Listerine in Brazil Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Listerine in Brazil Case Study Solution

Abstract

The case illustrates the brand management techniques used by the Art,the new brand manager in J&J to elevate the brand awareness in the Brazilian market and to increase its share while competing with the strong brands like Colgate in Brazil. Since Listerine caters the mouth freshener and oral care consumers in Brazil, it is ranked as the top product used by the consumers of SEC A and B while some share is acquired by Sec C and SEC D. Over the period of time, the main competitors of the company Colgate elevated its brand strategy in the market by offering cheap oral products to the consumers, this not only effected the brand recognition of Listerine among users but also effected the position of Listerine in the mind of the consumers.

Analyzing the particular trend and brand strategy of Colgate, Art pursued two strategies to list Listerine on top in the market.The strategies were product innovations and market awareness. In doing so, the company launched a mild flavor of Listerine for the users that prefer non-alcoholic mouthwash, while introduced cost effective product “essentials” in the market to compete with the Colgate’s product line.

In addition to this, the company also launched the larger packs of Listerine that not only increased its shelf visibility but also increased the usage index of the product.Moreover, to create the product awareness in the market, the company aggressively spent on the bellow the line (BTL) activities to generate eyeball effect,while also supported the certain 21 days’ promotional campaigns to generate trails.

All this helped the company in elevating its product listing in the market,along with the increased market share, product penetration and brand awareness in Brazilian market.

Keywords: Brand Awareness, Product innovation, Usage Index, Market penetration

Introduction

Listerine is a well-established oral care brand in Brazil and is ranked at the top of the share index in oral care industry. Over the period of time, the company grew in size and share by targeting the SEC A and SEC B markets respectively.However, with the advent of the Colgate’s cost effective brand strategy in the market, the company started facing the reduced brand recognition and brand recall. This greatly affected the brand image and brand positioning of the product in the market.

Brazil is famous for its dental industry.The main dental recommendations are given by the dentists in the industry. Listerine generated its major sales from the drug stores followed by the retail shops and lastly by the Mom and Pops types of shops in the market. Over the period of time, Listerine analyzed the drop in sales and huge market penetration of Colgate in the market. The reason is the low index of recommendation of Listerine products by the dentist due to its strong formula and alcohol content while the increasing cost effective products offered by competing brands.So in order to deal with the issue, Art, the product manager of the Listerine launched Essentials with low cost and mild flavor in the market. The strategy not only regained the market share of the company but also offered the company with market development opportunities since the SEC A and SEC B started using the Essentials.

In addition to this, the company altered its distribution strategy by developing the large volume bottles to offer to the customers. This not only increased the product visibility, point of sales visibility and shelf space but also increased the product usage index among the customers. Lastly, to generate the brand awareness in market and establish strong brand position, the company adopted the free trail promotion strategy to offer customer free trails of the mild and old Listerine wash.This helped the company in not only generating trails but also to create the top of mind position in the mind of customers.

Analysis

Assess Listerine position in Brazilian Market, what objective would you choose to propose to the Brand?

Brazil has a well-developed Dental care and Oral health care market. The region has high propensity for the oral products and dental healthcare.Over the period of time, the companies like Unilever, P&G and Johnson and Johnson has acquired the brazil in market by offering different mouth wash products and oral care products. Among those Listerine – The product of Johnson and Johnson establishes the top position in the market in terms of market share, brand recognition and brand positioning. The company offers high strong mint flavor alcoholic formula for the mouth wash, specially catering the upper and upper middle target markets of the region.

Listerine in Brazil Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Over the period of time, the company remain at the top of the consumer mind and has been sold through the Drugstores generating bulk of sales, however,with the arrival of Colgate in the market the company has started facing low brand recognition and easy positioning in the mind of the customers.This has been due to the strong flavor, high price and alcoholic components in the Listerine products, which hindered the sales and reduced the market share in Brazilian region.

Hence, in order to deal with the issue and to rebuild the brand positioning in the market, the company introduced Listerine with mild formula under the brand name essentials. This has been a smart move since it safeguards the brand image and brand equity of the Listerine parent product and allowed the customer to distinguish between the two brands hence adopting the new product with clear positioning in the mind.Also, the company developed the new SBU division for the Listerine product available in bigger volume. This helped the company to increase the usage index of the product while also increased sales............................

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