Scribd
Upload
18 views2 pages

Colgate

Colgate has maintained a dominant position in the Indian toothpaste market, holding a 55.9% share despite facing competition from brands like Close-Up and Pepsodent. The market is growing rapidly, with segments such as sensitivity and gel gaining traction, while Colgate has responded with various sub-brands to retain its market presence. Analysts question the long-term effectiveness of Colgate's extension strategy amidst increasing competition and niche market developments.

Uploaded by

tia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
18 views2 pages

Colgate

Colgate has maintained a dominant position in the Indian toothpaste market, holding a 55.9% share despite facing competition from brands like Close-Up and Pepsodent. The market is growing rapidly, with segments such as sensitivity and gel gaining traction, while Colgate has responded with various sub-brands to retain its market presence. Analysts question the long-term effectiveness of Colgate's extension strategy amidst increasing competition and niche market developments.

Uploaded by

tia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

The brand Colgate has been one of the most trusted brands for decades.

It is not only the older


generation which grew up with Colgate, it is a first brand, even for the young, when it comes to
oral care. The brand has faced bursts of competition from time to time and has fought back
effectively to regain market share. In the 1960s and 1970s, Forhans was the challenger brand
but it is completely forgotten today. Binaca, which later became Cibaca and finally got taken
over by Colgate, was another challenger.
However, maybe because of the dominance of Colgate in India, this category has a fewer
number of brands than, say, soaps. Given that neither soaps nor toothpaste have any
technological barriers to entry and most entry barriers are created by marketing muscle, one
would have expected to see many more brands in the fray.

Despite the strong brand and Colgate’s focus on oral care, in the late 1980s Close-Up changed
the way toothpaste looked and felt in the mouth. High on freshness ingredients, the transparent
look and the youth-centric approach gave Colgate some sleepless nights at the time. Close-Up
gained a significant share of the market, forcing Colgate to launch a similar product and alter its
strategies for some time. Colgate has regained its share since then, but Close-Up continues to
hold a majority share in the gel category, with Colgate Gel remaining a distant second.

Unilever also attacked Colgate on the ‘healthy teeth’ platform with Pepsodent, thereby attacking
on two fronts. Currently, despite Colgate accounting for about 55 per cent share of the
toothpaste market, Pepsodent and Close-up are still sniping at its heels with intermittent attacks.

Oral products market in India

The oral products market in India consists of toothpaste, toothbrush, tooth-powder, and
mouthwash. According to IRS data (2019), 66 per cent of Indian households use toothpaste, 24
per cent use toothpowder, and 18 per cent are non-dentifrice users.

The toothpaste market in India is estimated at Rs 6,000 crore, growing at 19 per cent y-o-y.
There are different segments in the market like gel, sensitivity, whitening, and so on. India’s per
capita consumption is reportedly almost one-fourth that of the US, and less than half that of
other emerging markets. Toothpaste has a high penetration of around 78 per cent in urban
India. Colgate is the overall market leader, with a share of 55.9 per cent.

The broad segments are:

Germ and Tooth Decay : This is the biggest segment; Colgate gets its major share from this
segment. Of late, Pepsodent has begun attacking this segment with its Germicheck variant. As
per a recent media report, more than half of Colgate’s overall share comes from Colgate Strong
Teeth, which competes in this segment (and the focus of Pepsodent’s Ad).

Sensitivity : This is the fastest growing segment, already at Rs 950 crore, and is growing at 30-
40 per cent a year. GSK’s Sensodyne has a slight lead
Gel : The second biggest segment (Rs 1,500 crore) and the only one where Colgate
significantly trails the leader Close-Up (60 per cent market share)

Gum : Another upcoming segment where GSK’s Paradontax is making much progress.

Whitening : A segment which has seen renewed emphasis from Colgate with Colgate Visible
White

Multi-Benefits : Another segment dominated by Colgate with its Total variant. This segment
enjoyed great significance at one point in the US and was responsible for Colgate becoming
No.1 in the US between 1998-2007 and 2009- 2016 before P&G’s Crest reclaimed the lead
Besides the direct attack from Pepsodent, entry of a large international player like Oral B has
further intensified competition in the general toothpaste category. Brands such as Sensodyne
and Paradontax have come in with aggressive marketing strategies and have created small
sub-categories for themselves, possibly at the cost of Colgate. Colgate responded with Colgate
Sensitive but Sensodyne still has a larger share of the sensitive toothpaste market.

Colgate has over the years tried to fight the sub-segments through a sub-branding
strategy and has launched sub-brands such as Colgate Gel, Colgate Sensitive, Colgate Herbal,
Colgate Active Salt and Colgate Total. It is clear that the other players, besides Unilever and
P&G, are not very keen to take Colgate head-on in its main product line. Hence, they have
started carving smaller segments for themselves and, with a focused strategy, are managing to
remain leaders in their respective sub-segments.

Their efforts are therefore to slowly grow these categories as well as their shares in the market.

While larger players such as Unilever are trying to grow the market and capture shares, players
such as GSK have created a niche for themselves in the sensitive toothpaste market.

Through a series of extensions, Colgate has increased its share of the market from 52.4 per
cent in 2018 to 54.5 per cent in 2020.
While the extension strategy seems to have worked in retaining and marginally growing its
share, analysts wonder whether, in the long run, this strategy will be effective. In other countries
Colgate has other brands, such as Elmex and Dentagard, but in India it has followed a single-
brand strategy, apart from its acquisition of Cibaca. With competition set to intensify in the main
category, and small players creating their own niches, will Colgate be risking its main brands by
over-extension and thereby lose share to, say, Oral B or Pepsodent?

You might also like