A company’s marketing mix strategy is key to their success. Thorough analysis is needed to assure that product attributes, distribution strategy, communication strategy and pricing strategy are all in line with the company’s strategic goal. The following analysis is of Cottle-Taylor’s marketing mix strategy in India. Product Attributes: Cottle-Taylor has three product categories in order to reach their three market segments: 1) Low-End Manual, 2) Mid-Range Manual, and 3) Battery-Operated. The manual toothbrush designs include “a variety of colors; all styles included rubber grips” (HBR 6). In the Low-End category Cottle-Taylor produced 5 different products with varying characteristics ranging from soft In just five years they have almost dominated the oral care market and a key contributor to their success is their communication strategy. Their weakest strategy in the marketing mix is product attributes. It appears Cottle-Taylor has not fully understood their market segments when designing products for India. Looking at exhibit 8, it is clear the majority of demand is for the Low-End Manual with 87% of sales. The least amount of demand is for the Battery-Operated brush with only .5% of sales. With 80% of the population in India living under $2 a day, does it make sense to market a high-end expensive product in India? Exhibit 4 shows that a very small percentage of Indians have sufficient amounts of disposable income to spend on expensive toothbrushes. India has a very small concentration of high income and a very large number of people living in poverty. The Battery-Operated brush is mainly marketed in urban areas however, “in 2009 roughly 78% of Indians lived in rural towns and villages and 22% in urban settings” (HBR 3). This is a very small percent of the population they are trying to capture with the high-end toothbrush. Overall, this is a very comprehensive marketing strategy. Cottle-Taylor has segmented the market and created specific products for each market. As mentioned earlier, the high-end
