The Hindu Business Line : HUL launches Pepsodent Kids

Mumbai, Nov. 16 Hindustan Unilever has entered the kids segment in the toothpaste category under a new sub-brand — Pepsodent Kids. Creating three new variants under the segment, the FMCG company has brought in Barbie, Superman and Tom & Jerry to entice children.

Sporting Pepsodent Kids in a tube format, the product has been pegged at Rs 45 for 80 gm. However, Colgate, its nearest competitor, has already entered this segment with a smaller SKU (Rs 22 for 40 gm) with two flavours.

In fact, HUL has been steadily expanding its Pepsodent franchise. Early this year, it launched Pepsodent Centre Fresh, a germ fighting gel with mouthwash. “Pepsodent is positioned as a family health and protection brand, and it makes sense to extend it as a kid’s toothpaste,” states an industry observer.

Considering its nearest competitor Colgate has already entered this segment, HUL has been adopting a wait-and-watch approach instead of trying to be a pioneer in this segment. Both HUL and Colgate have introduced single SKU in the kids segment with their respective brands sporting cartoon characters.

At the same time, HUL has also extended its Close Up franchise by introducing two new flavours — Tangerine Burst and Luscious Lychee — both priced at Rs 30 for 80 gm. Positioning its new brands as ‘limited edition’ in the market, HUL is possibly testing out their acceptancein the market.

Variants

In fact, the new flavours are being described as ‘Flavalicious’ by the company on its packs to signify the different variants it has launched. Meanwhile, Close Up continues to sport its red gel mother brand along with the existing variants of lemon mint and milk calcium.

Three years ago, HUL had taken a conscious decision to limit the Close Up variants and re-launched the mother brand, as it felt that having more sensorial variants would not work for its gel-based toothpaste brand apart from the heavy media spends required to promote new variants.

It had removed variants such as Tingly Red, Eucalyptus Blue and even a whitening toothpaste. According to an analyst at SSKI Securities, “The premium end of the oral care market is almost stagnant. However, HUL consciously wants to build better margins in this category.”

According to AC Nielsen for the quarter ending June 2007, HUL’s has a 30 per cent value share in the toothpaste category and continues to trail behind the market leader Colgate (48.5 per cent).

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