped toothpaste accounts for approximately 45% of Aquafresh business. Aquafresh toothbrushes hold a market leading position in many markets and account for approximately 12% of brand sales.
Aquafresh states that their mission is to use science-based innovation to help keep the mouth clean fresh and healthy. They administrate different product development programs that focus on clinical and technical innovations, so the consumers can have a wide range of toothpaste formulations. They invite entrepreneurs from around the world to their headquarter to develop ideas and present them to the consumers world wide. Regarding the placement of their products, they have a well-established support network with external suppliers of new oral healthcare technologies that ensures them a big impact in the desired markets.
This science based innovation is implemented in their strategy. Around 80 scientists with various expertise working with Aquafresh on many projects each year to provide the best for their consumers.
Aquafresh position themselves as a premium brand. Their objective is to drive the scientific credentials of the Aquafresh brand and use it to focus on their primary consumers. They have defined two main targets. First is the caring, nurturing mother who purchases on behalf of the health of her family. Aquafresh makes their appeal to the mothers with referring to that they of course want what’s best for their kids, and that they should set an example and use Aquafresh which is the best brand.
The second main target is kids. They produce different pastes and tubes designed especially for kids. On their website they have a own area, where several games and other fun interactive activities are available. They also launched a fun educational program for kids that they can follow. The program stretches out over several years and Aquafresh has developed different products that fit into the different phases of the program. By doing this they manage to hold on to their consumers. Further, Aquafresh have developed some cartoons called the “NURDLES”, which also have a special dance, which can be seen in the commercial shown under;
Aquafresh tubes appear in innovating packages with strong graphics, which are meant to attract their target. The purpose of the graphics on their packaging is to communicate and educate the consumers. Their packaging is the hero at the point of purchase.
Aquafresh´s promotions and advertising has been a huge upside, just look at their market share and the fact that it has not declined even over the last years with the increased competition. The focus of their campaigns is based on a clear understanding of the needs of its target markets. Here is an example of one of their newest inventions within oral dental care.
As said, Aquafresh dedicates much time and resources to be innovating. One direction that is implemented in their core strategy is to be disruptive. We have all been to the store and have been faced with meters of different toothpastes which all look the same. Aquafresh has created a different, easy recognizable carton for the shelves. The distinctive tubes are being displayed vertically in a shelf-ready tray. All of this combined, they create a visual disruption and standout from the wall of competitor cartons.
ignal toothpaste is part of Unilever’s brand portfolio. They sell products from, food, home care, oral care to hygiene and beauty. On their homepage Unilever states their mission: ” From feeding your family to keeping your home clean and fresh, our brands are part of everyday life.”
Signal has been spreading smiles for over 40 years. With availability in over 48 countries and a top market position in eastern emerging economies like Sri-Lanka Signal is the brand no competitor can afford to avoid.
Many large toothpaste brands seem to rely on a strong technical focus and professional endorsement to be perceived as a viable alternative to the consumers. The use of dentist associations, advanced production techniques, R&D focused websites and pamphlets and all the other technical information passed on to the consumer gives all major brands a sense of technical solidity.
Signal is available in 40+ varieties all over the world, not considering the alternative brand names of Signal like Pepsodent (Asia, Latin America and Scandinavia), Mentadent (Italy), Zhong Hua (China), Aim (Greece) and P/S (Vietnam) to name some examples. Globally however four different products seem to prevail.
Source: http://www.unilever.com.lk
Signal Core- For strong healthy teeth (Generic, less expensive, not involving) Signal Herbal- Cooling relief from inner heat (For healthy teeth & gums) Signal Whitening- For strong white teeth (White teeth) Signal Triple Action- For complete all-round protection (Complete care)
So who is this stuff made for? There is no obvious age, gender, income class, social class, ethnographically properties or other tangible properties visible for these products. Except Signal Core which might be marketed for low income/low education consumers, and Signal Kids. However, there is a differentiation with respect to the product benefits. Signal Core is the toothpaste for the low involving consumer. Clearly, few buy toothpaste if it does not ensure you that your teeth will not fall out so it has to have the technical attributes which make the product believable. But, besides this, the product should be simple. Signal Core cartons are of a generic design, little color variations, easily recognized, no doubt what you are actually buying and the buying experience should be non-involving.
Signal Herbal is very big in Asian countries, but is sold in Europe as well. The overall packaging and marketing give the impression of organic toothpaste. Packaging often has lots of green colors and features pictures of various herbs. The taste is made to mimic a more natural taste than traditional ‘toothpaste taste’. Signal Herbal is branded as being very good for your gums and gives you healthy teeth. The natural link between organic and healthy is seemingly an important aspect for the product.
Signal Whitening is basically created for people who want white teeth. Marketing often has pictures of beautiful people with beautiful teeth; giving the consumers the natural link between beautiful white teeth and the toothpaste. Packaging is white with white teeth or white smiles on it. The use of crystals and light blue colors are also used to elevate the white effect on the box.
Signal Triple Action is for the consumer who wants it all, or for the consumer that does not know what he wants but he does not want something generic. The product is designed to give the impression that it has got it all. Users do not need to choose between color coding as the product has many different colors. Packaging is often very full of color variations. It contains many different messages the buyers need to interpret like a picture, color coding, text and buzz words. The product is much like a high involvement counterpart to Signal Core. Signal Triple Action is made to be highly involving and gives an impression of superiority. However the product does not offer such pure attributes as the organic branding of Signal Herbal or the ‘white teeth vanity’ of Signal Whitening.
Signal Expert is for the highly involved consumers with the highest willingness to pay for toothpaste. The packaging is transparent, and reveals of the toothpaste container inside. The container is a metallic color giving it a professional look and feel. Word used to describe the product is easily associated with a professional scientific product. In marketing of the product the consumer is supposed to get the feeling that this is what professionals use. The product draws more on the dental professional endorsement than the other toothpastes. So far the product line is launched for sensitive teeth as well as for whitening (anti-aging) making it a more upscale product than Signal Whitening.
Signal Kids is for younger tooth-brushers. The line offers cartoons and childish color schemes which are very typically male or female. For the younger children, it exists products for each gender, the male product has a blue packaging and the female product has a pink package. Taste is adjusted for the children's pallet. Tubes are often designed to look more funny and interesting than standard adult toothpastes (use of animated cartoons). For kids from 7-13 it also exists kids products which are more adult like. The flavor is fresher and less sweet than for the youngest tooth-brushers. The packaging also features more mature artwork like snowboarders.
To simplify the consumers' research of dental products Signal has launched an informational internet website. The site is constructed such that consumers say what they want from their dental products and the website delivers a variety of options. Users craving a white smile will thus be suggested toothpastes with whitening properties. The consumer who wants it all will be suggested the Triple Action line of toothpaste. This internet site is constructed to help consumers finding their right Signal product. This is of great value as the consumer looses much of the doubt surrounding the choice of product. As the consumer knows he has chosen a ‘good product for him/her’ the brand loyalty is probably strengthened. A weak point with this way of pairing consumers and product is that it only works with consumers who are activity looking for dental information, low involvement consumers will, thus, probably never encounter the internet site.
Source: http://www.missionsignal.fr/produits.html
Family Values
Previously we talked about the product benefits of the different Signal toothpastes, but signal does also engage with the consumer on an emotional and psychosocial level. Signal do play on the emotions of family care for their toothpastes, often writing” family pack” or “family protection” on their packaging, and showing the happy caring family in the commercials sharing the values of its target customers. They do offer toothpastes, and commercials directed specifically to the children of the family.
They have now also launched an anti-aging toothpaste, developed to meet the specific needs of this growing target group of middle-aged consumers.
Many of the commercials for Signal play on the children and the responsibility of the parents. Many times , it explains to the parents what would happen if the children do not brush their teeth, and insists on their mission to”… transform everyday habits through behavior change ….”
Signal says that “Making good quality products such as toothpaste affordable and widely available is a crucial starting point. But this is not enough if people do not change their everyday habits too.” That’s why Unilever is deeply involved in changing behavior and, has health and hygiene programs connected to the power of their marketing to change behavior.
An example of a consumer behavior changing program is the ‘day and night’ campaign. The overall goal of the camping is to get adults as well as children to brush their teeth two times a day. Although the projects goal is simply stated the effort and dedication by Signal was anything but simple. To map the consumer behavior of dental care in countries like China Signal used toothbrushes with micro-sensors and processor to get the sufficient data on brushing. This allowed signal to see frequency, length and how the Chinese population brushed their teeth (as the toothbrush also sensed the style of the brushing). A common problem observed is that children often skipped their dental care, Signal responded to this by trying to get parents to brush with their children. The motivation behind children and parent co-brushing is that children tend to mimic their parents and will thus start brushing frequently even when unsupervised.
Doing well by doing good
Signal is currently being marketed intensely in Asian and Emerging Markets. So far, Signal has obtained great success in countries like India, Indonesia and Brazil. Considering that both India and China have more than 1 billion mouths each such a market position holds great opportunities.
The success in emerging markets is not by chance, nor is the success in anyway being neglected by the brand conglomerate Unilever’s official strategy statement. Signal has for nearly 30 years been focusing on the dental hygiene of underdeveloped economies. The initiative is called the ‘Signal Oral Care Service’ and has reached over three million children to date. The main objective of the initiative is to teach children to brush their teeth twice a day. Signal manages to reach the children by setting up tooth brushing areas at schools and sending tooth brushing supplies home with the children.
Clearly the initiatives of Signal are amazing for the children affected and, from a marketing perspective, it is nothing short of pure gold! Michael Porter has, in his recent years at Harvard, focused much on the Corporate Social Responsibility. Basically the works of Porter says that no company should do CSR unless it ultimately benefits the company doing them. From an economical perspective a CSR methodology based on giving away money will do less overall good than one that actually benefits you. This becomes quite obvious when one realizes that if you gain something from giving away funds you will probably give away more funds than if the funds were just sunk. The point of this becomes obvious when we think about the effects of Signal CSR. First Signal teaches a population that brushing your teeth is good; naturally the market expands as children grow older. Parents see that children suffer less from teeth decay for example and might also consider brushing theirs. And which brand to choose at the local store? Well it would only be natural to assume the brand you’ve always been using: Signal.
To conclude, the implementation of Signals Emerging Markets strategy has many effects. The choice to be present in Emerging Markets delivers by itself an opportunity to grow the overall toothpaste market. It also expands Signals position in the various markets. Consumers outside Emerging Markets are also made aware of the efforts of Signal, and it ultimately benefits to the image of the brand.
