P&G using actor Madhuri Dixit-Nene to endorse Oral-B toothpaste that it launched in June
Bloomberg
First Published: Thu, Jul 04 2013. 10 58 AM IST
P&G is betting Madhuri Dixit-Nene will help the company replicate the toothbrush market success in the toothpaste market as well.
Updated: Fri, Jul 05 2013. 01 00 AM IST
Mumbai: Procter and Gamble Co. (P&G) is betting on one of Bollywood’s most popular actors to help it break the dominance ofColgate Palmolive Co. and Hindustan Unilever Ltd, which together control 73% of India’s toothpaste market.
The world’s biggest maker of consumer products, which started selling its Oral-B Pro-health toothpaste in mainly urban centers in India in June, is using Hindi-movie actor Madhuri Dixit-Nene to endorse the brand. By enlisting mother-of-two Dixit-Nene, 46, P&G is targeting all age groups, said Harish Bijoor, who advises companies on brands.
“P&G’s success in almost doubling market share for its Oral-B toothbrush brand in Asia’s third-largest economy encouraged the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company to enter the toothpaste market that Colgate has controlled for 75 years,” said Abhijeet Kundu, an analyst at Antique Stock Broking Ltd. “Its plan to focus on cities, where rival Dabur India Ltd estimates 77% of the population use toothpastes, may restrict sales growth, according to Kundu.
“To get to a market share of even 4% or so will be a Herculean task,” Mumbai-based Kundu said in an interview. “It will take at least two years for the brand to get established.”
Colgate has a market share of about 51%, while Hindustan Unilever’s Pepsodent and Close-Up dental creams control 22% of the market, according to Euromonitor International.
Slowing economy
The task may get tougher after the $1.8 trillion economy expanded at the slowest pace in a decade, according to Nitin Mathur, an analyst with Espirito Santo Securities in Mumbai. Procter and Gamble Hygiene