HIMALAYA

Case study analysis on HIMALAYA HERBAL TOOTHPASTE

SUBMITTED TO: Dr. D.D Swain Professor (Marketing)

SUBMITTED BY:Ajay Pratap Singh PGDM 2012-2014

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DATE-26TH Sep., 2012. DECLARATION I Ajay Pratap Singh do hereby declare that the case study has been done by me and no help from anyone has been taken to complete this.

HIMALAYA INTRODUCTION
Ramesh Kumar had been teaching for last teaching for last twenty-five years, after spending a few years in the corporate sector. In January 2011, an executive of the Himalayan Drug Company attended his training program, and discussion sparked off some interesting facts. After the discussion, Kumar was curious to find out answers to some questions. 1. Whether consumers are really loyal to the brands? 2. Were consumers involved in categories which are niche like Herbal? 3. Did they remember the functional brand benefits? 4. Were consumers buying brands due to the social benefits reflected in ads? 5. Did consumers continue to buy particular brands without switching, due to inertia? 6. Did consumers interested in Herbal offerings? 7. How should Himalaya be perceived by customers?

ORAL CARE INDUSTRY

Personal care is one of the three categories of FMCG. The FMCG market in India is projected to be US$33 billion by 2015. The average Indian customer spent around eight percent of his or her income on personal care. In 2010, the oral care market in India was around US$980 million. The growth trend of toothpastes over the past three years (11 percent) was relatively slower than that of other key FMCG categories. One study about the consumers perception regarding the toothpaste category reported that 68% of the Indian consumers who participated in the survey believed that using the right toothpaste is more important than right toothbrush. Another study indicated that 68% of the respondents had never visited a doctor. The WHO reported that 98% of Indian population suffered from oral health problems. From all these reports in can be inferred that there was a significant scope for marketers to enhance the involvement level associated with the toothpaste category among consumers.

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Toothpaste industry brands and segments
The toothpaste market in India had a penetration rate of as low as 60%, in urban areas this goes upto 76% while in rural this is just 40%. The average consumption in India is just 115 grams, whereas it was 255 in China and 542 in United States. Key brands in India are Colgate-Palmolive and Hindustan Unilever. Colgate led Indian market with 52% market share and HUL is at second spot with 25%. The toothpaste category was segmented into three price tiers, namely economy, popular and premium. The toothpaste category existed in two variant types: paste and gel forms. After reviewing key benefits and prepositions, Kumar concluded that there were four benefit based segments in the market:

Category Segments
Freshness Herbal Overall Health Care Niche problem Solving

HIMALAYA: COMPANY PROFILE

The Himalaya drug company had been in the pharmaceutical field for several decades. In order to enter the consumer markets with the wellness and personal care offerings, the company had launched Ayurvedic concepts, which offered health supplements, skin care products and pain ointments. Himalayas lead offering in the toothpaste category was Himalaya Dental Cream, with natural ingredients like neem, extracts of toothache tree, pomegranate etc. It was priced in premium category. They started advertising this toothpaste in above the line media with its concept Indulge like a child, brush like an adult. They mainly advertised through outdoor advertising like billboards. It had relatively smaller presence in television advertising compared to Colgate and Pepsodent.

METHODOLOGY
For sampling purposes, the target population was defined as: Females aged 25-55, belonging to urban households with a SEC socioeconomic classification. The geographical area was urban Karnataka. The questionnaires that had been formulated in English were translated into Kannada.

HIMALAYA IDENTIFICATION OF PROBLEM

Toothpaste in India is basically a low involvement product and only the niche problem solving category is in the high involvement zone. Herbal products like Himalaya Dental Cream is from the niche problem solving category and that too from premium pricing segment so very high on involvement zone. To compete with players like Colgate and Pepsodent is a tough ask as they are low involvement and mainly popular pricing category products. Mostly people do not use Herbal toothpastes on day to day basis or regularly, they started to use such products only when someone advices them like an Ayurvedic Doctor or someone who has already using it and that too after they had developed some oral problem. So, the symptom of low market share due to the problem of perception of herbal toothpastes in the minds of consumers is tough to solve and is a big ask. Main problems are: Perception of Herbal toothpastes in the minds of the consumers. To compete with well established brands like Colgate and Pepsodent in a country where toothpaste is largely a low involvement product. Competitors in popular pricing category and you in premium.

Analysis of Environment

Indian toothpaste industry has a slower growth rate than the other FMCG categories. Indian consumers for oral care are not very enthusiastic about their oral health. Studies have revealed dismal numbers with just 28% respondents brushed twice, 68% never visited a doctor and 87% would not consider visiting a dentist as a preventive measure. Exhibit shows that not many people cares about their oral health with a score of not more than 3.5 in any of the questions which talks about some oral problem like Decay, sensitiveness, cavities etc. Respondents scores high on the parameter Toothpaste is appealing to me which shows that brand name and advertisements matter. For the question It is important to me that my toothpaste has herbal ingredients the score is just 3.43, which is more de-motivating. Very less people go for dentists recommendation for a toothpaste. Exhibit 5 table 2 changes things and consumers started to believe that toothpaste fights cavities and keep their teeth healthy because this shows their attitude towards a

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brand. So this is very clear once again that Brand a big recognition. Table 3 reinforces the same fact with a score of 3.5 for the question To what extent do thoughts and feelings for your brand come to your mind on their own.

Solution and Analysis

The steps that could be taken to ensure a better market share and increase consumption are: Try to create more awareness about Herbal toothpastes. Try to change the perception of consumers about the herbal toothpastes. Increase portfolio to include some products in popular pricing segment. Try to reach out to more and more people with this product. Try to advertise more as toothpaste rather than specialized herbal toothpaste, so a confused positioning can help here. Create awareness about oral health care.

Recommendations

Door to door marketing for creating awareness and telling people about the herbal toothpaste will help. Perception of consumers about the herbal toothpaste can be changed and the advertisement of the women eating different stuff and with the tagline If you want to indulge like a child, first brush like an adult is near to perfect just to try including whole family in it.

A new product in popular pricing category will increase the visibility and more people could get a taste of herbal toothpaste. Free small packs (10gms) can be distributed with other herbal products which are more popular like herbal creams and face wash. Decrease emphasizing on the fact of being a herbal toothpaste and emphasize more on the benefits of the herbal ingredients. Include the benefits of herbal toothpastes in promotions this will attract consumers to the herbal offerings.