The Marketing plan of Colgate aims to address all the important areas that carefully identifies and

elaborates as how the company has evolved as a brand and differentiates its product line all across
the globe.
The Colgate Palmolive Company, which is headquartered in New York, is known to be the biggest
seller of toothpaste and a global leader in oral care Products. The company serves its product
offering in over 200 countries worldwide.

Challenges/Critical Issues
The Colgate Company has been working constantly with the retail partners and provides the
consumer with the best quality service. The company continues to engage with the customers
worldwide by creating unique shopping experiences, introducing in-store innovative marketing
communications strategies and different merchandising techniques in order to ensure the right
product assortment at the right location. The company continues to serve its customers with a
superior consumer-friendly experience that could drive both the companys sales and retailers.

Situational Analysis
Company Analysis
Goals: On May, 2014, the Colgate Company announced that it will try to meet the sustainable goal
by making products using recyclable materials. The company revealed that it will develop 100%
recyclable packaging for 3 or 4 products which includes home, pet and personal care packaging.
Focus: The Colgate Palmolive is an American Multinational Company that focuses mainly on
production, distribution and provision of household, healthcare and personal products like soaps,
detergents, toothpastes and tooth brushes (oral hygiene products).
Culture: The Company has been known to provide its workforce with a balanced professional and
personal life structure. The employees and management are able to communicate effectively and
promotes time-management skills. The companys culture reflects the importance of culture, global
teamwork and constant improvement.
Strength: One of the biggest brands in the personal consumer products industry.
Weakness: Fake brands are publicized under their name.
Market share: The Company achieved sales growth of 4% driven by 2.5% sales volume growth
with 1.5% increase in price.

Customer Analysis

Despite of facing a tough competitive market, the company always aims to deliver maximum
customer value to the market through its multi product segment strategy. Colgate has catered all it
segments that starts from baby boomer generation. They have retained its customers by constantly
launching new innovative products to remain competitive in the market.

Competitive Analysis
P&G as Competitors: Both Colgate and Procter and Gamble were established in 1800s as a small
family run business. And now both not just have sustained them but transformed as the 21st century
personal care products multi-nationals with several household name brands.
However, Colgate Palmolive is less diversified as compared to its competitors like P&G and
Unilever. The companys biggest source of sales is in oral care business.
The current market cap of Colgate-Palmolive is $58,835mil while P&G has $225,032 million.

Collaborators
Joint ventures: Hawley and Hazel Chemical Co. (Taiwan) with Colgate-Palmolive formed a joint
venture since 1985.
Distributers: In Pakistan, The Company has products in four categories: Oral care, Fabric Care,
Household and Personal Care. The company has divided its distributions in eight zones i.e. Karachi,
Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi etc.
Climate: Pest Analysis
Political And Legal Environment: Every government is willing to impose more taxes in order to
gain more profit. Moreover, the instable political conditions in the country disrupt the business to
operate the ongoing activities.
Economic Environment: The overall economic growth has remained stable so far but at the time
of inflation, the change in the interest rate affects the company.
Social and Cultural Environment: The massive social interactions via communication channels
make a huge contribution to the companys productivity. Consumers are now more aware about the
market trends and therefore, Colgate caters each market segment keeping in mind the
cultural/societal trends of the consumers.
Technological Environment: The Research and Development department of the company are
committed to improve oral health through the advanced leading edge technologies. The
technologies are updated based on the prevention and treatment of oral diseases.[sky]

SWOT Analysis

Strengths
Geographically diversified industry.
Strong brand image.
Strong market share.
Appealing advertisements.
Huge sales growth.
Skilled workforce.
Strong promotional strategies.

Weaknesses
Product expansion is restricted.
Saturated market.
Market share is lower than its competitors.

Opportunities
International Market Expansion.
Emerging markets may attract business
Differentiation strategy is required.

Threats
Increase in commodity prices.
Fierce competition.
New entrants in the market can be a threat to Colgate

Market Segmentation
The Company has divided its market into two product segments: Oral, Personal, Household Surface
and Fabric Care. Colgate is considered to be the global leader in the Oral care Products such as
toothpaste, Toothbrushes and many other pharmaceutical products. Colgate also possesses a
strong market in the Personal Care segment that includes products like bar, liquid hand soaps,
shower gels, shampoos etc.

Marketing Strategies
Geographic Segmentation Strategy: The Colgate Company has implemented this strategy by
expanding its business in over 200 countries. The company does not market the same product in
every country. For instance, in United States they are selling sixteen different types of toothpastes
while in UK; they are selling twenty two different types of varieties.
Demographic Segmentation Strategy:The Company caters the market segment based on
different demographics such as age, gender, social class etc. For kids aged 8-10, they have

products like transitional toothpastes. They have a separate section for infants, children, teenagers
and adults.
Psychographic Segmentation Strategy: Here the company sells the products considering the
lifestyle and needs of the consumers. For people who are sensitive about their teeth, they have
introduced Sensitive pro-relief toothpaste and brushes which are made to decrease tooth sensitivity
issues.

Marketing Mix 4Ps

Product: In Pakistan, Colgates Herbal White toothpaste is widely used. The product has a unique
blend of herbs and ensures a good oral health to the consumers.
Price: Market penetration pricing strategy is adopted by Colgate in order to gain market
dominance. Most of the personal consumer products and oral care products are priced at a cheaper
rate so that a massive amount of consumers could be persuaded towards the brand.
Place: The products are made available via direct distribution channel where the majority of the
consumers can easily get an access to the Colgates products.
Promotions: Colgate promotes all its products through personal selling, advertising, publicity and
public relations.

Short Term/Long Term Projections

The company reported to achieve revenues of $4.32 billion for the quarter. Additionally, the
companys gross profit margin narrowed to 58.3% in the quarter due to high raw material and
packaging costs and the net income reached to $388 million for the period.

Conclusions
The Colgate-Palmolive is a consumer oriented company which is currently operating in more than
100 countries. They provide many employee oriented programs and managing their international
business quite well. The way they have established in the business and international market, they
still have a higher chance to remain competitive in the years ahead.