Happydent - from smiling selfies to sparkling smiles
Understanding the business and marketing initiative behind the Happydent India Sparkling Smile cause campaign
“Smile and the world will smile with you.”
Smiling is good for health and is related to happiness. Do a quick search, you will find enough studies talking about the benefits of smiling. But in today’s social media world I see the phrase has changed - “Smile for social media and keep checking who smiled or liked it.”
We smile overly for social media. We want to look cool, happy and healthy for social media. Time and again studies have shown that people who post happy selfies are seen as likable and come across as attention seekers or loners. And I am not an exception.
In a study published by the Journal of Research in Personality, individuals who posted a lot of selfies were almost uniformly viewed as less likable, less successful and more insecure than people who posted more “posies” — that is, traditionally posed photos that appear to be taken by someone else.
A study done in 2018 suggested over half of the millennials portray their relationship as happier on social media than it really is.
You keep digging and you will find more research showing how we have forgotten to smile. All we care about today is how many likes will I get. One of the reasons why social networking giants like Facebook is removing likes.
#HappydentSparklingSmile
Happydent, one of Perfetti Van Melle India's flagship brands has picked up on the insight that generally smiles shared on social media is not authentic so they want to add meaning to it. For their latest campaign #HappydentSparklingSmile the brand is asking people to share candid smiles with the brand and in return, the brand is going to donate Rs.10 towards the education of kids at Smile Foundation. The process has been explained in the below video:
On digital, the brand has created a simple microsite (a tough task to find) that does the job of uploading your picture. There is no way you get to see how your photo looks like or what others are submitting. One of the problems with crowdsourcing is with the unwanted garbage people submit. The brand wants to keep a tap on the content so it is sharing the ones that fit the bill on social media as a collection.
To give more power to the campaign the brand has tied up with well known Indian photographers and a bunch of influencers. Search for #HappydentSparklingSmile (is it really mandatory to have a branded hashtag?) On Instagram or check the brand page, the account has been actively sharing some happy pics of influencers or celebrities.
The brand has been active on Facebook and Instagram with a similar content strategy and hence they have lost the objective of the individual networks. I am also surprised why the brand has shied away from using Instagram Stories or if it is using them then why not show them as collections and show on the profile.
Taking it offline the brand has also partnered with LBB in Bangalore and Hyderabad for happiness walks and exploring nature. Smart offline integration of connecting happiness.
However, why is such an important brand thought to miss from the website? The CSR section fails to talk about this association and the larger piece isn’t the contest but the brand purpose and its association with Smile.
Smile Please Campaign
The association of Happydent with smile and Smile Foundation goes back to 2016. This was the time when selfies were cool and so the brand lapped on it. By the end of 2016, the brand wanted people to have a real smile like kids do. Tying with the core message of smiling for real, the brand asked people to share a smiling selfie and in return, the brand will donate Rs.5 to Smile Foundation.
Back then sharing a smiling selfie was considered cool. Now the same brand wants you to share a sparkling smile and not a smiling selfie. A clear case of misplaced thinking, generally seen when you jump on to trends.
Previously the brand had a similar portal but now the new portal has no connection with the old campaign. This is one of the reasons why cause-related campaigns fail to get attention because they are done to serve a very short term goal. Only if the brand had invested greater time and intent to this initiative in 2016 then by now it could have turned into a larger piece. Obviously, brands are looking at cause-related campaigns with greater interest because suddenly “Brand Purpose” is the new buzz word.
The confectionery market and growth for Happydent in India
By the end of 2017, the Italian company Perfetti Van Melle (parent company of Happydent) which entered India 23 years ago posted less than 1% increase in sales to Rs 1,663 crore during the financial year to March. This was the second consecutive year in which Perfetti posted below 1% growth — it registered 0.6% growth during FY15-16.
Not just Perfetti, India hasn’t been sweet for the global candy giants. One of the reasons, India is a highly fragmented market and unlike the foreign markets one size fits all doesn’t work. For instance, Perfetti Van Melle’s strawberry-flavored Centerfruit sells more in Bihar and North India, while in South India, mint flavours fly off the shelves.
“The Indian market has many markets within one. In Kerala, our Eclairs is 10gm each, while in the rest of India it's 7gm. One-size-fits-all does not work in India,” said Milan Wahi, CEO of Lotte India.
India is a market for local flavours and price-sensitive market. The very reason why Pulse Kachcha Aam captured the hard-boiled candy market in the country by reaching Rs 100 crore within just 8 months of its launch in 2015. The company is now offering other local flavours to catch consumer attention within the price range rupee one.
The confectionery market in India is valued at $1.5 billion, growing at a two-year CAGR of 9%, as per Nielsen India. Various reports suggest that India is the fastest-growing confectionery market among the BRIC countries.
After witnessing three years of muted growth Perfetti is slowly seeing signs of growth. According to Forbes India, “the closed fiscal 2019 with a revenue of ₹1,847.9 crores, around 10 percent more than the previous year. Leadership has been consolidated in key categories like gums, jellies, and mint, and the retail footprint now stands at 4 million outlets indirectly and almost a million outlets directly. In 2017, the corresponding number for direct outlets stood at 650,000.” The growth is due to the business transformation project Sparkle.
“The idea was to make the business grow faster and make it more profitable. And it has delivered,” claims the 50-year-old MD, without revealing profit numbers.
Igniting a CSR initiative or a cause-related campaign by the end of last year is a step in a similar direction of aggressive growth. But the brand needs to position the campaign with greater intent if it wants the consumer i.e. the youth to see it a brand with a larger purpose in the society. Just collaborating with influencers won’t serve a larger purpose and the brand once again is jumping on trends.
Hopefully, the brand at some point will also reveal the total donation made to the Smile Foundation. “Transparency is the key to a greater brand purpose.”
Meanwhile, whether you have a sparkling smile or not just enjoy the present moment and be happy. You won’t need a Happydent ;)