...Introduction Cottle was founded in 1815 as a hand soap manufacture out of Philadelphia. The company would grow to produce more than 200 products in oral care, personal care and home care by the year 2009. Revenues were $11.5 billion in 2009 over a span of 200 countries. In 2009, Cottle focused on its ability to increase its earnings in India. The India marketing division of Cottle (Cottle-Taylor) oral care director, Brinda Patel, believed that India had a projected growth. From the information Brinda was able to obtain, she created a marketing plan that would support a 20% increase for toothbrush unit sales in 2010. Ms. Patel presented her findings to her manager Michael Lang (VP Manager for Asia and Africa). Mr. Lang felt that Ms. Patel was conservative in her numbers and felt the need to create a marketing strategy that would give the company an overall increase of 25% to 30% in toothbrush sales for 2010 was possible. Mr. Lang was under pressure to deliver results from his declining U.S. revenues and looked at India as an opportunity to boost his regions bottom line. Although India is one of the poorest countries, Lang seen this as an opportunity to engage over 500 million customers. What factors determine demand for toothbrushes? The factors that determine the need for toothbrushes are the needs within the population. In India 2009, most of the population depended on Neem trees, better known as “Nature’s Drugstore” to clean their teeth. In addition, a study in...
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...Case Context via “5Cs” framework Company: Cottle-Taylor is an established company started in 1815. By 2009 they had a strong product portfolio of over 200 oral care, personal, care, and home care products. In 2009 nearly 50% of the company’s revenue came from emerging markets. Cottle-Taylor conducts its India operations through a subsidiary called Cottle India. The India operations are focused on oral care, which includes toothpaste, tooth powder and dental floss. Focus area for this case is the toothbrush market. Cottle is the market leader (46% market share) in toothbrush market in India. It is perceived as a trusted & quality brand because of its association with IDA (Indian Dental Association). Cottle India is adequately supported by the parent company and follows a decentralized approach for India market strategy. For new markets Cottle’s general approach is to enter market with basic models and competitive prices, and gradually shift the focus to high-margin products. In India Cottle’s most successful toothbrush brand is Complete (accounted for 67% of Cottle’s total unit sales in 2009), which is also the lowest-priced toothbrush for adults. Competitor: Hinda-Daltan & SarIndia are two distant competitors with 21% and 11% market share respectively. The remaining share of toothbrush market is composed of low-quality, low-priced products imported from China and Vietnam. Cottle has a competitive advantage in toothbrush industry due to its manufacturing excellence...
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...Problem Statement and Situational Analysis: Cottle India is a subsidiary of Cottle-Taylor, which focuses exclusively on oral health care. They manufactured toothpaste, toothpowder, and toothbrushes. Cottle India had a wide distribution network in which products were sold in more than 450,000 retail outlets all around the country. Total sales for Cottle India have consistently increased from 2008 through 2010. Their share of total oral care market volume in 2009 was 38%. They were also accountable for 46% of total toothbrush sales in 2009 making them the market leader The Problem Half of all Indians are still not concerned with preventing or curing dental problems, how to increase Indians awareness of oral health care is a big problem and a huge opportunity to engage 500 million customers. Also more than three-quarters of Indians lived on less than 2 dollars a day, how can the products be accepted for Indians. Situational Analysis Cottle-Taylor had several advantages that they used to leverage themselves in the Indian market. First of all, they created a subsidiary of Cottle-Taylor called Cottle India to specifically run operations in India. They had international employees that knew the Indian market that took care of marketing and provided strategic advice. They had a strong commitment to international employees within international divisions that worked together and collaborated with Cottle-Taylor in the US. Cottle partnered with the Indian Dental Association...
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... 1. Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang (201305016) 2. Nguyen Thi Huong (201305046) 3. Zafar Alikulov (201305004) May 2014 Question 3: How should Cottle - Taylor accelerate the development of the toothbrush market in India. In order to accelerate the development of the toothbrush market in India, there are several recommendations that Cottle - Taylor should consider for implementation. First of all, Cottle should continue their partnership and hold local campaign with IDA to help introduce and educate people about the benefits of oral care by using toothbrush frequently. Recommended activities include: school visits, giving free samples, establishing dental clinic with dental hygienic nurses and conducting free oral checkups, etc. Secondly, as with product development, Cottle should develop a wider portfolio of products and maybe develop complementary products which will better satisfy the local needs and wants such as herbal toothpaste, dentist floss, mouth wash, etc which could help accelerate the sales of toothbrush. Market segmentation for these products (low-end, mid-range & battery operated) should be based on income, education level, social status, age, geographical areas, etc. Thirdly, as with advertising campaigns, Cottle should consider display the sample, banners of toothbrush benefits and the way to use it effectively and correctly in stores and public places. Even e-marketing (online ads) can be considered...
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...Introduction Of the Company: Cottle Taylor Philadelphia based Cottle was founded in 1815 as a hand-soap manufacturer, which by the year 2009 was catering to three consumer-product categories: Oral care, Personal Care and Home Care. Faced with declining U.S revenues, Cottle had looked to emerging markets to offset domestic losses thus adopting geographic expansion, sales of high margin products and new-product development as key drivers and extending its operations to North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. The company believed that hiring local talent is critical to maximizing international sales and driving country specific innovation. The company’s US headquarters relied on strategic advice and research on the Indian Market. In the Indian market which is the area of focus in this case, operations was conducted through a subsidiary- Cottle India and focused on manufacturing toothpaste, toothbrush and toothpowder. Issues / problems People in India are not very concerned with oral hygiene. Cottle has been working on informing and educating the Indian culture on the importance of oral care. Cottle wants to expand to new product development but the Indian culture has not fully adapted to the use of low-end and mid-range toothbrushes. They live on less than $2 a day and have low discretionary spending. The population in India has grown but so has poverty. Cottle faces a tough market with very low spending capacity. Overall penetration of...
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...No. – 13PGDM149 Cootle Taylor:Expanding oral care group in India Brinda Patel is the director of Cottle Taylor, an oral care firm which manufactures oral care, personal care and home care products. Michael Lang is her manager and he wants to increase the sales and market share of his company in the mid-range and high range oral care sector in emerging markets, due to declining sales revenue from US. Having had success in Thailand, Lang wants to implement similar strategies in India. Brinda having a more definitive idea of the Indian market is averse to the idea as she is aware of the low awareness of oral hygiene in many parts of India. If people do not understand the necessity, how would they be attracted to costlier oral care products like battery operated toothbrushes and their likes. Due to low discretionary spending and disassociation of health issues to not brushing regularly, Cottle faced a otugh market with low spending capacity in India. According to Lang, some of the alternatives to promote sales were focusing on marketing the premium products and persuading customers to switch to high range oral care products. Patel was more concerned with focusing on persuading consumers to brush for the first time and subsequently increasing incidence of brushing. Lang wanted to unevenly distribute advertising dollars across the three key points of focus that Cottle-Taylor wanted to project. But Patel was unsure if the increase in advertising dollars would increase sales. She...
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...MARKETING CASE STUDY 1 SUBMITTED BY : PAYAL KAUL 15336 Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care group in India Cottle Taylor in India 1. It is known as Cottle India 2. Cottle has partnered with IDA for frequent studies & dental health outreach programs. As a result, Indians considered Cottle a big name for oral care and their products were trusted and regarded with respect in India. 3. Cottle’s share of total oral care market volume in 2009 was 38%. 4. Indian and Chinese market were stormed by low priced specialty products( such as herbal and Ayurveda paste), so to remain competitive Cottle had to decrease prices and thus its margin on toothbrushes and toothpastes dropped from 31% to 25% since 2004. 5. Its main competitors are Hinda-Dalta and SarIndia. 6. It has wide distribution network of approx. 450,000 retail outlets which includes small shops, road side vendors, medium and large stores and supermarkets. 7. Cottle toothbrush accounted for 46% of total toothbrush units sold in India in 2009. Current Scenario in India 1. More than 75% of Indians live on $2 a day 2. Indian market includes urban, semi-urban and rural areas 3. As per 2007 study, 50% of Indians are not concerned with preventing and curing dental problems. Brushing Frequency and Replacement Marketing strategy used till 2009 1. Cottle’s oral care division spent 9% of gross toothbrush sales in 2009 on toothbrush related advertising. 2. 3% was spent...
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...Cottle Taylor:Expanding oral care group in India Brinda Patel is the director of Cottle Taylor, an oral care firm which manufactures oral care, personal care and home care products. Patel has developed a marketing plan, according to which there will be 20% increase in toothbrush unit sales. Michael Lang is her manager and he found Patel’s sales forecast conservative. Lang and Patel both have different ideas of what strategy should be implemented in India. Having had success in Thailand, Lang wants to implement similar strategies in India and concentrate on mid-range brushes and battery operated products for customers with higher income. Whereas Brinda who has detail knowledge about the Indian market wants to focus on the low-end brushes for first time users. Some of the issues of Indian market include: * Lack of awareness and widespread practice of chewing twigs from Neem Tree. * 50% of Indians not concerned about dental problems. * Rural people are 5 times more reluctant to use modern oral care product than urban people. * 80% population lives in less than $2 a day. * 4/5 tooth brushers used the same brush well beyond three months. * Distributors did’nt understand key selling point of cottle’s toothbrush * Difficulty in communicating in rural locations- varied dialect * Regional holidays and festivals often complicated distributor staffing and retail deliveries. * Issues in inventory planning because sales are influenced by customer’s daily...
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