HIMALAYA HERBAL TOOTHPASTE: CATEGORY AND BRAND

INVOLVEMENT IN AN EMERGING MARKET

1. What are the major findings about the involvement

levels of consumers in the oral care category that can
be

understood

from

the

participants

responses

regarding their habits and practices with respect to the

category?

Freshness
Frequency

of Low(5)

Herbal

Oral

Niche

Low(3)

Health
Moderate(1

High(17)

Brushing(Twice
)
Frequency

1)

of High(5)

visit to Dentist
Oral
Health Moderate(2
Problems
Change
toothpaste

1)
Moderate(2)

Low(1)

Moderate(3

High(4)

High23)

)
Moderate(2

Moderate(2

Low(0)

0)
High(3)

0)
Low(1)

on

dentists
recommendati
ons

Only 36 per cent of the respondents brushed twice a day (i)

either low awareness of the need to brush twice a day for
healthy teeth, (ii) or of low involvement in the category.

Given that existing brands focus more on the benefits of their

respective brand rather than on driving oral health education,
it is likely that the former is true. Also, 74 per cent had never

visited a dentist. Only 13 per cent of the respondents visited a

dentist as frequently as recommended, i.e., once in six
months.

Those consumers who had been to the dentist frequently

claimed that their dentists had not recommended toothpaste
brands often; but in those cases where the dentists did
recommend a brand, six out of seven respondents switched.

84 per cent of the respondents claimed they had not had oral
care problems. The statistics by WHO indicate that 90 per cent
of Indian adults have problems; this shows that the risk
involved in this category is relatively low, as consumers do not
seem to be strongly impacted by their lack of oral health care.
Consumers do not go to the dentist as a precautionary but as
remedial measure.

When data is broken down according to the benefit segments,

most of the parameters remain the same, except the exercise
of brushing twice a day. 68 per cent of the respondents in
niche category brushed twice a day, as opposed to 36 per
cent in the overall group. Mostly users of Colgate ActiveSalt
and Colgate Sensitive, both offer remedial benefits. It can be
inferred that awareness and the increased involvement in oral
health for these consumers resulted from the problems they
faced.

This

is

evidence

of

the

change

in

consumer

involvement as a function of potential risk.

2. How many respondents (in percentage) exhibit high

and low/medium involvement with regard to the oral
care category, and express high/low cognitive and

affective associations with regard to each of the

brands? How are the involvement levels associated
with each of the brands?

Segment

Freshness
Herbal
Overall Oral Care
Niche: Problem Solving
Total Category

High-Involvement

Moderate-Low-

Consumers

Involvement

28%
40%
32%
64%
41%

Consumers
72%
60%
68%
36%
59%

Only 41 per cent of the respondents had high involvement. A

significant number of consumers did not express extremely
low involvement with the category; their responses indicate a
moderate to low involvement

59 per cent had a relatively low to moderate involvement with

the category and product benefits.

Segment

Freshness

Strong

Low

Strong

Low

cognitive

cognitive

Affective

Affective

belief

belief

belief

belief

consumers
64%

consumers
36%

consumer
60%

consumer
40%

Herbal
Overall

64%
Oral 56%

Care
Niche
Total Category

The

92%
69%

cognitive

and

36%
44%

44%
36%

56%
64%

8%

72%
53%

28%

affective

associations

indicate

an

interesting pattern. 69 per cent of the total respondents had

strong

cognitive

beliefs

about

their

respective

brands,

whereas only 53 per cent had strong affective beliefs.

It could be inferred that brands in the toothpaste category

have established their functional benefits better compared to
their emotional benefits in their commercials. Pepsodent is an
instance of a brand that uses strong emotive cues in its
communication, with the use of children in humorous settings;
however, the other brands, talk about definite functional
benefits of their products.

Key drivers by which category involvement was expressed at the

total category level. The mean values are directionally indicative
of levels of involvement.

Although the mean values for category involvement items

such as Toothpaste is essential for me and Toothpaste is
beneficial
consumers

to

me

across

indicate
categories

high
also

levels

of

expressed

agreement,
a

strong

inclination towards the feeling Toothpaste is mundane to

me. This indicates that even though consumers use this
category regularly and acknowledge that it is an integral part
of their lives, they feel that this product (and possibly other
related products like toothbrushes) may not get them

involved, given the low perceived risk in the oral care

category.

There are offered benefits of healthy teeth and healthy

gums in most oral care brands. Protection against cavities
was similarly rated as important, possibly because cavities are
a common manifestation of poor oral care and require
expensive and painful treatment.

A similar problem that led to greater involvement was a

toothpaste that could prevent pain when eating hot and cold
things. It can be inferred that although the consumer might
not be aware of core oral care problems such as plaque,
tartar, gingivitis, and periodontal diseases, they acknowledge
and try to prevent the more visible or directly experience able
aspects of these underlying ailments, which escalates their
involvement.

Other drivers of category involvement

Yet another key element- presence of natural ingredients in

the toothpaste, may or may not be manifested in individual
segments, or map on exactly to the attitude towards a brand.
This probably indicates that there might be a relatively low
level of awareness of the segment and the benefits of
natural/herbal

toothpastes.

Hence,

although

large

percentage of the consumers might have expressed this as a

key category driver, they did not use products that were
necessarily natural. From an emotional point of view, a
significant driver for involvement with the category seemed to

be the need for the toothpaste to keep consumers childrens

teeth healthy. This has been shown by several brands that
use children in their advertisements.

Involvement drivers by segment

Key drivers by which category involvement was expressed by

the respondents at a segment level. The mean values in the
first four columns are directionally indicative of levels of
involvement.

In the freshness category, apart from the category drivers that

were

highlighted

earlier,

some

cosmetic

benefits

were

highlighted as important. These include the need for a

toothpaste to taste good, and the significance for the
toothpaste to give one a dazzling smile and whiter teeth.

Some of these could have been derived from the awareness of

this categorys typical brand communication, and others by
product features such as cooling crystals that add to the
pastes taste and flavor. The drivers for the herbal category
were in line with the overall benefits and the brands unique
proposition of using natural ingredients. The overall oral care
segment, being the most general in functional benefits,
mapped almost exactly onto the total category involvement
drivers such as protection from cavities, healthy teeth,
and healthy gums. In the niche problem-solving segment,
apart from the importance of essential drivers, significant
importance was given to the prevention of sensitivity while
eating different types of foods.

Since in Niche Segment 92% of the respondents have strong

cognitive beliefs therefore they have a high involvement level,

as cognitive beliefs require a greater amount of thinking

process.

3. How

does

low

category

involvement

affect

brand

attitude? Explain the inconsistency in those instances

where

brand

attitude

overwhelms

category

involvement.

1. Freshness segment: 66 per cent of the low-involvement

consumers had a high brand attitude. This can also be
observed in the key involvement parameters and the top
attitude drivers. Although theirs was a freshness brand, the
important category drivers for these consumers did not match
their highly rated brand benefits (freshness, confidence to
come closer, etc.). However, both these significant brand
benefits were strongly associated in the cognitive and
affective attitudes of these consumers towards the brand as
indicated by the average values.
2. Herbal segment: Less than half the consumers who had low
category involvement in this segment had high brand attitude.
The top averages were for category drivers that were in line
with the brand benefits, although the consumers gave more
importance to natural ingredients rather than specifics such
as herbal or Ayurvedic. The importance given to healthy
teeth and gums was also relatively high in the association with
brand (cognitive belief section); similarly, aspects such as
feeling in control and protected by an expert had high
scores

in

affective

associations

in

line

with

brand

communication. Hence, involvement was mostly consistent

with attitude in this segment.
3. Overall oral care segment: Similar to the herbal segment,
this segment had only 46 per cent of low involvement
consumers expressing high attitude towards the brand.
Category drivers such as cavity prevention and healthy
teeth were in line with the cognitive beliefs for the brand.
However, some other benefits that this brand did not primarily
offer were also category drivers. Some drivers that the brand
consistently used in its communication (recommended by
dentists, can reach where a toothbrush cannot reach,
decay protection etc.) were comparatively low on cognitive
beliefs. On the whole, the affective beliefs for this segment
were also low, indicating that although there was low category
involvement, brand attitude did not trump it significantly.
4. Niche (problem-solving segment): 89 per cent of the lowinvolvement consumers in this segment expressed high brand
attitude. The problem-solving nature of this segment indicates
that even when consumer involvement is low, the brand
comes out strong on the value of its distinctive superiority and
its impact on the consumers mindset. Cavity prevention,
healthy teeth, and protection from sensitivity rated high in
this segment; therefore, involvement was noticeably in line
with the problems faced by the consumer. Although other
opinions existed for this brand, all the key cognitive and
affective drivers that the brand strived to achieve in its
consumers minds were well entrenched.

4. How many consumers expressed consistency between

the strength of their cognitive beliefs and the strength
of

their

affective

beliefs

associated

with

their

respective brand choices? How can any inconsistencies

be explained?

Maps the comparison between the strength of the cognitive

responses and that of the affective responses for respondents
in all categories. The objective is to verify whether the brand
has successfully established the link between its cognitive and
affective benefits in the mind of the consumer.

46% of the total respondents had a consistently strong belief

for both the cognitive as well as the affective aspects of the
brand. This segment would also be likely to map onto the
high-involvement segment, as these consumers knew the
functional benefits of the brand, and those benefits had
successfully been associated with the emotional benefits that
the brand wished to communicate. Around 24 % had neither
strong cognitive beliefs nor strong affective beliefs with
respect to their brand; these consumers mapped onto the lowto moderate involvement segment.

Among the rest, there was an inconsistency observed between

the cognitive and the affective beliefs for about 30%. One
possible reason for strong cognitive beliefs to go together with
weak affective beliefs could be that the toothpaste category is
one of the oldest and most advertised categories in the Indian
FMCG market, and over the years, the communication by the
key brands has consistently been functional.

Moreover, their single-minded focus on the key benefit

proposition (protection against decay, fighting germs, etc.)
has resulted in consumers developing a high recall of brands
functional benefits without establishing a deep connect.

If there is little connect, consumers will not perceive much

differentiation among brands. Weak cognitive beliefs but
strong affective belief can result from low involvement with
category, where consumer is not seeking a very specific brand
benefit as he does not comprehend these but is rather
influenced by the feel of the ad and peripheral cues like usage
of humor, drama, etc.

5. Taking into account the category-level and segmentlevel analyses, what kind of recommendations would
you provide for the Himalaya brand?

Following is the recommendation given:1. Enter the niche/problem solving segment. This can be done:
a) Through HiOra
b) Problem solving approach in advertising

2. Develop an emotional connect in line with the current

positioning by listing emotional benefits like trust, security
with pleasure of eating all types of food.
3. Launch engaging advertisement campaigns like Colgate and
HUL.
4. Maintain POP like freshness which is recognized as important
by consumers and advertised accordingly

5. Link the functional benefits to the aspects of oral health

without going niche to drive brand recall
6. Driving a core benefit should be the major element as it is the

POD of Himalaya herbal range of products

7. Introduce more product variants