Your vision as a brand should be meaningful, relevant: Anurita Chopra

How has the oral care category evolved in India?

Indians used to buy toothpaste based on certain parameters—be it cavity or freshness of breath, at best, perhaps, teeth whitening. But when you look at it globally, the category has matured. Globally and one in three people in India suffers from tooth sensitivity. So, for us, it was quite compelling to visit this place as a necessity. India is a big market for tobacco and hence people have gum problems. The way the oral care category has been shaped and designed is very early. This may be a mature category in terms of penetration, but when you start breaking it down into need states, you find that it is actually very immature. That’s exactly the journey we’re on.

What challenges do you face in building such niche, nascent categories?

It’s about consumer education. When we started Sensodyne’s journey 10 years ago, it really started with making one person aware that this is called tooth sensitivity, and it is treatable.

For us, dentists – we directly and indirectly reach over 40,000 dentists – believe in the science of our product. They believe in it; They have prescribed it for millions of consumers. Therefore, his advocacy and credibility add a great deal to Sensodyne’s journey.

How do we weave the fun into functional brands like Sensodyne and Eno?

It totally depends on what is your brand and what is your brand personality. For example, Sensodyne is by no means a fun brand. It’s all about the authenticity and promise behind the brand, and so, we totally talk about the difference we bring to the table and the science behind the brand. We have enhanced this through the “For the Love Off” campaign, which is a food-related campaign. Therefore, it adds a small dimension of humanity.

Eno, on the other hand, is a fun brand. It’s about eating sweets and snacks and then having acidity. So, it totally depends on the brand personality and usage occasion.

Has Your Media Marketing Mix Changed Post-Covid?

Despite Covid, digital is clearly picking up, and how. It’s not year-over-year but quarter-on-quarter how our digital spend continues to grow. As a brand, it’s imperative that consumers be there – whether it’s searching for consumer information or connecting with friends and like-minded communities. What is your vision as a brand? What is your participation? It is better to be meaningful and relevant, because patience is also less. So, in those few seconds, how can you get your message across, and we’ve done it in a very relevant way, cutting across all our categories.

For Sensodyne, when we ran the “For the Love Off” campaign, we thought people were at home, experimenting with food, especially during the lockdown. We were telling people not to hold back and eat whatever their heart desires. With Eno, too, we felt people cooking all kinds of food at home. And, therefore, the chances of acidity and digestive problems were increasing. What we did was we dialed in on the cohort thinking.

How Important Is Vernacular Reach?

So, flashback to 15 years ago. As a marketing manager, I remember the days when while running a massive brand campaign, we used to translate posters into 12 to 13 languages ​​because you want to reach the local consumer in the local language. With Sensodyne, we shoot in eight different languages ​​as you want to speak the regional language. Because we feel so strongly about saying the right thing. Food triggers and formats differ from state to state. I will talk about rasam in the south, but I will talk about jalebi in the north. Second, larger platforms, which give us incremental reach, especially in media-dark geographies, are important. Now, here is where the video format, and ultimately the voice, is huge. And that’s where, for example, YouTube and other visual formats come into play. And, thus, the whole partnership came one with Instagram, one with Facebook, or one with Jio because it gives us scale, especially in hard-to-reach areas.