Pepsodent- Competitive market strategy

Initially, oral hygiene was mainly done through home made powders and Ayurveda specialists. With
the entry of Colgate in India, the perception and awareness of oral hygiene changed. The market is
fragmented into toothpaste, powder, mouthwash, toothbrush and others where toothpaste is
dominant. Major competitors are Colgate with 52% market share, Closeup and Pepsodent by HUL
with 17% market share, Dabur with 11 % and Patanjali at 11% market share. While HUL and Colgate
focused on diversifying their products in urban markets, Dabur and Patanjali increased penetration
in Rural markets.

For decades Colgate has been enjoying the market leadership. It had become a generic name and
was often interchangeably used in place of toothpaste. Yet when HUL came up with Close-up, it
snatched quite a lot of market share from Colgate. It was highly differentiated as the product format
was gel and positioning was for younger generation and as a mouth freshener. With Pepsodent, HUL
was able to enter family health segment of the oral hygiene market. The rise in consciousness of
oral hygiene has allowed the company to introduce product variants like toothpaste for sensitive
teeth, whitening or bleeding gums.

In 1993, Pepsodent was launched in India and since then has been an oral care expert providing
solutions to specific needs. This brand was launched by HUL in an attempt to directly challenge
Colgate. Colgate very cleverly positioned itself as toothpaste which helps to fight tooth decay and
had become a very generic name in the market. Hence Pepsodent decided to play on the
differentiation strategy to gain competitive advantage. The brand relied on consumers’ perception
and preferences for innovating products and experimented with their positioning from time to time.
HUL conducted a market research to determine consumer behaviour and concluded that (1)
consumers were looking for toothpaste that could fight germs even hours after brushing (2) It is
important that the message get across to the mother. They relied on consumer’s sentiment and
explored mother-child, Father-child relation while communicating their message.

 In 2005, Pepsodent was positioned as toothpaste providing long lasting protection from
germs. To back this up,” Dhishoom Dhishoom” campaign was launched which was feature in
every media whether print, electronic or outdoor media. It worked in favour of Pepsodent as
it was able to snatch considerable amount of market share form Colgate within a year.
 In 2010, they launched Pappu and Papa campaign where Shah Rukh Khan was the brand
ambassador.
  In 2013 they went head on with Colgate and launched -“130% better than Colgate”
campaign. Pepsodent executed comparative advertising successfully .
 In 2016, they launched a campaign “toothpaste with the best ever flavour” where they
attached edible toothpaste mints in newspapers.

Apart from the communication they tried to differentiate in terms of packaging as well. If Colgate
had red packaging then Pepsodent went for white. The brand went for line extension and
introduced many variants including Pepsodent 2in1 and germicheck being the most popular. They
also came up with toothpaste powder and toothbrushes to keep up with changing consumer habits.

Even though Colgate has been the market leader for decades, Pepsodent became a threat and its
biggest challenger despite starting as a lowly placed brand. Currently both the brands are losing
market share with the disruptive entry of Patanjali’s Dant Kranti. Despite having stronger recall and
the introduction of herbal toothpaste by Colgate and HUL, they are not able to catch up with
Patanjali.

References:

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ezyTwwrX65kC&pg=RA2-PA166&lpg=RA2-
PA166&dq=how+pepsodent+strategies+evolved&source=bl&ots=NHb9gNJLlI&sig=ACfU3U3z8DwSYp
8GkS9CRkhvzd3zBLqDFw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiu4pCMpe_kAhUW6XMBHVS3DqYQ6AEwEHo
ECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=how%20pepsodent%20strategies%20evolved&f=false

https://www.business-standard.com/article/management/pepsodent-fights-on-
110053100081_1.html

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Pepsodent/news

https://www.exchange4media.com/advertising-news/pepsodent-vs.-colgatehow-effective-is-
comparative-advtg-52359.html

https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/economy/story/19971124-colgate-vs-hindustan-lever-mrtpc-
ruling-cools-raging-brand-war-for-now-830973-1997-11-24

https://www.exchange4media.com/advertising-news/pepsodent-vs.-colgatehow-effective-is-
comparative-advtg-52359.html