We are a massively consumer-obsessed organisation: Bhawna Sikka, Sensodyne

Sensodyne, an oral healthcare brand from the house of Haleon India, recently launched the 'BeSensitiveToOralHealth’ campaign, aimed to educate consumers about the need for proactive oral care and to enable them a basic dental consultation. The brand was launched in India in February 2011 and managed to become a household name in the country. 

Sensodyne has always hinged on the point of tooth pain and sensitivity in their campaigns; their ads often have pictures of people wincing in pain, creating a rather visceral reaction in viewers. The campaigns have assured consumers that if tooth sensitivity is the question, Sensodyne is the answer, creating a sweet spot for the brand as far as positioning is concerned.

In this interview with e4m, Bhawna Sikka, the Category Head-Oral Healthcare, Haleon India, tells us about how the brand has sunken its teeth into understanding consumers, Sensodyne's brand journey and more.

Excerpts from the interview:

Your ads have been very creative when it comes to bringing out the problem with dental care, which is one of the main reasons why Sensodyne has such a good recall. How did you crack that? 

For us as an organisation and especially on Sensodyne, all of the work that we do that precedes creativity is insight. How well do we understand our consumers, how deep is our understanding? From there, comes the endeavour to find the best way to communicate.  To be able to tell the consumers that we understand you and your problems and here is the solution for the same to make your everyday health or your life a little better. 

The reason why people notice and relate with our ads is that we tell their stories. For instance, when you see the lady in our ads with the ice cream and her expression of sharp shooting pain, you will say "This is me" and therefore you want to know who is talking about it. Because whoever is talking about it, knows you. Then comes the noticeability of the brand and gaining the trust of the consumer. 

The type of category you are in,  people have their preferences influenced by the generation before them. How do you go about making your market share?

We entered the category about 11 years ago. Toothpaste is a highly penetrated market and a lot of players did educational investments in building the category and certain dental habits within the population. Telling them the importance of brushing was a task. What should we offer? What is it that is still required? What is not getting addressed and that we could take care of?  We realise that sensitivity was one such problem and it is tooth related problem but it's a very specific problem that needs a very specific solution. 

The starting point for us and everything that we do is consumer insights and understanding. We realized that there was a problem of tooth sensitivity and people are not able to enjoy the small joys of life such as ice cream or even a glass of cold water and we are a very hot country.  What could be done to solve it. So we called that out saying - "What you are going through is known as tooth sensitivity." People did not even know that there was a name for it. 

So from knowing the insights to being able to tell what the problem is, to then offering a product that could make a difference -- this is how we managed to gain the trust of Indian consumers now.

What challenges did you face in the earlier days of the brand?

We saw it as an opportunity. Here is a country where people are using toothpaste every day but there are underlying problems with one in four people suffering from tooth sensitivity. Then the task that lay before us was how do we communicate. How do we say it in a meaningful way? One of the reasons for Sensodyne's success is our consistency. We have been speaking the same language with a consistent message. We have not wavered in terms of what we were saying over a period of time, creating a cumulative effect. Finally, people recognize the brand.  

Since there are many homegrown/personalised brands also apart from legacy brands, how are you cutting through the clutter?

When it comes to personalization, the Sensodyne portfolio has also evolved to address tooth sensitivity, rapid relief, repair, protection, etc. From a personalization perspective, first is what a product can do and the second is what we can do beyond just the product. So we have an expert detailing team which goes out and meets 30,000 doctors and what we do with them is take to them the latest science of the product. 

For a recently concluded campaign, we did get people to have access to dentists. There were dental camps that were organised and then there was a tie-up with Practo for a free dental check-up. We strongly believe the role of dentists when it comes to personalizing oral health and that is where our job becomes empowering the dentist and enabling the dentist the way they would like. 

There has been a lot of discussion about your ad strategy. While setbacks are a part of every brand's journey, what is your learning from the same? And what is the strategy to come out of the tough time?

As an organisation we are committed to always being aligned to whatever the government and regulatory body are specifying and we have done that and we have been in close communication with stakeholders. Whatever we are saying, in whatever way, it is completely aligned to what all of the key stakeholders believe in.

What is the marketing strategy that you hugely bank on for touching Indian consumers? 

We are a massively consumer-obsessed organisation. Like consumer insights, there is consumer intimacy also. It's the subtext that the consumer will not speak about but they deeply feel. We do direct consumer visits to understand the way people live and from there,  try to understand what their philosophy of life is, and what their oral health problems are.

I think the fountainhead of all our marketing strategy is just knowing our consumers intimately, innovation and communication, and then reaching them. For that, TV is the by far the most cost-efficient medium to reach the majority of people. 

The right media mix is important to reach where the consumer is. What changes is our relative presence on different mediums depending upon who is available where? We look at every city, and every state as itself. We don't plan to pan India rather we focus on regions. 

What's the percentage of business coming from online vs offline outlets?

4-8% of FMCG business comes from e-commerce depending upon which category you are from. The modern trade contribution is somewhere in the range of 10-15%. 

How is the mdia mix bifurcation in your marketing budget?

TV takes up the majority of the budget, and 70% of the budget goes into TV. The rest 30% goes into digital, OOH, radio, and influencer marketing.

What is 2023 going to be like for the company?

It's going to be a year of growth.