APPLIED PRICING STRATEGIES OF TOOTHPASTES’ PRODUCERS ON POLISH COSMETICS MARKET

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to examine the average price of toothpastes available on Polish cosmetic market in order to asses used pricing strategies by several large and medium international and domestic toothpastes’ producers. The 8 leading cosmetics market participants include: Procter&Gamble (Blend-a-med), Colgate-Palmolive (Colgate, Colodent, Flurodent), Unilever (Signal), Henkel (Vademecum, Denivit), GlaxoSmithKline (Aquafresh, Parodontax, Sensodyne), GABA International (Elmex, Meridol, Biodent), Church&Dwight (Pearls Drops) and Dr. Theiss Naturwaren (Lacalut). Polish cosmetics market is a very large, and because of the ongoing battle to hold on loyal but at the same time win new clients, a profitable one. Strong inside competition on domestic market broadens and expands the range and diversity of cosmetic products. Toothpastes’ producers act in the highly crowded and fragmented marketplace. There is a large presence of both branded and private label companies. Major players seek to position their products on the basis of value addition, functionality, price premium and to a certain extent packaging. Polish consumers increasingly expect high-quality cosmetics at relatively low prices. That is the main reason why the examination of used pricing strategies is so important and taken under deep consideration in this article. The results showed that dominant strategies are: penetration pricing, loss leader, price leadership, psychological pricing as well as bundling and quantity discounts strategy.