Making Pepsodent a habit

What’s the best way of increasing the sales volume of a brand? Make it part of the consumer’s daily habit and thus increase its usage.

Pepsodent has tried to do just that with its latest ‘Aarti’ commercial. Through the TVC, the toothpaste brand tries to promote the habit of brushing one’s teeth at night among kids, which is good for oral hygiene.

HLL, which owns the Pepsodent brand, got research done by IMRB, which indicated that while brushing one’s teeth in the morning is a universal habit, kids and even adults do not brush their teeth quite often at night.

Anupama Saikia, senior brand manager, Pepsodent, says, “The research also indicated that mothers realised that their kids needed to brush their teeth before going to bed, but they take the easy way out often just to avoid conflict.”

The television commercial begins with two women on a morning walk. The series of scenes that follows showcases women expressing themselves while engrossed in their daily chores. The collage of snapshots has a mother with a tea tray, a woman cop, women sitting in a rickshaw, women drying clothes on a terrace, a woman at a studio, a woman reading a book, a woman brushing her hair and women sitting in a group. The unifying factor of the commercial is the aarti (hymn), which runs alongside the snapshots.

The ‘aarti’ runs thus: ‘Nahin karta, nahin karta, brush nahin karta, sone se pehle yeh brush nahin karta. Din bhar yeh khaata… khaata hi jaata, khaana khaake seedhe sone ko jaata. Brush kar. Brush kar (He does not brush his teeth before going to bed. He eats all day and heads straight for bed after eating).’

The voiceover says: ‘Har ma ki prarthna sun lee Pepsodent bhoot police ne. Ek nahin, do nahin, baarah lakh bacche ab raat mein brush karte hain (The Pepsodent ghost, read germ, has heard the prayers of mothers and 12 lakh kids now brush their teeth at night).’

The second part of the commercial shows the mothers relaxing now that their children have started paying attention to their oral health. The ‘aarti’ continues on a happier note: ‘To ab ladoo yeh khaata, peda yeh khaata, Brush karke yeh munh ka bhoot bhagaata (Now he eats ‘ladoos’ and ‘pedas’, but drives away the germs by brushing his teeth).’

This is not the first time that Pepsodent has actively taken up the cause of brushing one’s teeth at night. The night-brushing campaign was kicked off with the commercial in which the little boy scout at a camp says, “Raat ko brush nahin kiya to bhoot aa jayenge (If you don’t brush your teeth at night, the ghosts, read germs, will come).” This was followed by a promotional campaign on the Bhoot Police concept. This gained momentum with the activation programme. The latest campaign upholds the success of this programme.

Saikia says, “This year, we adopted the reward and education mechanism to take the Bhoot Police concept forward. We did school contact programmes under which we went to nearly 1,500 schools. It was a result of this programme that we reached a figure of 12 lakh children, which is highlighted in the commercial. These children signed a pledge and it was verified by their parents that they actually did brush their teeth with Pepsodent at night.”

She adds, “The latest commercial is a pay-off of all those activities.”

What arrests attention is the ‘aarti’ song, which increases the TVC’s recall value. Explaining the strategy behind using the ‘aarti’ as a medium to convey the message, Shriram V Iyer, creative director, Lowe, says, “The ‘aarti’ or prayer denotes that the wishes of the mothers have been fulfilled.”

Samrat Das Gupta of Lowe, who has also worked on the campaign, says, “We chose the ‘aarti’ because we were looking for something that would be the largest common denominator. It is also apt as the commercial says that the prayers of many mothers have been answered – what could be better than an ‘aarti’ to express the central theme?”

However, a section of the industry feels that the tune of the ‘aarti’, which is similar to the ‘Ganesh Aarti’, could upset religious minded people. Das Gupta explains, “The ‘aarti’ is not something that is indicative of the brand; it is used to communicate the storyline that expresses the concerns of mothers.”

© 2006 agencyfaqs!