Ponds Failure.doc 6w1v71

Failed Product : Pond's Toothpaste

Unilever Limited Unilever Limited earlier called as Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate which owns 51% stake in it.Unilever has acquired a remarkable repute as one of best-managed companies in the country. Despite being the subsidiary of an MNC, Hindustan Lever Limited was professed to be more of an Indian corporation than a multinational one; because of the techniques by which it was managing its operation in India. I Unilever Limited Brand Extensions in early 2000. By the early 2000’s HLL struggled to generate growth, and brand extension was the only viable option for it. The company started working on extending its popular brands. Its portfolio of brands included ‘Lux’, ‘Lifebuoy’, ‘Liril’, ‘Surf’, ‘Pond's’, ‘Vaseline’, ‘Vim’, ‘Clinic All Clear’ and ‘Axe’. Most of these brands remained market leaders for several years in their respective product categories & by early 2003 HLL had launched a number of brand extensions with varying degree of success. Its flagship brands ‘Pond's’ & ‘Clinic All Clear’ made a smooth transition from a cold cream to ‘Age defying creams’, soap, facewash, talc, towelettes & from anti-dandruff shampoo to hair oil category category respectively was somewhat successful. But the ‘Pond's toothpaste’ extension “failed miserably”. PONND'S Cream Unilever Limited known for products -Soaps & Detergents mostly skin care products, positioned as an all purpose skin care products. Pond is one the popular “face cream” product in its product portfolio. Pond’s is always known for its feminine beauty and has its brand identity surrounded around the beauty. Pond’s is associated with freshness, fragrance, and clean skin. Pond's expand into the toothpaste. It launched Pond's toothpaste. Pond’s has done a blind test and people were happy with the toothpaste. But the product failed miserably. POND'S Toothpaste: UL launched toothpaste but attached the brand POND'S to it. POND'S Toothpaste was positioned as delightfully refreshing to the taste and hygienically clean the teeth. It was a quality toothpaste which cleans the mouth hygienically with a sense of freshness. POND'S Toothpaste offering : Quality Toothpaste clean mouth with a sense of freshness Reasons for failure : 1. Undifferentiated toothpaste from Colgate In a blind test environment, people were not able to differentiate ‘Pond's’ toothpaste from that of ‘Colgate’.Pond's claim of blind test also failed. 2. Consumer perception about Pond's(mismatch between attribute of toothpaste and soap).

The real problem was that Pond's label was attached to the toothpaste; Pond’s actually released the toothpaste with the Pond’s name Consumers perception about the the brand was : a. Pond's was for fragrance, beauty and clear skin. b. Pond's was a consumer product used for external application only. This did work brilliantly with soaps & creams however the attributes for toothpaste are taste. Consumer suspicious to use Pond's toothpaste for safety reasons. This mis-match between the attribute of toothpaste & the soap created a disillusionment in the mind of consumers thus when Pond's ventured into oral health care, it was ignored. 3. Extension to different category away from core POND'S known for soap category expanded to other category of “toothpaste”. Its Brand identity was not compatible with toothpaste as the mismatch between attribute of two different category. 4. Lack of proper Market research and consumer behaviour.