On a mission to change consumer behaviour, grow premium offerings: Colgate-Palmolive’s Prabha Narasimhan

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. With its near-universal penetration, Colgate-Palmolive India is synonymous with oral care in India. However, the company is not resting on its laurels.

It has embarked on a mission to change consumer behaviour and grow its premium offerings. In a conversation with Mint, Prabha Narasimhan, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) at Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd, discussed the launch of the year-round Oral Health Movement, the growing focus on premiumization and the challenges of marketing in a diverse nation like India. Edited excerpts: A decade ago, oral care penetration in India was around 85%.

Today, it’s close to universal. The challenge now is driving behaviour change—encouraging people to adopt habits like brushing twice a day, replacing toothbrushes every three to four months and visiting dentists regularly. Changing consumer behaviour is a long-term endeavour, but it aligns with our mission of ensuring better oral health for every Indian.

Earlier, we ran initiatives like Oral Health Month, which offered free dentist checkups. Now, we’ve expanded this into a year-round Oral Health Movement. This initiative combines technology, awareness and accessibility.

For example, our partnership with Logy AI allows consumers to assess their oral health using image recognition via WhatsApp. This is followed up with free oral health assessments through over 50,000 dentists across 1,300 cities. Through initiatives like free oral health assessments and easy appointment setups with over 50,000 dentists, we aim to reposition dentists as agents of prevention, not just problem solvers for critical issues.