Question

Up until 1970, Church and Dwight had only produced two products: Arm and Hammer Baking Soda and a Washing Soda, a laundry product. The company proceeded to horizontally integrate by releasing multiple new laundry and household cleaning products, however it left little room for growth due to the niche market. They tried to combat this by acquiring many established consumer brands instead of the previous strategy of developing new in-house products. Church and Dwight was able to face the competition head on and found itself competing against industry giants of consumer products.

Answer 1

While competing against established brands, the below strategies could help the company sustain:

1. Develop a strong marketing outreach campaign - Understand the competitor's product lines and category, their outreach campaigns, brand message, packaging, supply chain/logistics, pricing strategy, and most importantly how are they balancing demand and supply. This calls for strong research and planning.

2. As Church and Dwight have been acquiring brands - They can leverage by retaining the existing brand name for a few product lines that they have acquired. Retaining its original brand name and supporting it with a refined marketing strategy will help them retain and increase the market share. For this plan, Church and Dwight have to identify products that already have a market share and customer base. In most cases after the acquisition, companies tend to change the product name as well. Hence, a careful evaluation of the product and its customers can make a huge difference.

3. If the business were to be promoted in this age -While there are many marketing ways offline or online to create the brand and product awareness that will help in market penetration and customer acquisition, one of the trendy ways is to build a strong social presence on the social networking sites, this will support the other marketing campaigns and helps in brand awareness, by building community and customer engagement. Church and Dwight can also leverage their legacy to build an effective brand message and marketing campaigns.