Successful Marketing Strategy of Colgate

To develop a marketing strategy is a vital for any business because it is a procedure in which an organization concentrate its limited resource on the opportunities to increase sales and get the best from it as an advantage . For that one needs to keep in mind that only a customer’s satisfaction should be a main goal for one’s. Marketing strategy should be centered around the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal. In each and every organization whether it is public or private organization, should be able to consider some strategic marketing approach so as to be ensured competitive position in the market place. One of the most marketing aspects of marketing is marketing strategies nowadays because marketing strategy is the term which is generally preferred to promotions. Marketing Strategy is a vital contributor to the satisfaction of the customer needs and wants. (Shimp, 2003)

Marketing strategy approach is a way to capture a niche in the consumer market

The marketing strategy is a mix consists of five major modules of communication like advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity, personal selling, and direct marketing (Neumann & Sumser 2002). An identified Sponsor pay

Advertising form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services. Sales promotion is a variety of short-term incentives to encourage trial or purchase of a product or service. Public relations and publicity is a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a company’s image or its individual products. Personal selling is a face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions, and procuring orders. Direct marketing is the use of mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, or Internet to communicate directly with or solicit a direct response from specific customers and prospects (Goldberg & Mc Calley, 1992).

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Introduction

Colgate was found in the United States 200 years ago. For the half of the years its business was focused only the. It is marketing its products in more than 200 countries and territories under some internationally recognized brand names as Colgate, Ajax, Palmolive, Softsoap, Some Hill’s Science diet products. Colgate Palmolive is leading product consumer product company focused on Oral care, Household care, Personal care and many more. Today Colgate-Palmolive is $9 billion Company.

Colgate is famous for having a long history of strong relationship with its retail trade partners. This Company delights consumers around there world with a an array of Oral Care, Home Care, Personal Care, and Pet Nutrition products. Small stores around the world are just important to Colgate as large ones. Behind the success of Colgate’s brands are carefully developed business and marketing strategies. Based on consumer and shopper insights, the Company works closely with local merchandisers and shop owners to offer a relevant assortment of products and merchandising services to get high visibility in each store.

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Overview:-

1806

Colgate was originated with a small business of starch, Soap and candles form Dutch street, New York by William Colgate.

1817

The first Colgate advertisement was appeared in US newspaper.

1820

Colgate establishes a starch factory in New Jersey.

1866-1873

Colgate introduced perfumed soap and toothpaste in jars.

1896

Colgate introduced toothpaste in collapsible tube.

1900

In the world fair of Paris, Colgate won top honors for its products like soaps and perfumes.

1902

Stylish Palmolive Advertisement begins. emphasizing ingredient purity and product benefits

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1906

Colgate & Company celebrates its 100thanniversary. Product line includes over 800 different products.

1908

Colgate is incorporated by the five sons of Samuel Colgate.

1911

Colgate distributes two million tubes of toothpaste and toothbrushes to schools, and provides hygienists to demonstrate tooth brushing.

1912

William Mennen introduces the first American shaving cream tube

1914

Colgate established its first international subsidiary in Canada

1920

Colgate establishes in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa.

1928

Colgate merge with Palmolive -Peet and became Colgate- Palmolive- Peet Company.

1930

On March 13, Colgate is first listed on the New York Stock Exchange

1939

Dr. Mark L. Morris develops a pet food to help save a guide dog named Buddy from kidney.

1947

Ajax cleanser is launched, establishing powerful now-global brand equity for cleaning products.

1953

Colgate -Palmolive company becomes an official name for the company.

1956

Colgate opens research center in Piscataway, NJ. Fabric conditioner is launched in France as Soupline. Today, fabric conditioners are sold in over 54 countries around the world.

1966

Palmolive dishwashing liquid is introduced and today it is sold in over 35 countries.

1968

Colgate toothpaste adds MFP Fluoride, clinically proven to reduce cavities.

1970

Irish Spring launches in Germany as Irische Frühling and in Europe as Nordic Spring. In1972, Irish Spring is introduced in North America.

1972

Colgate acquires Hoyt Laboratories, which later becomes Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals.

1975

Caprice hair care launches in Mexico. Today, hair care products are sold in over 70 countries, with variants to suit every type of hair need.

1976

Colgate-Palmolive acquires Hill’s Pet Nutrition. Today Hill’s is the global leader in pet nutrition and veterinary recommendations.

1983

Colgate Plus toothbrush is introduced. Today over 1.6 billion Colgate toothbrushes are sold annually worldwide. If you lined them up end to end, they would circle the globe 16 times.

1985

Protex bar soap is introduced, and today offers all-family antibacterial protection in over 56 countries. Colgate-Palmolive enters into a joint venture with Hong Kong-based Hawley & Hazel, a leading oral care company, which adds strength in key Asian markets.

1986

The Chairman’s You Can Make A Difference Program is launched, recognizing innovation and exceptional excellence by Colgate people.

1987

Colgate acquires Soft-soap liquid soap business from the Minnetonka Corporation. Today, Colgate is the global leader in liquid hand soap.

1989

Annual company sale surpassed the $ 5 million mark.

2006

Colgate purchased Tom’s of maine and entered fast growing naturals segment.

Today

Colgate with sales Surpasses $ 15 million, focuses on all Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care, Pet Nutrition.

Situational Analysis (SWOT )

Situation Analysis

Internal Analysis   

   External Analysis

Strengths  

Weaknesses

Threats

Opportunities 

SWOT Analysis is a simple framework for generating strategic alternatives from a situational analysis. The Swot analysis classifies the internal aspects of the company as strengths or weaknesses and the external situational factors as opportunities and threats. Strength can serve as a foundation for building a competitive advantage and weaknesses may hinder it.

SWOT Analysis of Colgate -Palmolive:-

Strengths:-

Brand image is very strong

Cash flow-to-sales is free

In America market share is approximately half of 100%, It is going very strong in Asia and Europe.

Weaknesses:-

All Products are recalled

It is highly leverages

Very low innovation or a follower

Opportunities

To grow globally oral hygiene market

Increasing Spanish people in the US

To grow in India, Asian market by tapping personal care.

Threats

The label growth is private

Commodity prices are increasing.

A large number of competitors are increasing.

Differential advantage / Competitive edge (USP)

Strategy USP (Unique Selling Proposition) developed by Rosser Reeves, the advertising heart of New York, Madison Avenue.

One of the companies being regarded and honored as one of the global producer of various products especially for personal hygiene is the Colgate-Palmolive

With a view to promoting their oral products to their target market, the company has been able to use various marketing strategies approaches. In line with above the line promotions, the company uses television, radio and newspaper advertisements and many more. In addition, the company also promotes their products in famous magazines and internet banner ads as well.

It can also be said that Colgate-Palmolive also uses via-the-line promotion approach. This is done by considering a via the line communication approach. The company does this by hiring an advertising agency which helps them to make a better advertising campaign for their products.

It can be said that or In a general sense, advertising is being utilized to be able to impart to the consumers the availability of a particular product or service.

Colgate-Palmolive pursued a multipronged marketing strategy to support the introduction of Irish Spring’s reformulated bar and liquid soap. In order to introduce a wide audience to its new image and latest product offerings, Colgate-Palmolive aired television commercials for both products and ran print ads in a variety of magazines. Furthermore, the company especially concentrated on free-standing inserts and product sampling to convince consumers to try the updated Irish Spring. Coupons were an essential aspect of the relaunch of Irish Spring bar soap. In order to make these coupon ads eye-catching, the company included a four-leaf clover shape that could be scratched off-like a lottery ticket-to reveal a savings amount applicable to the product.

Appelbaum, Cara, “Colgate Tests Its First Deodorant, Irish Spring,” Brandweek, April 1, 1991.

Segmentation Targeting and Positioning (STP)

1) Market Segmentation: – The process in which the market is divided distinct subsets of consumers with common needs and selecting many different segments to target with a distinct marketing strategy

Levels of market segmentation:

  1. Mass Marketing: provides the same product to all consumers like Salt.

  2. Segment marketing: provides different products to many segments.

  3. Niche Marketing: provides many unique different products but to sub segments

  4. Micro-Marketing: it provides product for individual choices.

For example, the are different types of shampoo , Colgate is manufacturing including for ‘ flat hair’ , ‘ shampoo and conditioner,, ‘dry hair’ , ‘color treated hair, etc. It shows us that they are implementing segmented marketing concept.

2) Market Targeting:-

It is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise.

Geographic:- It depends on region, population, factor, urban conditions etc. On this basis for example, Colgate introduces a sun screen ingredients which protect from sun rays.

Demographic:- It comprise age, gender, income , life cycle of family and education. For example young people do not go for hair color treatment.

Psychographic:- it depends on persons thinking and what are the

Personality characteristic of him. It is a difficult marketing segmentation to implement because sometimes market may not aware of there life style of there people.

 Behavioral:- It consists two things a) The benefits desired from the product. b)The rate at which customer is using product.

It can be applied on Colgate, the benefits from there toothpaste product are no plaque, no cavities, fresh breath, very low price , good quality and white teeth.

3) Market Positioning:-

It means the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization.

The Colgate people have tried to sustain themselves through tough competition and hard work. Media and advertisement are also responsible to create an image of the Company in the eyes of its customers and competitors.

Marketing Objectives and Goals:-

SMART Objectives:-

The purposes of SMART objectives include:

To enable a company to control its marketing plan.

To help to motivate individuals and teams to reach a common goal.

To provide an agreed, consistent focus for all functions of an organization.

A simple acronym used to set objectives is called SMART objectives. SMART stands for:

SMART Goals:-

As far as the strategic plan is concerned, the shold be a both kinds of goals like short-term and long term goals. Detailed production, financial and marketing plans usually back these both types of goals.

Figure 1. Elements of a strategic plan Short-term goals

Figure 2. SMART characteristic of effective goals and their work

4 P’s of Marketing

4-P of Marketing (Borden, 1953) is the fundamental base in the Marketing studies. It can be compared to the Einstein’s theory of relativity in Quantum Mechanics. 4 P of marketing is often called as Marketing Mix, because it has the right marketing recipe to successfully launch a product. 4 P of marketing stands for:

Product: Product is any tangible object or any service (intangible) that is manufactured or created to satisfy the consumer needs. It has to have the product variation and the differentiation for different markets. Also the products must be reviewed time to time for its obsolesce and must be discarded with the view of market needs known as product elimination. Similarly, with growing market needs and evolving consumer tastes, companies must innovate their products (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010).

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Price: Price is the amount of money that is paid by the customer to seller which varies on different distribution channel (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Several factors have impact while determining the price of the product or service, which are an organization’s market share, the number and strategy of the competitors, the raw material costs and most importantly the perception of the product value in the eyes of the customer.

There are various pricing methods used by Organization’s currently

Cost recovery Pricing: Cost recovery pricing Is the pricing method followed by marketers such that they recover the cost of the product and put a small profit margin on it to finalize the pricing of the product. For example some firm incurred the cost of $100 per product they would like to have a profit of $20, then the pricing will be $120.

Penetration Pricing:- Penetration Pricing is the pricing method, in which the price is decreased abruptly so to penetrate the market and achieve greater market share. Company with deep pockets when entering a new market often practices this pricing, at times the price may be lower than the cost of the product. The profitability can be achieved later due to monopolistic situation or by cross selling their other products (Kotler, 2003).

Price skimming: Price skimming is the pricing policy adopted by the organization so that they first launch the new product at very high price so that early adopters can buy the product and then they subsequently decrease the price to get late bloomers buying the product. This pricing is practiced mostly by technology firms and is observed with the launch of new products.

Place: – Place represents the location where a consumer can buy the product. It can be a physical store where the consumer can visit or can be a virtual store like a website on internet .It is often referred as distribution channel as it actually is the channel through which the product is received by the consumer (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). A place can be utilized for direct as well as indirect selling. And the place can often take the shape of e-commerce altogether.

Promotion: Promotion is a communication means adopted by the marketer to communicate about the product, brand or organization to the consumers. Promotion has following four distinct elements. Advertising, personal Selling, Public relations and Sales Promotion, which can be used as such or can be used in combination to promote the product (Pride & Ferrell, 1983).

Conclusion:

In Conclusion, Colgate Company is a typical market oriented company, operating in more than 200 countries. They are providing many new employee oriented programs both for senior level and entry level people. They are aware of their social and ethical responsibilities. They are managing the consumer and business market in an effective manner. They face their competitors and feel proud to take it as a challenge. They feel pride in making their customers happy. They know how to conduct their business in international communities. They maintain levels of the CRM at the company to ensure good customer support. The way they have proved themselves in consumer, business and international markets, they still have a high aim to attain more and more.

Bibliography (with references):-

Armstrong G, Kotler P (2010), Marketing: An Introduction. 10th end New Jersey.

Appelbaum, Cara, “Colgate Tests Its First Deodorant, Irish Spring,” Brandweek, April 1, 1991.

Goldberg & Mc Calley, 1992

Houghton Mifflin

,John Wiley.

(Kotler, 2003), Kotler P (2003)

Kotler & Armstrong, 2010

Neumann & Sumser ,2002

Prentice Hall

Pride W M, Ferrell O.C (1983) Marketing: Basic Concepts and Decisions. Texas.

Shimp, 2003

Schultz D E, Tannenbaum S, Lauterborn R (1992) Integrated Marketing Communications. Illinois. NTC Publishing

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