The Toothpaste Marketing, What Has Gone Wrong and How to Rectify it…
By: Madhur Dixit
Tags: Growth Marketing, Marketing, Storytelling, Brand Strategy, İnnovation

Have you ever wondered why is it that the most famous toothpaste brands are losing their market share despite of all the resources that they invest in R&D, and product innovation? Why do consumers buy a particular toothpaste? What has gone wrong with these brands’ marketing practices?

Let us try to demystify the reasons behind these “why’s” and “what’s”. According to a report published in 2019 by Business Standard (https://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/colgate-loses-grip-as-market-share-in-toothpaste-segment-down-52-119081901455_1.html), Colgate has continued to loose market share in the toothpaste segment (which now stands at 52% as opposed to 59% in the previous quarters). This continues to happen even when Colgate invests a lot of its resources in Product innovation and R&D. If you get a chance to look at their website, you will see that they have 62 different toothpaste varieties (excluding 12 targeted specifically to kids). Yes, that is precisely the number!! 74 different toothpaste varieties in the market. Now, it is a given that if Colgate offers so many varieties, its competitors are doing the same meaning which, we are drowning in an ocean of choices. Having so many different varieties within their own brand exposes a brand to competition not only with its competitor brands but also with its own products. This is similar to competing on prices. Only, In this case a brand comes up with a new product and their competitor does the same (because that’s the competitor’s job: To compete, come what may) and in a flash the differentiation war is on between brands.

Can you guess what happens next?The cycle of bringing new products to the market goes on and on and the brands forget to actually see if there is even a product-market fit or not and if there is no product-market fit, there is no traction. Brands end up putting all their efforts in product development and thus forgetting about traction. Instead, for a brand or a company to be successful it is essential to have a 50–50 rule when it comes to monitoring product development and traction.

Another question is, can coming up with so many varieties really be labelled as innovation? The answer: Not really! Innovation is something that has the potential to change how we conduct business. It has the power to transform society as a whole or even in some cases to completely modify the business models. However, investing your resources to come up with new products which are basically an upgrade of the previous product cannot be termed as innovation. It no doubt is good to add additional features to your product, but it does not guarantee growth. It does not guarantee increase in product sales. This is where I feel the toothpaste companies are going wrong.

It is not only Colgate, but every single company in this business that is busy coming up with different upgrades to their toothpastes or even newer varieties with no data backed reasoning behind it. There is no data that tells us that these products have changed peoples’ habits and that they brush their teeth more often now than they were doing before. More so, we as consumers never buy what a company sells. We buy what we want. This is just how we are structured. So no matter the number of toothpastes in the market, we will always end up buying the one that we want and the one whose message and values sync with our personal beliefs and values.

Let’s look at how these toothpastes are marketed to the consumers and how can this be changed for the betterment of the toothpaste industry. Not all, but most of the toothpaste brands in their advertisements talk about how their product will help you get whiter teeth, or how it will help you have a fresher breath for hours or how great their toothpaste tastes. Now it is a scientific fact, that a toothpaste can clean your teeth but it cannot make your teeth brighter or whiter than the original colour of your teeth. Neither can a toothpaste make your teeth stronger. This is where the teeth whitening advertising falls flat. Some brands take it a step further and talk about the extra substances they added to the toothpaste. In other words, all they try to do is to sell facts and substances to the consumers. They focus on the “what’s” of their toothpaste when all they need to do is to focus on the “why’s” i.e oral health benefits for instance.