Colgate company's case study.

1. Colgate-Palmolive
Company
- The Precision
Toothbrush
CASE STUDY
ON

2. 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).

3. THE PLAYERS:
Nigel Burton - General Manager
Susan Steinberg - Precision Product
Manager

4. PROBLEM STATEMENT:
Recommend
Positioning
Branding
Communication strategies
for the Colgate Precision toothbrush by Colgate-Palmolive.

5. RANGES OF ORAL CARE:
Value___Premium____Super
Premium
Colgate-Precision falls in the super premium
category.

6. 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

7. 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

9. PRICE:
RETAIL PRICE TRADE PRICE MANUFACTURE
PRICE
MINSTREAM
STRATEGY
$2.49 $1.85 $1.76
NICHE STRATEGY $2.89 $2.13 $2.02

10. RECOMMENDATIONS

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. PROS AND CONS OF POSITIONING

15. 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

16. 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

17. DISCLAIMER
Created by Siddhant
Tiwari, MIT Manipal , for
marketing internship by
Prof. Sameer Mathur,
IIM Lucknow.

18. THANK YOU