Colgate Palmolive Company - Case Study Example

Colgate Palmolive Business Report Introduction This report is aimed at giving all of the information about the Colgate Palmolive Company and the brands it is currently using to generate the revenue. Colgate Palmolive is a FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) multinational company providing goods in more than two hundred countries of the world. All the brands of Colgate Palmolive are well trusted and frequently used in most of the parts of the world. Colgate Palmolive is a multi billion dollars company. Founded in 1806 and having the experience of being in the market for more than 200 years and being the market leader through its worldly renowned brands, Colgate Palmolive is a market leader in its industry. Colgate Palmolive principle activities are manufacturing and marketing a variety of different consumer products. The group operates through two segments and sells its products under two of the categories: 1) Oral 2) Personal and Home Care 3) Pet Nutrition Oral, Personal and Home care products include: toothpaste oral rinses and toothbrushes bar and liquid hand soaps shower gels shampoos conditioners deodorants and antiperspirants shave products laundry and dishwashing detergents fabric conditioners cleansers and cleaners bleaches and other similar items Pet Nutrition products include pet food products manufactured and marketed by Hill's Pet Nutrition. These products are further divided according to their brand names with the help of whom Colgate markets and sells its products. These brands are also described in the following lines. Colgate Palmolive Mennen Softsoap Irish Spring Protex Sorriso Kolynos Elmex Ajax Axion Soupline Suavitel Fab Hill's Science Diet and Hill's Prescription Diet. This report is focused on the use of brands by the said organization and how they successfully manage to market and sell their brands all over the world. How the name of the brand is made How that brand name is retained by the company How the company manages to live up to its customers' expectations What has the company got that its brands enjoy all the trust and confidence of customers in the world Such types of questions are addressed in this report. A detailed analysis of the company products is made and significant efforts have also been made in understanding how the company operates and manages to handle of its business worldwide. After the detailed study of the company's brands and their influence on the markets, some conclusions have been made regarding the study. Literature Review Entireprocessinvolved in creating a unique name andimagefor aproduct(good orservice) in theconsumers' mind, throughadvertising campaignswith aconsistenttheme. Brandingaimsto establisha significant and differentiated presence in themarketthat attracts and retains loyal customers. As it can be seen from the definition of the branding above that it is a complete and whole process of creating a unique name and image for a product either goods or services. To whom that image is targeted by the seller is a question great significance and the answer is potential customer. How is that objective achieved is the use of different marketing and advertising tools by the manufacturer and seller of the product. Hence what branding achieves is a significant and differentiated presence in the market that helps to attract potential customers and then retain those customers. Branding is a single major driver in the success of the product when a particular product has got everything it needs to fulfill the needs of users. With famous brands it becomes easier and a bit cheaper to penetrate the market and sell the new product with full hope and confidence. Recent times have seen many companies becoming successful due to their brand names and even selling their products at higher rates than the rates of similar products being sold in the market. Brand Identity Another main feature of this brand game is the brand identity, which helps its consumers to recognize it with its appearance irrespective of the fact that they have read it or not. Brand identity can be defined as: Visible elements of a brand (such as colors, design, name, logotype, symbol etc.) that together identify and distinguish the brand in the consumers' mind. Hence brand identity helps in distinguishing the products of a particular brand. Loyal customers always prefer to use their preferred brand and they detest using the product of another brand. In the case of Colgate Palmolive Company we have seen since our birth that it has very respected, trusted and famous brands in the industry. Brands of this company are easily identified by most of the consumers of that product and hence its brands have won the recognition of the consumers all over the world. Each of the company's brands either that be Colgate, Palmolive, Mennen, soft-soap, Irish spring etc. have the maximum amount of recognition by consumers all around the globe, therefore, adding a lot more to the success of the brand. Brand identity is an indication of the popularity and success of the brand .i.e. if the brand is easily identified by the consumers then the brand is considered to be a successful brand thus adding to the sale of the brand more easily. Brand Positioning Brand positioning is a concept that relates a particular brand product with other products in the market. It can be defined as: Positioning is how a product appears in relation to other products in the market. With relation to brand positioning Colgate Palmolive Company has done great and has a remarkable reputation in the markets of whole world. Every brand of the company is respected in the world and is in use by the consumers' of world market for many years. For the purpose of determining the success of the brand, it is also important to determine the brand positioning in a particular market. If a particular brand is performing well as compared to other brands in the same market then that product is deemed to be a better brand in comparison to its competitor's. This means that a brand has won the confidence of consumers of that market and has got all the products which are necessary to satisfy the needs of the users. The success of the Colgate Palmolive company's brands can be assessed by the fact that these brands have been competing the best in the business and still growing in terms of its sales and amount of trust that their customers bestow upon them. Brand Mapping Marketing research techniquein whichconsumer's views about aproduct are traced or plotted (mapped) on achart.Respondentsareaskedquestions about theirexperiencewith the product intermsof itsperformance,packaging,price,size, etc. Thesesqualitativeanswersare transferred to a chart (called a perceptualmap) using a suitablescale(such as theLikert scale), and theresultsareemployedin improving the product or in developing a new one. Brand mapping is constantly used by the company to assess whether its products are fulfilling the needs of the consumers or not and whether the company needs to amend or improve the existing products in order to retain the market. Statistics show that Colgate Palmolive Company has constantly got positive feedback about its products and that the company is constantly adding mew features to its products for the sake of making its products more and more demanding and desired products in the market. All of the qualitative aspects of the product are measured and on the basis of that analysis further decisions are made about the changes to be made in the brand's product. Brand Architecture Brand architecture is the branding structure used by the company in order to develop its brand. There are two types of tiers in the brand architecture, developing the brands of the company. One is the parent company brand name and the other one is the sub band name. Colgate Palmolive has got both of the brand name including the parent brand name and also the sub brand name. With the help of parent brand name it is easier for the company to launch its new products into the market with the help of lesser marketing expenses. Most of the companies think that brand name generation is dependent only on the internal structure and delivery of the company through its marketing strategies and communication styles whereas it is not the entire fact because these are the customers who have to decide depending upon their experience that a particular brand is successful or not. Colgate Palmolive company's reviews from its customers have proved that their products are being liked by the people all around the world. Marketing Mix Planned mix of the controllableelementsof aproduct'smarketing plancommonly termed as 4P's: product,price, place, andpromotion. These elements are adjusted until a right combinationis found thatservestheneedsof the product'scustomer'swhile generating optimumincome. Sometimes the first P (Product) is substituted by 'presentation.' Product, price, place and promotion are the four factors that make up the marketing mix of a company. Depending on these four factors one company has to determine what marketing strategies it has to adopt to generate the maximum amount of income from its branded products. Colgate's success has been in the right decisions it has made from the products launch to generate full amount of potential income from all of the markets around the globe. Colgate has managed to create a mix for its products that ensures the success of the product in the market. It has successfully planned to set the right price, place, promotion, and presentation strategies for every product it sells in the market and therefore has managed to gain better results from the markets worldwide. Brand Equity Brand equity can be defined in the following words. Brand'spowerderived from thegoodwilland namerecognitionit has earned over time, and which translates into higherhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/sales-volume.html sales volumeand higherprofit marginsagainstcompetingbrands. The performance of the Colgate's brands show that the company has been so far very successful in generating the brand equity for its brands. Company has managed to perform better than its competitors and has successfully generated a higher stream of profits due to higher sales around the globe. The mere fact of the company's existence in more than two hundred countries of the world has depicted the power of the company's brands to attract customers from the world market. Thus the successful analysis of the company about its brands' added value, buying behavior of the customers, branded strategies it chose to adopt, brand portfolio analysis it made of its own brands, environmental analysis of the markets it did and the brand personalities and endorsement techniques it considered has helped the company in making the better decisions about the company's branded products. Therefore, all of the factors described in details have helped the company in coming up with some of the great business strategies developed and have lead others to follow in the company's footsteps. Conclusions Through the detailed analysis and study of the company's brands and the strategies it used to develop and then market those brands nothing has come to the attention of the researcher that would lead him to a view that the company is in the grave completive danger of losing its business and market segment to others. There are, however, some other factors concerning the company matters that would define the way company is doing business in the world right now. Colgate is currently using all of the world's best established marketing and manufacturing techniques for its products but there are still some of the actions that should be taken by the company to further enhance its performance in the world markets. Colgate is under great amount of stress from its main competitors of FMCG giants. If a company is intended to sell its products that way it has been selling until now it should take some concrete measures to ensure that there is an element of innovation in the way company is doing business. From the analysis we have concluded that the threat of losing markets can cause significant amount if harm to the company if it will not take good steps towards eradicating those threats. Some recommendations are made to the company that will further enhance the working of the company in the markets around the world. Recommendations Due to intense amount of pressure that the company is facing right now, Colgate is recommended to intensify its competition skills by use of more aggressive marketing strategies. It should also try to gain the lion's share from the markets instead of relying on its current market share. This will help the company in getting the market share of other companies and will result in the more revenue generation and better profit making in the company. Colgate should also abide by all of the laws and regulations and should study extensively before entering in the new market of issuing a new product. Although it may seem a bit ordinary suggestion but past history has shown that these companies including Colgate itself get caught in the law suits that if executed against them will result in the cash outflow from the company thus affecting the liquidity of the company. If such matters continue to happen in the future they will certainly change the way companies do the business. These law suits may relate to patents disputes with the competitors, environmental disputes or any other law cases affecting the companies' business. Bibliography Aaker D (2004) Brand Portfolio Strategy. Simon & Schuster, London. Asker, D. (1991) Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the value of a brand name. New York: Free Press. Aaker, D. & Jaochimsthaler, E. (2000). Brand Leadership. United Kingdom: Simon and Schuster, UK Aaker, J. Dimensions of Brand Personailty. Journal of Marketing Research. XXXIV, 347-356 Ahmed P.K & Rafiq M (2002) Internal Marketing: tools and concepts for customer-focused management. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford Brandweek (2004). Special report: Brandweek Super Brands. Vol. XLV(25), S67,S68. New York: VNU Publications. De Chernatony L (2006) From Brand Vision to Brand Evaluation. Butterworth Heinemann. Oxford. *Keller K.L, Aperia, T & Georgson, M (2008) Strategic Brand Management. A European Perspective. FT Prentice Hall, Harlow Miller J & Muir D (2004) The Business of Brands. Wiley Read More