Digital Portfolio

MARK2303
Student no: XXXXXXX
Essay word count: XXX
Lecturer: Dr. Brian Harman
Module name/code: Consumer Behaviour (MK2303)
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Topic: Consumer behaviour towards sanitizers and health care items; a case of Dettol
Health is the basic necessity of life and when we consider about health and hygiene, Dettol is
the foremost thing which comes into mind. Such is the perception of Dettol; a Reckitt
Benckiser owned brand has gained with its wide range of personal care products (Keller and
Fay 2016). With its inception in 1933, Dettol has come a long way and dominates around
85% of the global antiseptic and personal care market (Akpan et al. 2015). Therefore, the
main objective of this essay is to analyse consumer’s perception and behaviour towards
sanitizers and other health care items as the flagship product of Dettol.
Dettol as a brand was launched as an antiseptic liquid used for the treatment of wounds and
cuts. For the next 5 decades, it was seen as a medicated product used for disinfection and first
aid in nursing homes and hospitals (Najim 2015). Initially, consumers were least interested to
spend much on such personal care products. But with the evolving time, these things became
a necessity for maintaining personal hygiene and safety. So, being known for “cuts and
wounds” product, it has come a long way and today, it is known as germ protector in each
possible situation (Sapatnekar 2015). Today, a majority of consumers consider it as personal
care, shaving, mopping and other secondary purposes. Thus, understanding consumer
behaviours became crucial to identify and analyse the way consumers prefer, select, use and
dispose of such products and services (Biswas and Roy 2015). Subsequently, this brand has
aligned its marketing strategies with its distinct packaging and trademark smell which is
easily recognised by consumers and refers anything clean and safe as “Dettol like smell”. The
green and white colour pattern as shown in figure (figure 1) signify its association with
medicinal uses whereas, the sword placed in the middle of its packaging reflects its abilities
to fight against germs and infections (Pratiwy and Wulan 2018). During all these years, it has
become a synonym of this brand and has effectively been used to position itself far ahead
from other competitors.

Figure 1: Dettol logo; Source: http://logok.org/dettol-logo/

According to Mirabi et al. (2015) there are two major factors namely price and quality that
shapes consumer's perception and opinion. A study by Pallavi and Shashidhar (2015)
perceived that the majority of customers prefer the quality of the brand over prices. This
proposition becomes much more important when it comes to hygiene and personal care.
Therefore, while other competitors were emphasizing on a lower price, Dettol focussed on a
blend of quality, price and marketing to attract new customers while retaining the existing
ones (Baxi et al. 2016). Easy availability and usability is another significant concern for
customers which shapes the consumer buying behaviour. For this purpose, Dettol streamlined
its supply chain to ensure easy and sufficient availability of its entire product range at all
places.
Dettol additionally applied consumer perception theories to evaluate consumer’s perception
as well as expectation. Accordingly, this first-hand information was used for branding and
marketing strategies to position themselves ahead of its competitors and while adding new
consumers. This led to the creation of the image of Dettol as an effective and versatile expert
which can guarantee better protection from germs. The term versatility comes from its
usability under multiple situations where antiseptic liquids, sanitizers and other personal care
items are used for safety purposes in different forms (Srivastava 2015). Moreover, acceptance
and use of products offered a wide range of emotions among masses, which in turn helped
people feel secured and satisfied. Apart from this, there are several other contributing factors
as shown in figure 2, which significantly helped in moulding consumer motivation.
Therefore, Dettol as a brand and its tagline “Be 100% sure” has evoked positive emotions and
imageries among consumers.

Figure 2: Consumer perception for Dettol; Source:

https://www.academia.edu/5586065/DETTOL
With the passage of time, new competitors arrived and the market got diversified.
Unpredictable consumer behaviour and market conditions further complicated the business
environment. In such high-time, Dettol showed strong commitment towards its values and
introduced a wide range of personal care and health care items under different segments
(Kavanagn and Brigham 2016). It includes different forms of soaps, sanitizers, first aid kit,
cleaners, et cetera. Availability of these products with different packaging and quantity
further escalated its acceptance and popularity among consumers. With its aggressive multi-
platform marketing strategies and continuous innovation, it is expected to hold its leadership
in this segment while exploring new markets and consumers.
From the above study, it can be concluded that Dettol has a wider penetration among its
consumer base, as compared to its competitors and has a greater potential to explore and
expand its business amid such rapid evolution in society and urbanization. Therefore, this
essay presents a better insight into understanding consumer preferences and perceptions.
Notably, it is found to be helpful in analysing all those factors which were crucially for the
success of Dettol as personal care and sanitizing brand.
References
Akpan, U.U., Nda, I. and Nkenta, I.P., 2015. Testimonials in Television Advertising and
Consumer Patronage of Select Antiseptic Products in Uyo Urban, Akwa Ibom State of
Nigeria. International Journal of Education and Research, 3(8), pp.217-236.

Baxi, B., Panda, R. and Karani, A., 2016. Community Marketing: an effective Marketing
Strategy. Romanian Journal of Marketing, (3).

Biswas, A. and Roy, M., 2015. Green products: an exploratory study on the consumer
behaviour in emerging economies of the East. Journal of Cleaner Production, 87, pp.463-
468.

Kavanagh, D. and Brigham, M., 2016, July. Why has Organization Theory forgotten the
Quakers?. In 32nd European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) Conference, Naples,
Italy, 7-9 December 2016.

Keller, E. and Fay, B., 2016. How to use influencers to drive a word-of-mouth strategy. Warc
Best Practice, pp.1-8.

Mirabi, V., Akbariyeh, H. and Tahmasebifard, H., 2015. A study of factors affecting on
customers purchase intention. Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and
Technology (JMEST), 2(1).

Najim, S.S., 2017. The Efficiency of Dettol as Detergent against Microbial Biofilm formation
isolated from UTI infections. Current Research in Microbiology and Biotechnology, 5(6),
pp.1380-1384.

Pallavi, G.S. and Shashidhar, S., 2015. A Study on Consumer Behavior towards Selected
FMCG. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research (IJEMR), 5(2),
pp.303-320.

Pratiwy, D. and Wulan, S., 2018. Multimodal discourse analysis in Dettol Tv advertisement.
KnE Social Sciences, pp.207-217.
Sapatnekar, N., 2015. Brand Positioning: Control or Influence on Buying Patterns of
Customers. International Peer Reviewed Refereed Journal, 2(7), pp.12-17.

Srivastava, R., 2015. Measuring the effectiveness of the communication strategy by using the
brand score technique–a conceptual study. Journal of Asia Business Studies.