Colgate-Palmolive Limited"Keep India Smiling"

Elayza Gonzalez

Jordan Folkes

Kayla Lane

Stephanie Gonzalez

Genesis Burson-Marsteller

SituationAnalysis

§ Opportunity: Colgate partnered with the Indian Dental Association (IDA) with the goal of raising awareness on oral care during Oral Health Month (October-November). The “Keep India Smiling” campaign aimed to touch the lives of 6 million people across India by partnering with 35,000 IDA dentists to spread smiles.

SituationAnalysis

§ Internal Factors: Colgate-Palmolive is an American worldwide consumer products company focused on the production and distribution of health/personal care products. They value three things: caring, global teamwork and continuous improvement.

SituationAnalysis

§ External Factors: India

§ Second-most populated country in the world (1.3 billion)

§ Democratic republic & economic liberalism

§ Political turmoil: India-Pakistan conflict

§ Largest number of people living below poverty line and in conditions of slavery

§ Caste system defines social hierarchy

§ Religion - Hinduism (almost 80 %)

§ Popular culture – Bollywood

§ TV is the medium with the largest reach

§ High-Context (but a little Low-Context)§ Caste system – implicit knowledge of hierarchy

§ Communication style is mixed and complex because of the use of multiple languages – covert and implicit

§ "For Indians, the purpose of communication is to maintain harmony and forge relationships, not to exchange information." (Case study)

§ Low-context: Process of change (technology and media)

§ Low-context: Flexible on time even though they prefer agendas and punctuality

SituationAnalysis

Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

SituationAnalysis

India ranks 79 with a corruption score of 40. (TransparencyInternational)

SituationAnalysis

§ Environmental, current events and other influences that affect how public relations is practiced:

§ PR began in the early 1990s

§ Genesis by Burson-Marsteller - 2000s

§ Has a consistently high growth rate

§ India's fast-growing economy

§ Large English-speaking base

§ Stable political government and legal base

§ University curriculum and graduate degree programs

§ Campaign: 70% of India lives in rural areas with little access to dental care

PrimaryPublics/Audiences

§ Primary - Women, elderly, children, and rural areas of India

§ Secondary - Members of the Indian population in Urban areas which account for 31.15% of the total population of India, without access to quality dental care.

PrimaryPublics/Audiences

§ 47% have never visited a dentist and 38% have only visited a dentist when they faced severe dental problems.

§ Close to 70% (68.81%) of India’s total population live in rural communities.

§ Women account for 586,469,174 of India’s total population.

§ India’s total population is 1,210,569,573. (2011 census)

OverviewoftheCampaign

§ Theme: Dental Health Awareness

§ Tagline: Keep India Smiling

§ Key messages: "A smile is what brings you places"

OverviewoftheCampaign

Overarching Goal: The 'Keep India Smiling' campaign aims to increase Colgate's brand awareness and oral health awareness by reaching out to 6 million people throughout India.

OverviewoftheCampaign

Goal 1: To create brand awareness throughout India

Objective: To increase familiarity and awareness of Colgate as a household brand

Strategy: Partner with already trusted influencers in India and gain an audience through digital outreach

Tactic 1: Colgate partnered with the Indian Dental Association (IDA), the largest recognized body of dental professionals in India, since 1946.

Tactic 2: The use of #ColgateSmileStories created digital outreach.

Tactic 3: Famous Actresses, Mandira Bedi, Pallavi Subhash and Adah Sharma were chosen as ambassadors for this campaign to develop trust from the consumers.

OverviewoftheCampaign

Goal 2: Increase oral health awareness throughout India.

Objective: Increase oral health awareness within 6 million people across India, with participation of over 35,000 IDA dentists.

Strategy: Increase access to dental services to impoverished areas and areas in need.

Tactic 1: Mobile vans were sent to 46 cities to visit schools, housing societies and underprivileged areas to provide free dental service and educate about the importance of oral care. It reached 400,000 people.

Tactic 2: After checkups, children pledged to let friends and family know the importance of oral health and to continue practicing good oral hygiene.

Implementation

Implementation

§ Analysis of Webpage: colgate.co.in

§ Media Kit: Initial Press Release, concluding Press Release

§ Social Media: Facebook, YouTube, #KeepIndiaSmiling

CircuitofCulture

• Regulation: No political factors but prior social inaccessibility to oral health care. Cultural norms made it low on priorities.

• Production: Work that went into the campaign on behalf of IDA and Colgate.

• Representation: Media releases, websites, and social media: the form an object takes and the meanings encoded in that form. Oral Health Care services provide sense of importance and belonging because of messaging.

§ Consumption: Restructured cultural norm, importance of oral health care

• Identity: Colgate aimed to identify as a brand that cared about its consumers. One of Colgate’s values is caring.

EvaluationoftheCampaign

§ Analysis:

§ OHM in 2004 – 6 cities and 70 dentists

§ OHM in 2015 – 1,000 cities and towns and 32,000 dentists

§ Mobile vans reached 46 cities and 400,000 people

§ YouTube – 4 videos, 4 million views, 20 days

§ Facebook – 23 stories, 25 million people, 20 days

§ World Smile Day (Oct. 2) - School outreach (pledge)

§ CSD camps – 10,000 people, 50 canteens and depots of armed forces (acknowledge their service)

§ In-store retail – 120 stores, 33 towns, 40,000 consumers, 2 months

EvaluationoftheCampaign

§ Reactions:

§ Facebook – more than 25,000 Likes per post (one post reached 275,000 Likes)

§ Comments - "Colgate helps me laugh without feeling embarrassed." (Facebook user)

§ YouTube -

§ 2015 – 130,000 views

§ 2017 – 10 million views

§ Awards – Diamond SABRE Award (South Asia) in the category for Achievement in Brand-Building

EvaluationoftheCampaign

Critique

§ Colgate’s approach to help the underprivileged people of India while also helping their brand was both ethical and effective.

§ There was a kink in the information regarding the number of dentists who were supposed to participate and the number of those that actually did. In the original press release, it was said that 35,000 dentists were participating but in the evaluation in December, it showed that only 32,000 participated.

EvaluationoftheCampaign

Recommendations

§ Colgate continued to do this campaign during Oral Health Month in the following years. Since this campaign, a contest was developed to reach out to more people and reward them for their involvement. This contest would have brought a wider audience if performed in 2015, the first year of the campaign.

§ The influencers that worked as ambassadors for this campaign were only famous actresses/ women. Though women were part of the primary audience, children were too; not all of these children look up to famous women. It would have been more relatable for the younger boys to see famous men working as influencers alongside the women.

Conclusion

§ The Colgate “Keep India Smiling” campaign illustrated the power of timeliness,

strategic partnerships, and the social media campaign.

§ One company can help reframe the cultural narrative of oral health importance and

through the power of a PR outreach and media campaign.

§ A Public Relations campaign is that much of the results of their social impact is

uncontrolled compared to an advertising campaign. However, the longevity of the

annual campaign with successful continued efforts for social change has been one that

really did “Make India Smile” more than before.

References

§ “Colgate Concludes Oral Health Month 2015 with a Pledge to 'Keep India Smiling'.”Royalharbinger.com, www.royalharbinger.com/business-news_3722.html.

§ Census Provisional Population Totals 2011, CensusInfo, 2011, censusindia.gov.in/2011census/censusinfodashboard/index.html.

§ “Company: News.” Colgate-Palmolive | News - India, www.colgate.co.in/app/Colgate/IN/Corp/News/CompanyNews/HomePage.cvsp?newsArticle=News_200217.

§ “Http://Www.helsinki.fi/~Tella/nishimuranevgitella299.Pdf The Authors and Title Are in the Document. The Source: in A. Kallioniemi (Ed.) Renovating and Developing Subject Didactics. Proceedings of a Subject-Didactic Symposium in Helsinki on Feb 2, 2008, Part 2 (Pp. 783-796). University of Helsinki. Department of Applied Sciences of Education. Research Report 299, Online.”Http://Www.helsinki.fi/~Tella/nishimuranevgitella299.Pdf | University of Central Lancashire, readinglist

§ http://static.globalreporting.org/report-pdfs/2016/442cb1f102ef7929ece53e30b0b94a8d.pdf

§https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7OG3XjreyM

§ http://static.globalreporting.org/report-pdfs/2016/442cb1f102ef7929ece53e30b0b94a8d.pdf

§https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7OG3XjreyM

§ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/brand-equity/smiles-to-go-how-colgate-has-remained-top-of-the-toothpaste-brand-tree/articleshow/56753831.cms\

§http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/ranchi/dentist-association-and-colgate-to-observe-oral-health-month.html

§http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Andhra-Pradesh/2015-11-03/Spreading-awareness-on-oral-health-/184340

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