Founded in 1815 as hand-soap

manufacturer

Case Geographic Divisions - North America,

Europe, Latin America, Africa
Outline
Product Line - Oral Care, Home Care,
Personal Care
Background
HR Practices -International local
workforce, Collaborative environment
 Industry Factors

What industry Favor:

• Growth of rural exposure to mobile technology made it easier than before to
factors and communicate dental hygiene ideas

internal company • Increased campaigning from IDA was yielding positive results as oral care’s sector
growth rate from 2008 to 2009 was 10% 

issues are • Indians considered Cottle an authority on oral care and held their products in high
regard. Hence giving Cottle a good brand impression. 
working in favor • Those who were being exposed to toothbrushing campaigns were actively engaging
in adopting toothbrushing practices. Hence giving awareness and brand promotion
of, and against a good chance of success.

Cottle Taylor, as
Against:
• The expenditure on advertising was increased during the recession
the company • The rural group was extremely price sensitive as it depended mostly on inconsistent
daily wages
seeks growth? • The target audience had poor brushing habits and were not very frequent with
replacement of brushes
• In India people perceived that the dental problems were due to bad eating
habits/genetics
Internal company issues
Favor:
• Collaborative environment as both the Indian and US workforce
collaborate
• Already well established manufacturing capacity and productivity
• High gross margin of toothbrush products yielding higher profit
• Proven success in emerging markets. Hence, good amount of
exposure to create reliable strategies
• Have local talents in the company to maximize international sales and
country specific innovation
Against:
• The prices of toothpaste were reduced due to increasing competition
which led to reduction in profit
• Difficulty in inventory planning by rural retailers
• The decline in US revenues led to additional pressure in emerging
markets
Analyse and prioritize each of the growth options for
toothbrushes considering the size of the opportunity, the
relative ease/difficulty of executing each option, the
investments required, the time horizon etc.
Low end manual:
• Potential customers – Rural population(Big market size)
• Investments required for marketing comms and above the line
marketing
• The challenge would be to create awareness among the rural people
Mid range manual:
• Big market size