Brand Communities and toothpaste

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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.

Sources:
Google images
All the brands websites http://theengagedconsumer.powered.com/2008/12/19/would-you-join-a-toothpaste-community/

What is your favorite brand?

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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.  

Source:
http://www.google.fr/imgres?q=gold+medal&um=1&hl=fr&sa=N&biw=839&bih=515&tbm=isch&tbnid=2EwYtM6Fsjq9RM:&imgrefurl=http://www.lockticien.com/fr/rubriques-faire-dreadlocks/formation-professionelle-faire-dreadlocks&docid=raiiwPuVULulRM&imgurl=http://www.lockticien.com/images/stories/gold-medal.jpg&w=325&h=325&ei=8XnsTp7jFMr_8gPNqayYCg&zoom=1

Shelf Space and Packaging of Toothpaste

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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.


Sources:

All images from Google Image
http://www.packagedesignmag.com/content/casa-rex-redesigns-toothpaste-packaging-unilever-germany
http://www.jenndavid.com/
http://www.packagedesignmag.com/content/dont-forget-basics-when-designing-packages/
http://blog.casarex.com/

Mondays....

Source: Google Image

New articles coming soon!

How do customers perceive toothpaste brands?

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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:

Aquafresh: Amazing
Email Diamant: "La magie du blanc" (White magic)
Fluocaril: "Un sourire en pleine santé" (A healthy smile)
Colgate: World of care (but changes according to the toothpaste)
- Switch on the power of freshness: Fresh Confidence
- Packed to the max of freshness: Colgate Max Fresh
- Your best accessory is your smile: Colgate Max White
Signal: On a mission for better mouths

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).

Have a nice week-end

Sources:

http://marksherrington.com/downloads/Brand%20Planning%20eArticle.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/rishistd/strategic-brand-management-1-presentation

http://www.youtube.com

Iconic Brand analysis - Colgate and Signal examples

According to Douglas Holt (Article about Snapple Juide Drink available on http://knowledge.skema.edu/):

- "for a brand to succeed in a society in which the volume of mass communication far exceeded what consumers could digest, it must own a simple, 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-share branding 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.

Source: http://www.peopalove.com/

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 a mind-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.

Sources:
http://www.peopalove.com/brandtalk/2005/jul/chat.html
http://www.buzzwordhell.com/mind-share/
http://knowledge.skema.edu/courses/MIBGM145/document/cultural+branding/Snapple.pdf?cidReq=MIBGM145