RE-LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF PONDS TOOTHPASTE

REASONS OF BRAND FAILURE

Reasons of PONDS TOOTHPASTE brand failure and re-launch strategies of the brand.

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION,
EMERALDS BUSINESS SCHOOL,
TIRUPATHI, 517502
CHITTOOR DIST. AP.

ABSTRACT
Ponds is one of the products under the company of Hindustan unilever. PONDS TOOTHPASTE is one the product
line in ponds. As a part of extension of products, ponds want to enter in the segment of toothpaste. The company
believed that by the brand image of ponds it may succeed in the market. It succeeded in the test marketing. When it
expanded the product completely failed. This brand is the perfect example how products will fail when it for go
extension. Extension is not only the failure of the brand, main reasons are : Wrong Positioning, consumer
behavior, Brand-extension, lack of market research, Lack of viable segment, me-too"
Strategies, brand market etc.
All these reasons for the brand not to succeed in the market. The market analysis has to do
before entering to market. What makes ponds to reenter into market into market? This
article includes the marketing strategies to be made to gain the market and helps to
contribute in market share.
The market strategies like
Primary strategies: proper segmentation, differentiate the brand name from the company, make the
consumer to differentiate the product, proper timing proper positing USP etc.
Secondary strategies: product development, pricing strategies, place of availability, proper promotion (4ps)
INTRODUCTION
Ponds is a brand of beauty and health care products, currently owned by parent company
the multinational corporation Unilever. Ponds has different products like talcum powders,
facial cleaners, facial moisturizers, toothpaste etc.
All its related products are well developed its markets in its own segments. Talcum products
like magic Dream flower oilcontrol sandalwood etc all these having their own market share,
where as facial cleaners has its own market market all these makes ponds as a brand and
become brand equity for the brand of ponds
By taking it as advantage ponds wants to extent its market towards the segment of
toothpaste. Ponds, the popular brand for cosmetics, applied its brand name to toothpaste
releasing Ponds toothpaste. Ponds has done a blind test and people were happy with the
toothpaste. So Ponds thought it will extend itself into the toothpaste category. But when
Ponds actually released the toothpaste with the Ponds name on it, it is a complete failure
and was not picked from the shelves.

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT

EMERALDS BUSINESS SCCHOOL

Page 1

RE-LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF PONDS TOOTHPASTE

This is again an excellent example of the failure to understand the core values of the brand
and trying to extend into other categories. Ponds is always known for its feminine beauty
and has its brand identity surrounded around the beauty. Ponds is associated with
freshness, fragrance, and clean skin. So marketers have thought to extend with the
attributes of freshness and cleanness into the toothpaste category
At the time when it hit the market, the products like Colgate and Pepsodent has a high
market share. people or customers are highly habituated with those brands and it not easy
to swift the brand easily when the customers are habituated towards a specific brand.

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT

EMERALDS BUSINESS SCCHOOL

Page 2

RE-LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF PONDS TOOTHPASTE

SWOT AND STP of Ponds toothpaste

Parent Company

HUL (Unilever)

Category

FMCG

Sector

Personal Care toothpaste

Tagline/ Slogan

Ponds: where your real age vanishes; Ponds, for timeless beauty; The miracle is you

STP

Segment

Personal dental care with variety of product lines

Target Group

No specific

Positioning

Mouth fresher and good odour

SWOT Analysis

Succeeded in test marketing

Strengths

Brand image of ponds

Lack of market effort

Improper timing
Weaknesses

Improper research

Opportunities

Not much competitors and brand image of ponds will helpful

Targeting audience from all age groups

Threats

High price for the products can limit potential consumers

Cosmetic Care still not a market in rural parts of the country
Availability of cheaper products from other brands in the market
Competition

Colgate
Competitors

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT

Pepsodent

EMERALDS BUSINESS SCCHOOL

Page 3

RE-LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF PONDS TOOTHPASTE

Reasons of Ponds product failure

The main objective to every company is to sustain in the market. They adopt so many
methods to sustain the market. Market include customer, customer/buyer behavior, market
distribution channel, competition, substitute brand /product etc. If a product fail to sustain in
the market which means the brand/product fail to maintain in one of the above categories.
As I stated in the abstract that the major factor of failures are Wrong Positioning, consumer
behavior, Brand-extension, lack of market research, Lack of viable segment, me-too"
Strategies, brand market etc.
REASON 1
BRAND EXTENSION: Making use of a brand (which has been successful in one category) by
extending it typically to another category which has very little linkage with the original
category. Consumers who have all along associated the brand with a particular product may
find it difficult to extend it to another category.
PONDS has a good market with its product like tolcum powders, beauty products etc. To
continue the same market company extended its product to new segment called dental care
and the product called toothpaste. The decision is wrong the product under the brands
product line are different as has a specific segment and a target market/customer. But
ponds toothpaste only has brand name of PONDS which didnt helped to sustain in the
market This is an excellent example of the failure to understand the core values of the brand
and trying to extend into other categories. Ponds is always known for its feminine beauty
and has its brand identity surrounded around the beauty. Ponds is associated with
freshness, fragrance, and clean skin. So marketers have thought to extend with the
attributes of freshness and cleanness into the toothpaste category.
REASON 2
WRONG POSITIONING: "Product positioning" is a marketing technique intended to present
products in the best possible light to different target audiences. The method is related to
"market segmentation" in that an early step in major marketing campaigns is to discover the
core market most likely to buy a productor the bulk of the product. Once segmentation has
defined this group ("active seniors," "affluent professional working women," "teens") the
positioning of the product consists of creating the message likely to reach this group.
Positioning involves symbol and message manipulation, including displays and packaging.
mouth fresheners and reduces bad smell didnt concentrated on the benefits from
product while positioning the product.
REASON 3

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT

EMERALDS BUSINESS SCCHOOL

Page 4

RE-LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF PONDS TOOTHPASTE

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as
well as the study of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the
marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can
encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental problems result from product
disposal this is also an area of interest
Which also include: psychology, usage/necessity of product, perception, attitude, etc
In the concept of product failure the consumer behavior becomes major part . In the matter
of ponds also customer psychology also impacts very much.
As we know the ponds is very famous for beauty care which means apply outside gets
more and positive result outside only it is known very well. infact its the positioning
strategy for ponds. Where as coming to ponds toothpaste the perception is totally different,
the ponds name indicates the results shows outside where as the toothpaste will influence
inside of the body and shows the results inside only. This makes the consumer not to think
more ponds toothpaste they easily ignoring the product because the perception differs
among the consumers.

REASON 4:
ME-TOO STRATEGIES:A brand which has made a pioneering impact cannot always be
copied by competitors who adopt fte too" strategies. After the success of "Maggi" several
brands of noodles emulated the strategies with little success.
This type of strategies are used by companies where they have high market share. Its
actually means the name only indicates me-too which means company wants to
change/adopt/launch the same/similar product what the competitors is following according
to the market.
Ponds also thinks the same by ponds toothpaste they want grab the market from fellow
competitors like Colgate and Pepsodent but it doesnt work
REASON 5:
LACK OF MARKET ANALYSIS/RESEARCH:
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about target markets or
customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. The term is
commonly interchanged with marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish
to draw a distinction, in that marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing
processes, while market research is concerned specifically with markets.
PONDS didnt adopt any market research technique, in fact there is less market analysis if
they do so may be chances of failures are very less. By market analysis the company may
know about the market share of competitors, consumer opinion etc by this company may
take decision on pre-launching the product.
.

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT

EMERALDS BUSINESS SCCHOOL

Page 5

RE-LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF PONDS TOOTHPASTE

These are some of the reasons for failure of ponds toothpaste but what makes ponds to prelaunch the product into
the market
RELAUNCH STRATEGIES FOR PONDS TOOTHPASTE
Every company makes some strategies to make succeed their product. Here are some
marketing strtagies which may helpful to ponds reenter into market and also to succeed in
the market.

PRIMARY STRATEGIES
PRODUCT NAME: change the name of product so that the name ponds may not include
in the PRODUCT. use some name which shows the strengthen of teeths or choose a name
which relate to dental care so that it may attract more. The name ponds doesnt influence
more because its a beauty consuls product. Better to go with PONDS FRESH

PROPER SEGMENTATION: segmentation which prefers selecting the required

consumers. Going with demographical segment which may have more chances. (include/
differentiate among gender, age)
WHY THIS? A single product may not suits for all type of people, producing/designing the
product according to the type of customer( colgate succeeded by this strategy)

MORE PRODUCT LINES: Going with different product line gives you more benefit. Like
age product line include a paste for mouth fresher, a paste for strengthen the teeth etc.
WHY THIS? Because not all users uses same product. Producing/designing the product
according to usage of customer. They use the product for their convenient, health, passion
etc (AMWAY using this of strategy)

PROPER POSITIONG: Positioning of the product is the key task in the marketing. How
the marketers are positioning the products results the outcome. Ponds hit the market with
positioning strategy called product category positioning strategy which differing the
advantage of the product.
GO WITH POSITIONING CALLED WE MADE BLACK INTO WHITE ITS TIME TO CHANGE
YELLOW TO WHITE
But the same advantage is gaining from other product/competitors, so if its better follow the
product attribute positioning strategy which means showing the uniqueness of the
product.
WHY THIS? Shows the usage/features/usp of the product.

DIFFERENCIATE THE PRODUCT: which means differentiating the product from the
rest of the similar products. People approach the product when it is different from other
products. It should be different in packing, color, etc

WHY THIS? One of the reason failure of ponds is it is very similar to Colgate. People are well
habituated with Colgate so they approached it only. So the color n packaging style should be
different mean while it a specific color, and package.

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT

EMERALDS BUSINESS SCCHOOL

Page 6

RE-LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF PONDS TOOTHPASTE

PROPER TIMING AND PLACE: The proper timing of launching the product is very
important. And the test/selection of place is also important. Ponds one of the reasons for
failure is improper timing. Time like when any other brands like Colgate and Pepsodent
extent their product line that time there are chances to penetrate into market.
WHY THIS? Proper timing is very important to launch the product. Place of testing also
important. Time the brand has good market share, high demand its the time to launch
their(brand

SECONDARY STRATEGIES
PRODUCT

Its should be unique/differentiate in color, packing, taste. Ponds toothpaste has the
same color as colgate and taste as well it is like a imitate product of Colgate
The product packaging also influence the people to buy the product.
The color of the paste also be different. Which means the color should be unique than
the competitors
The product should highlight with high dental care which psychologically create the
product is totally belongs to dental care.

PRICING METHODS

Its better to maintain the on going pricing strategy which means, the price which is
following by the competitors or the price which is going in the market.
The product should reach to all level of consumer so that the price should range
between 10-100 so that people purchase the product depends on the family size,
occasion etc.
It also should include in multiple packing and follow multiple packing pricing.

PLACE OF AVAILABILTY

The product should be available at every place like retailers, malls, shops, stores etc
There should the equal supply of product where it needed
The product should be there where ever the competitive products were placed.

PROMOTION: Promotion is the important aspect in marketing the product. Promotion is

said to be giving the information or making the awareness of product to users.

The brand PONDS is a biggest promotional tool

As usual the product should advertise more through different channels.
To aware of product it should be include with multiple packing like combination of
(facewash + powder+ fairness cream + toothpaste), multiple products like (soap +

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT

EMERALDS BUSINESS SCCHOOL

Page 7

RE-LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF PONDS TOOTHPASTE

toothpaste), (facewash + soap + toothpaste). By this the toothpaste may reach to

the end consumers. If they satisfied by the product the consumer prefer it
individually As usual company should follow multiple packing pricing
This multiple packing should be more in big marts and stores etc.
To better to promote the product by using the other products in ponds.

CONCLUSION:
PONDS as a part of its product extension, it wants to enter into dental care segment. So that
it came a product called ponds toothpaste. Which is passed in test marketing. By seeing the
name PONDS on the product people refused to purchase it again. Because the brand ponds
is famous for its well known products like talcum powder, soaps etc. all these products are
comes under cosmetics where the toothpaste comes under dental care. It finally failed in the
market. But for every problem there must be a solution, by using some marketing strategies
the ponds can easily make its toothpaste successful.
REFERENCES:
S, Ramesh Kumar/Y.L.R Murthy
Causes
May 1996
Matt Haig
JUNE 2003

Brand Failure - Concepts And

BRAND FAILURES

(Published in Kogan Page Limited)

BHEEMASENA PUROHIT

EMERALDS BUSINESS SCCHOOL

Page 8