Premiumisation is a key aspect for us: Gunjit Jain, Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive (India) recently launched ‘#TheDailyGrind’ campaign for Colgate Strong Teeth brand. The campaign spotlights the rampant increase in snacking frequency across India which results in teeth weakening, impacting overall oral health. 

In a conversation with e4m, Gunjit Jain, Executive Vice President, Marketing at Colgate-Palmolive (India), shared that Colgate Strong Teeth as a brand is used by almost a billion consumers in India, so, the target audience is very plain and simple- anybody who's got teeth.

“While the campaign is for everybody who's got teeth, unfortunately, 8 out of 10 Indians have cavities but only 1 out of 10 realise that they do. It has gotten to this extent because culturally things have changed, eating and drinking habits have changed,” he added.

The brand also tried changing the traditional narrative in the ad where the parent or the doctor advises the children to take care of their teeth. But in this campaign, it's the son who's actually pointing the behaviour out. This is because, according to Jain, the kind of education that kids go through in school is fairly advanced these days. They also have access to a lot of stuff, like they access Google and look at all the content themselves. So, often they become educators and the brand has tried to project that as well.

Jain added, “The point is actually much broader. Throughout our mix that we offer to consumers, whether it is the product, whether it is communication or whether it is our execution on the ground, we need to be superior versus the industry and we need to be better.”

“People don't necessarily notice wallpaper communication. The brand needed communication that is engaging enough to get noticed and meaningful enough to be relevant and persuasive enough to convince,” said Jain.

Top toothpaste industry consumer trends

When Jain came back to India after being abroad for about 10 years in 2014, the biggest thing that he noticed was, there were a large number of households that did not use toothpaste.

Today, toothpaste has 100% category penetration,n and every household in the country, whether urban or rural, has a toothpaste at home.

Jain said, “Even today, 55% of rural Indians brush with toothpaste, but not daily. The usage of a ‘datoon’ is still quite prevalent in this country and that brings me to some of the changes which are at the brink of happening, which is while everybody has a toothpaste, people are not using toothpaste often enough. 80% of urban Indians do not brush at night, they only brush once.”

So, the right frequency of consumption is one big change that is likely to happen, as per him.

The other big change which is likely to happen is premiumization, where toothpaste has been slow. 

Jain explained, “If I compare versus some of the other categories which also have universal penetration like toothpaste does, the percentage of the category which is premium is about 30-50% lower than some of those other categories. So, oral care has been slow and it has been slow simply because Colgate in the past has been slow. We did not invest enough behind premiumisation.”

The brand started picking this up at the beginning of last year with brands like Colgate Visible White and now Colgate Total. So, from a strategic perspective, premiumisation is a key aspect for the brand.

The third big change that Jain has seen is that people will get much more aware and conscious of their oral health. Rather than oral care just being a hygiene factor, it will become more of a health concern and Colgate will go after that in a big way.

Reaching tier 2 and 3 cities

As far as oral health awareness and the right habits are concerned, there are more gaps in metro cities also, said Gunjit. 

“I wouldn’t say, tier two and tier three are the backward lot while metros are ahead. There is enough room everywhere. As far as reaching tier two and tier three is concerned, from an availability of product standpoint, we've always had a competitive advantage as we directly cover 1.8 million outlets,” he said.

But the interesting part has been rural from a communication reach perspective because there are parts of rural India where using TV isn’t effective, shared the executive.

He stated the example of a rural town in UP where even if they maximise their TV communication reach, they can barely about reach half of UP rural Indians.

This is because the majority of the rural consumers have a television at home but they don't watch TV because there is enough load shedding and there is not enough electricity for a longer duration during the day. So, many of them actually have a TV at home, which is kept on top of the cupboard as a showpiece.

While there is not enough electricity during the day to watch TV, there is enough electricity in the day to be able to charge their smartphone.

That's where YouTube rural or other digital mediums come into play, which allow Colgate to be able to reach them. Then there are also other fragmented media touch points like rural wall paintings that give you the additional incremental.

“So, when we prepare our reach stack for rural India, we start with TV, we add digital, then we add the other fragmented touch points, which could be cinemas or wall paintings,” Jain revealed.

Colgate’s POV on rising competition 

In the past, there were just a few brands that we could easily recall, including Meswak, Vicco, Pepsodent, Sensodyne and Colgate. However, fresh and up-and-coming D2C brands like Perfora are now visible. 

According to Jain, it's extremely critical for them to always be aware that the focus has to be on the consumer and the consumer's needs and desires and not on what competition is doing because that can be a distraction. 

“So, what we do at Colgate Palmolive is to have our eye on the ball as far as the consumer's needs and desires are concerned, and those needs and desires evolve. There was a time where basic hygiene was the predominant need and that is why the only product in the market was Colgate Strong Teeth toothpaste. Then people wanted more freshness so we offered Colgate Max Fresh. Later problems like gum problems or problems like sensitivity start coming in and hence, Colgate Total was introduced,” he further added.

Marketing mix for Colgate

Consumption of Colgate brands and categories is pretty much consistent every day through the year, it doesn't peak or get into a trough. So, there's no seasonality there and the brand’s investment is going to be consistent and adequate, as per Jain.

He explained, “We don't choose media touch points first, we choose the role that media is supposed to play, which is for a brand like Colgate Strong Teeth which has 1 billion consumers, it has to be maximising reach. Now to maximise reach, the most effective and efficient media stack ends up involving traditional media like TV and print.”

On the other hand, Colgate Visible White targets young, affluent, beauty-affined individuals in urban India. That's a relatively tighter consumer set and therefore, the objective is not to maximise reach but be tighter on reach, sharper on this target audience, be harder on frequency, maybe talk to them more often and create personalised content, so here where digital takes the lead.

Upcoming festive season

Jain thinks the biggest thing, which is an opportunity for the brand and also for the consumer is going to be the habits that happen during the festive season, which is why this campaign is timed well. People will consume sweets more often, and people will eat more often.

“The only message that I want to leave through you to all our consumers is going to be, ‘Please enjoy your favourite delight, but don't forget to brush tonight’- In public interest by Colgate.”

Jain likes it much more when said in Hindi, which is, “Mithai ka maza lijiye, par raat ko brush bhi kijiye- Colgate dwara janhit mein jaari.”