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Case Study

Philips and the dental care challenge (B)

By Jean-Philippe Deschamps, Mary Schweinsberg and Carina Hum

6 pages

December 2000

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Reference: IMD-3-0703

Case (A) described the range of options which Philips’ Dental Care Article Group considered for challenging Braun’s supremacy in electric toothbrush. Case (B) describes the strategy chosen by Philips and its two components: 1) A design that capitalises on the round head imposed by Braun as the de-facto design standard, but adds two differentiating features for customer benefits, hence avoids being perceived as a “me-too” product (but does it avoid it, really?); 2) An alliance with Europe’s leading manual toothbrush manufacturer, Jordan, to match the Braun – Oral B combination, leverage Jordan’s manufacturing advantage in brush heads, gain distribution, and win acceptance with the professional dental community. The case leaves the actual positioning of that Philips-Jordan product open and begs the question: “Is this really enough to beat Braun at their own game?”

Keywords

Product Strategy, Positioning, Product-based Competition, Design Strategy, Home Appliances, Dental Care

Settings

Europe
1995

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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This case study is part of a series

Philips and the dental care challenge (A)
Philips and the dental care challenge (B)

This case study is part of a series

Philips and the dental care challenge (A)
Philips and the dental care challenge (B)

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