Colgate-Palmolive Company- The Precision Toothbrush

CASE STUDY ON

THE COMPANY: COLGATE-PALMOLIVE

The Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American worldwide consumer products company focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products (including toothpaste and toothbrushes).

THE PLAYERS:

Nigel Burton - General ManagerSusan Steinberg - Precision Product Manager

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

Recommend PositioningBrandingCommunication strategies for the Colgate Precision toothbrush by Colgate-Palmolive.

RANGES OF ORAL CARE:

Value___Premium____Super Premium

Colgate-Precision falls in the super premium category.

NEEDS AND DESIRES OF CONSUMERS:

• Gum line cleaning• Cleaning in-between teeth• Plaque removal• Prevention of cavity• Demands for dentist• Overall, consumers are willing to pay a higher price for

toothbrushes• Aesthetics , different for both adults and children• Electronic toothbrushes• Beveled handles to brush at the advised angle of 45 degrees

WHAT IS THE PRODUCT:

• Study using infrared motion analysis• Toothbrush has bristles of 3 different lengths and

orientations• Has 35% more plaque removing efficiency than

its competitors• More effective in reducing gum diseases than

competitors like Reach and Oral-B

PRICE:

RETAIL PRICE TRADE PRICE MANUFACTURE PRICE

MINSTREAM STRATEGY

$2.49 $1.85 $1.76

NICHE STRATEGY $2.89 $2.13 $2.02

RECOMMENDATIONS

POSITIONING:

• Through professionals like Dentists who can easily steer the minds of his patients

• Invest aggressively on advertisements so that the ads can automatically place the product in the super-premium product category

• Mainstream strategy: Product should be subject to offers and discounts like combo packs, family packs, toothbrush and toothpaste combos (which already showed a 17% raise in consumption before)

• Niche Marketing strategy: The superior technical features of the toothbrush should be heavily campaigned by segmenting its various features separately

• Advertisements through supermarkets and drug stores

BRANDING:

• Emphasizing on the brand name Colgate on the new Precision toothbrush would cause greater cannibalization of the existing Colgate toothbrushes

• The usage of the brand name Colgate will strengthen the brand as a whole and lure consumers who are in favor of the brand- on the whole, create brand equity

COMMUNICATION & PROMOTION:

• Gathering data to review the product on the consumers: - Four concept test conducted amongst 400 adults (Colgate Plus, Reach and Ora-B) - Result: The consumers were highly motivated by Precision toothbrush claims - Result of in-home usage test: 77% claimed that Precision was much more effective than their current toothbrush -Product exposure to consumers was proportional to consumer’s acceptance of the product

PROS AND CONS OF POSITIONING

MAIN STREAM STRATEGY:

PROS CONS

Initial rise in sales as consumers would want to try the super-premium category product after its launch

Overshadow Colgate Plus

Increase in sales as the product performance is genuine and superior

More competition and pressure for coming up with a product that has more advanced features as the competitors will buck up

Could result in supply of insufficient products

NICHE MARKET STRATEGY:

PROS CONS

Less overshadowing on Colgate Plus as each will have its own space

Will not contribute much to profits in the future

Will enter into the super-premium category and increase its brand equity

Will face less competition and pressure from competitors

DISCLAIMERCreated by Siddhant Tiwari, MIT Manipal , for marketing internship by Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.

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