Last year baking soda toothpaste accounted for 14% of the overall market, with Arm & Hammer taking 10% and Colgate and other brands dividing the other 4%. Meanwhile house brands of baking soda toothpaste have also been introduced by stores like Shop-Rite and CVS. Colgate has made taste an issue and calls its product Colgate Better Tasting Baking Soda Toothpaste. Arm & Hammer held its ground and said its toothpaste contains more baking soda. Crest came out with its own baking soda version and then announced price cuts. Baking soda is suddenly the hottest thing in toothpaste. Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive are now fighting back. That success, though, has been enough to wake the sleeping giants. “What started as just a niche business has become a major factor in the market,” says director of marketing David Dickinson. Dentists have long recommended brushing with baking soda to keep teeth and gums healthy, but few expected Arm & Hammer”s baking soda toothpaste to be a smash hit. Colgate, the number two brand with 22%, has seemingly been around forever, and there are even rumors that George Washington brushed his wooden teeth with Colgate.

Procter & Gamble”s Crest is the leading brand with 33% of the market, a position it has held since the 1960s, when it introduced the first fluoride toothpaste. Toothpaste has been a stable field, where heavy advertising meant there was little movement in the $600 million annual market. That is a long way from the 2% industry analysts generously gave Princeton-based Church & Dwight in 1988, when it introduced toothpaste as part of a brand extension campaign of its famous baking soda that also included a laundry detergent, a carpet deodorizer and even a cat litter deodorizer. Arm & Hammer, which is expected to have toothpaste sales this year of $60 million, is getting a tough challenge in the market it created for baking soda toothpaste.Īrm & Hammer currently has nearly 10% of the U.S. The phenomenal success of the company”s baking soda toothpaste, Arm & Hammer”s Dental Care, is being challenged by the big boys of the tooth paste business, Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive. What could be finer? Sales last year were up 6% to $516.4 million, while profits went from $26 million to $30 million.īut there is a cloud on the Church & Dwight horizon. Subject: A simple brand extension turned into a huge hit, and now the big guys move inĪ happy group of Church & Dwight shareholders will get together for the company”s annual meeting on May 6 at the Asia Society in New York City. Title: Arm & Hammer Has to Fight for the Toothpaste Market It Created

Arm and hammer toothpaste