Our Case Study Challenge on 'Will Colgate’s branding strategy beat the competition?' has received a tremendous responses this month with hundreds of students from top Indian institutions participating in the contest. This month's case posed a pure marketing and branding strategy problem for students. Many participants (some working individuals also) were able to understand the underlying branding issue faced by Colgate and recommended crisply designed strategies that addressed the key issue in the case.

We are sharing with you some of the solutions and recommendations offered by by students to Colgate's branding issue. Read on the compilation below to find out what most B-schoolers have to say about Colgate's branding strategy.

Excerpts from students' analyses :

Existing sub brands should continue but Colgate should introduce new brands likeElmex,Dentagard with some differentiation in the sensitivity and gum category with individual branding strategy. These brands should compete in the premium segment.

Yash Modi & Pooja Sheth, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai

Colgate definitely needs new branding strategy. Existing strategy of just 1 brand might not be sufficient to sustain and grow the market share in the toothpaste market. We recommend launching 2 new brands - 1 each for Gel and sensitivity segment.

Arun Bhambhu & Suchit Subodh, Indian School of Business

Now that competition is intensifying, the company faces the prospect of a shrinking market share. The time is ripe for Colgate to reinvent itself to be in tune with the present times. Urban youth are becoming more individualistic. As such, the concept of family brands and family packs shall fade. Colgate should incorporate these trends in its marketing campaigns. Additionally, Colgate should also look to differentiate itself with its packaging, given that there have been little innovation on this front of late.

Akshay Modi, IIFT, Delhi

Innovative bundling like 'Colgate Good Morning Kit' should be introduced in the market comprising of Toothpaste, Toothbrush, Visible White and Plax. Colgate Toothbrushes should be promoted through bundling with Colgate Toothpastes.

Ashitosh Babar & Debdatta Mukherjee, IIM Ahmedabad

In order to grow and continuously upgrade its products, Colgate should give more emphasis on Research and Development projects that are focused on innovative products catering to an audience with specific needs. This will help Colgate further build and maintain its Brand Equity. Competitive advantage can only be maintained through continuous innovation and value add (appealing new features), not through price cuts.

Pranai Agarwal, Indian School of Business

Colgate should increase it rural penetration in India as most of the people there still uses Neem sticks or prefers ayurvedic brands and are cost conscious. Creating awareness among them will help increase the market share. These people should be target customers for Colgate Visible White & Colgate herbal

Gaurav Doshi, SIES College of Management Studies, Nerul-Mumbai

Colgate has followed an umbrella branding with line extension in different segments. It should rather go for "House of Brands" strategy. When a consumer goes to any retail shop or mom n pop shop with so many variants of colgate available, consumer is not able to relate to one particular feature strongly associated with the Brand Colgate. Colgate has become generic name in the Indian market for toothpaste which further hurts the brand image.

Harsha Watkar, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research Mumbai

People in urban areas are looking for Ayurvedic properties in almost all FMCG products. Though Colgate has its Herbal toothpaste in its product line, its distinctive features are not focused in the marketing strategy. Herbal segment will also grow very fast and appeal to both urban and rural masses. This segment already has minimal competition like Vicco, Meswak, Patanjali, Dabur, Himalaya etc., so before any other big competitor enters this segment Colgate should establish a different Brand for this segment.

Jyotiprakash Pati & Ketaki H Kasar, IMDR Pune

This brand power is especially relevant for Colgate in India, where the rural market which contributes about 40 per cent of Colgate's total revenue from the country. Small stores in rural parts of India do not sell multiple varieties of toothpastes, but stock only the most popular brands. With a single brand in operation, Colgate has a major advantage in this important segment.

Pandarinath Illinda & Chandan Kansal, Indian School of Business

Since Colgate is already dominant in the germ and tooth decay segment, it must try to retain the market share in that segment by defensive marketing strategywhile using resources aggressively to gain prominence in the unaddressed segment through offensive or head-on attack. For doing so, Colgate can go for product differentiation to standout form its competitors.

Koushik Mandal, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

Advertisements and packaging have been found to be some of the major reasons of brand switching in the toothpaste category. Colgate, though being the market leader in this category, faces the threat of consumers switching to other brands owing to their aggressive marketing tactics.

Kshitija Kamtam & Sailee Patil, JBIMS Mumbai

The brand name should be symbolic of the sub-category. This will help people identify the category the brand is associated with and will increase the perceived quality of the product. This new brand will add to the growth of the market share by leveraging "Colgate", a trusted brand name, and regaining the customers shifting towards other brands.

Pakhi Singhal, IIM Lucknow

Colgate operates in a market with practically zero entry barriers. The core competency in the given segment is difficult to achieve since the resources needed are not valuable or rare, nor costly to imitate technologically. Colgate's core competency lies in its market share and incumbency advantage it enjoys. However, competitors have used product differentiation to eat up a substantial chunk of Colgate's market share during the last few decades.

Prasoon Panthayi & Prateek Sharma, IRMA

In spite of being a leading brand in oral care segment, Colgate doesn't have a non imitable factor to provide competitive advantage. The brand name Colgate is related to germ and cavity protection, but Pepsodent easily overcame the differentiating factor with it's "Dishoom-Dishoom" campaign.

Raghul Shyam Ravi & Nirmal M,DoMS NIT Trichy

As only 66% of Indian populace uses toothpaste and the rest 44% use tooth powders (24%) or non-dentifrice products (18%). Though Colgate is the dominant player the tooth powder category, but still their market share is nowhere close to the kind of numbers it boasts of in the toothpaste category. This is because the promotions for the tooth powder category are virtually non-existent on a national scale, and in most cases small regional level players are the ones giving Colgate a run for its money. Thus Colgate can try to expand its market penetration in the tooth powder segment too by indulging in promotions in the regional markets where it lacks behind the regional competition.

Shivam Gupta & Sachin Sandeep, Bharthidasan Institute Of Management, Trichy

Colgate should go for multi-brand strategy but make sure that it does not overdiversify its portfolio and invest in only those segments which matches to its image. Thus, diversifying portfolio while maintaining the same brand image.

Shoeb Ahmed Danish, XLRI-Jamshedpur

With entry of Global brands in India, Colgate needs to establish in the minds of the consumer that what they see is what the world uses. For example, they can use the global image of Elmex to say "Benefits of Elmex brought to you by Colgate Pro-Sensitive" i.e. co-branding strategy.

Smriti Misra, MISB Bocconi

Brand characteristics of Colgate relates to oral hygiene and not specifically to whitening or sensitivity. Colgate has no tag of on specific brand characteristics rather it is perceived as an oral hygiene product. Hence there is no need to have a separate brand for launching niche variants. The new brand extension can easily inherit the brand personality of the parent brand.

Srimoyee Joardar & Shubham Garg, SIMSR

Colgate should introduce different variety of toothpowder especially for kids. It should also change the color of tooth paste as everyone is familiar with white colored toothpaste. Changing color will help them to attract customers.

Apurv Pande, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun

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