An analysis of a case study titled "COLGATE-PALMOLIVE COMPANY: THE PRECISION TOOTHBRUSH" of Harvard Business School. Created by Abhishek Banerjee, PES University, during a marketing internship under Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.

1. COLGATE-PALMOLIVE
COMPANY: THE PRECISION
TOOTHBRUSH
BASED ON A HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL CASE
STUDY

2. COLGATE-PALMOLIVE
A GLOBAL LEADER IN THE HOUSEHOLD AND PERSONAL CARE
PRODUCTS

3. THE SITUATION
AUGUST 1992: Colgate-
Palmolive (CP) poised to
launch a new toothbrush in
the United States, tentatively
named COLGATE
PRECISION.
SUSAN STEINBERG:
Precision Product Manager
has to recommend
Positioning, Branding and
Communication Strategies
for “THE PRECISION”.

4. Before finding a solution to the Problem, an extensive
analysis on the Company’s strength and weakness must be
done. This helps us to know the potential area of
improvements and the inner strengths.

5. SL.NO. STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
1
Was global leader in the
household and personal
care products.
Was unable to achieve
proper credibility from the
dental association on its
products when compared
to its competitor ORAL-B.
2
Introduced 275 new
products worldwide.
Introduction of new
products may result in
cannibalisation of other
products like Colgate Plus.
3
Held No.1 position in the
US Retail toothbrush
market with 23.3%
volume share.
* Data w.r.t. 1991 sales statistics

6. PRODUCT SEGMENTATION
1980’s: Industry Executives
divided the Toothbrush
Category into 2 segments: a.
Value b. Professional
Late 1980’s: Emergence of a
new category called “super
premium brushes”.

7. ANALYSING
CONSUMER
BEHAVIOUR

8. ANALYSING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Consumers were willing to pay a premium for the
new products addressing issues regarding the health
of their gums.
48% Consumers claimed to change their brushes at
least every 3 months.
Consumers chose their brand based on the features,
comforts and professional recommendations.

9. ORAL-B
JOHNSON &
JOHNSON- REACH
P&G’s CREST
AQUAFRESH
FLEX

10. “TAKING NOTES OF CHALLENGES FROM
COMPETITORS ”

11. Oral-B has heavy professional endorsement and is known
as “The dentist’s toothbrush”. Thus giving a tough match
in the competition.
J&J’s Reach has excellent innovations like: a beveled handle
to help consumer brush at a 45 degree angle. The brand
has scheduled the launch of ‘Reach Between’ on Sept.
1992. This has to be kept in mind. After a few months-
Precision has to be launched.
P&G’s Product claims to have the ability to reach between
the teeth up to 37% farther than leading brands.
Smithkline Beechman’s AquaFresh Flex had flexible
handles and allowed gentle brushing. The brand has good
promotional plans to come up.

13. POINTS TO PONDER
Growing competition increased the
featured and value of consumer
promotion event.
Retail advertising features and in store
displays increased toothbrush sales.
When Colgate toothbrush were combined
with Colgate toothpaste, the toothbrush
sales went up by 170%.
The CP toothbrush line held 25% to 40%
of the category shelf space in most stores.
22% of all toothbrushes were expected to
be distributed to consumers by dentist
with dedicated sales force - Oral B
dominated the market

15. POSITIONING
Precision was developed with the
objective of creating best brush possible
and as such becoming a top-of-the-range
product. Now how do we position it?

16. NICHE
POSITIONING
STRATEGY
MAINSTREAM
POSITIONING
STRATEGY
WE HAD TWO CHOICES!!

17. NICHE POSITIONING STRATEGY

18. MAINSTREAM POSITIONING STRATEGY

19. BRANDING
The debate whether the brush should be
known as “Colgate Precision” or
“Precision By Colgate”?

20. Executives believed that the product
should stand alone and the
PRECISION brand name should
be emphasised.
Stressing Precision as opposed to
Colgate would limit the extent of
which Cannibalisation of Colgate
Plus.
It was estimated, both under
mainstream and niche positioning
scenarios, the cannibalisation figures
for Colgate Plus would increase by
20% if the Colgate brand name was
stressed.

21. THE TEST RESULTS
The toothbrush’s feature of
preventing Gum disease motivated
the greatest purchase intent among
test consumers.
Additional consumer research
revealed that 55% of test consumers
found Precision to be very different
from their current toothbrushes.
The research also revealed that the
more the consumers were told about
Precision and how it worked, the
greater the enthusiasm for the
product.

22. THE TEST RESULTS
However, the clichéd look of
the brush put the consumers
in dilemma.
Also it was difficult to
translate the message of
greater plaque removal with
a broad consumer appeal,
since few consumers
acknowledged that they
might have gum disease.

23. “So if you were Susan Steinberg- Precision Product
Manager, What would you recommend?”

25. POSITIONING
Initially positioning Precision as
Niche Toothbrush and later
broadening to Mainstream
Positioning would help the product
gain sufficient recognition by
avoiding cannibalisation and would
ensure additional capacity once it
enters the mainstream.
Broadening into Mainstream
positioning would enhance greater
proportion of sales which would
now also occur through mass
merchandisers and club stores apart
from the food and drug stores.

26. BRANDING
“Precision By Colgate” would be
more prominent as it would reduce
cannibalisation of Colgate Plus-
which is the bread and butter of
CP’s toothbrush line and secure its
market position.
Placing the Precision at the centre
of the Brushes in the storage
shelves would ensure easy
acceptance due to the prevalence
of the brand at the same time
given it a unique stand.

27. COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
Investing a little more on
Advertising and Promotion would
not do much harm as it shall give a
head start to this potential product.
There must be several Consumer
promotions to back the launch for
the mainstream positioning as this
will attract a lot more potential
buyers.
Since sampling would be critical to
Precision’s success, it would be
better to use Dentists to sample
consumers since professional
endorsements were more credible.

28. ADVERTISING
Spending 75% of all
advertising dollars of CP’s
category spending for Precision
was essential because it
ensured Precision was able to
reach its potential customers
through extensive advertising.
This would not be a threat for
CP’s Colgate Plus as it has its
market share secured by the
Colgate’s Brand name, which
is not the case with Precision.

29. “Based on a Harvard Business School case-study by John Quelch and
Nathalie Laidler.”

30. ABHISHEK BANERJEE PROF. SAMEER MATHUR
PES UNIVERSITY IIM LUCKNOW
Created by Abhishek Banerjee, PES UNIVERSITY, during a marketing
internship under Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.