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.
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| 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.
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| Source: http://www.missionsignal.fr/produits.html |
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.
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.
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