Colgate, an American brand that principally manufactures and deals in Oral hygiene products has been the market leader for decades. A company that roots in New York City in the early 19th century is now a global presence, 200 years later. This blog will give you insights into the marketing strategy of Colgate – A world leader in the field of oral health. 

This blog includes the competitor’s analysis, marketing mix, swot analysis, and various marketing strategies adopted by Colgate.

Before going into different aspects of Colgate, let’s see what Colgate as a company is all about.

About Colgate

Colgate is known all over the world for high-quality oral hygiene so much so that it has dominated the world market when it comes to toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental hygiene. Founded by William Colgate in 1806 as a small candle and soap business, Colgate has surely come a long way. Headquartered in New York City, Colgate has subsidiaries all over the world and a vibrant, global consumer base. Over the past few decades, Colgate has achieved this standard by implementing fantastic marketing strategies and even getting dentists on board to endorse its products.

Let’s dive further into the competitor analysis Colgate faces.

 

Competitors Analysis of Colgate

Whenever a company launches their product they need to analyze what their competitors are up to and try giving better products at either the same price or less than the competitor’s price.

Colgate has become a household name for battling germs and poor breath while maintaining proper oral hygiene. By offering high-quality goods at fair and affordable prices, the brand has earned the confidence of millions of customers. Although it faces strong competition from other brands, this healthy competition encourages them to improve their products to keep their market share. Some of the competitors Colgate faces are:

 

1. Pepsodent

Pepsodent is a Company owned by Unilever. The USP(Unique selling point) of Pepsodent is that it creates toothpaste that tastes like mint. According to the company, their toothpaste protects teeth from germs and strengthens teeth to fight against bacteria and captivity. It has operations in over 50 countries and it is one of the biggest competitors of Colgate.

 

2. Closeup

Closeup is also a Unilever Product. It is known for its long-lasting freshness In India, it has been a market leader for many decades as it targets the youth of the nation. The biggest advantage of Closeup is that it was the first gel-based toothpaste that attracts its target audience.

 

3. Dabur

Dabur India Ltd is an FMCG company in India it produces goods in the following segments 

• Food
• Haircare
• Oral care
• Skincare etc

According to the company, their product whitens the teeth with the help of whitening agents. It makes use of natural ingredients which has no side effects and can be used by people of any age group

Now as we saw that before launching the product a company needs to go through competitor analysis now, Let’s now look at the Marketing Mix implemented by Colgate.

 

Marketing Mix of Colgate

The marketing mix of a company generally is the analysis of 4main aspects of a company, there are as follows

• Product
• Place
• pricing 
• Promotional

 

1. Product Mix of Colgate

Colgate is a brand that sells a variety of oral hygiene products. It has introduced exclusive items for children in addition to its standard versions used by any genre. To battle tooth decay and germs, the product Kitty contains a Colgate toothbrush with soft bristles that cover every nook and cranny of the mouth. Toothpowder and mouthwash from Colgate are two of the most common products in the brand’s roster

Colgate toothpaste contains abrasive ingredients such as fluoride, which help to remove plaque from the teeth and polish the surface by removing food stains. There are currently thirteen toothpaste varieties on the market that includes:

• cavity protection
• gingivitis and plaque prevention
• longer-lasting fresh breath 
• tartar reduction
• strengthening of enamel
• relief from sensitivity 
• tooth whitening

 

2. Place Mix of Colgate

Colgate has always favoured a technique that is distinct to stand out. This aids in the creation of a new customer base as well as the retention of existing customers’ interests. The producer is part of the distribution chain for its goods, followed by a fast dispatch to wholesalers, retailers, and finally customers. Their strategy mainly focuses on fast delivery and easy availability. The products are accessible in every part of the country including rural, semi-urban, and urban markets.

 

3. Price Mix of Colgate

Colgate has positioned toothpaste as the company’s primary product, with all of the other oral care products placed around it. To compete with its different rivals, the organization has settled on a dynamic pricing strategy. The prices are comparable to or slightly higher than those of other goods. It uses purchaser psychology to its benefit by presenting its goods as having a longer duration and far-reaching effects on the oral care of the patrons. The extra costs may not feel like a burden to the consumer since many dentists recommend the product. Prices for different goods are different to suit the needs of different parts of society. For example, Visible white toothpaste will cost more than Max Fresh toothpaste as it provides extra oral care and whitening.

The products are available in numerous sizes and combo packs that make them more attractive to consumers. The company has consultants who keep a close eye on the competition and are constantly revising the pricing strategy to retain its customer base.

 

4. Promotion Mix of Colgate

Colgate has chosen creative schemes and appealing packaging solutions to effectively satisfy the desires and needs of all of its customers. The traditional colour red is now being associated with Colgate and thus the company capitalizes on this simple familiarity with its products. The business has encouraged various promotional policies to promote the sales of its goods, which have been implemented through digital media such as television and radio, as well as print media such as magazines and newspapers, as well as numerous billboards and hoardings. The Internet has also become a popular marketing tool for both buyers and sellers, resulting in increased revenue.

The company has a social networking media page on MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook where customers are encouraged to share their experiences to build a personal one-to-one relationship with them. To boost sales, various discounted coupons are available in various newspapers and on the official Colgate website. At different events, the brand has enlisted the support of several celebrities.

Colgate-Palmolive (India) had recently along with a campaign titled ‘Smile Out Loud’. The campaign features the stories of real women who have overcome obstacles in their lives and highlights the role that toothpaste plays in enhancing their smiles and radiance. The campaign encourages women to bravely face the world and share their smiles with confidence by using their product – Colgate Visible White O2 toothpaste.

Let’s further analyze Colgate’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with the help of SWOT analysis

 

SWOT Analysis of Colgate

SWOT Analysis is the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that an organization faces. Let’s take a deeper look into Colgate’s analysis. 

1. Strengths of Colgate

• Colgate is a well-renowned household name. This gives Colgate advantages like high brand recall and easy visibility. 
• Colgate is the topmost brand in the FMCG sector featuring a plethora of products in its roster. Therefore, the more in-depth the product line, the costs fall further.
• Colgate has continued to maintain their market share because of a high penetration rate in the market.

 

2. Weaknesses of Colgate

• The market has become saturated, with a large number of local and national players competing for market share in the personal and oral care sector. There is little room for growth as all companies consume each other’s market share.
• Colgate goods are also more expensive than their competitors due to high operating costs.

 

3. Opportunities of Colgate

• Colgate’s biggest opportunity remains the ability to expand its product line. This will increase sales and offer a wider range to Colgate’s consumer base.
• As the urban markets are now at saturation level companies can start reaching to rural markets to establish themselves before their competitors do

 

4. Threats to Colgate

• With the growing number of local and national players, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to stand out. Counterfeit goods often pose a danger to the company’s brand image in the marketplace.
• Because of Colgate’s use of animal testing, the publication “The Ethical Consumer Research Association”  advised its readers not to purchase toothpaste. This type of knowledge would affect the Colgate brand in the digital age.

These were the largely identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by Colgate. Now let’s see some of the different Marketing Strategies adopted by Colgate

 

Marketing Strategies of Colgate

Marketing strategies are the strategies created by the companies their products and services to their targeted audience, Zee follows the strategy of STP

Let’s see what STP stands, what does it mean and how Colgate uses it in their benefit

 

1. Segmentation

Segmentation is dividing the market into different segments to find out the correct audience for ourselves which can be our potential customers and can buy our product

Segmentation can be of many types like

• Geographic segmentation
• Income-based segmentation
• Demographic  segmentation
• Behavioural segmentation etc 

Colgate segmented their audience by using different segmentation types for different products like they used Age-based segmentation for toothpaste. Colgate segmented their audience based on 2 types, they are as follows:

1. behavioural segmentation
2. Demographic segmentation

 

2. Targeting

Targeting is selecting one segment of the audience out of different segments that we created during segmentation and them promote our product to them. Colgate Targets almost every segment by providing different products to each segment which helps them racing to a larger audience. Colgate mainly Targets people of the middle class and lower class.

 

3. Positioning

Positioning is creating a good image in the minds of customers so that they buy your product. With the help of different marketing strategies and due to existing for such a long time, people have started trusting Colgate which helps them gain the customer’s trust. Now, after the STP, let’s see some of the Marketing strategies that Colgate used to promote their product to the targeted customers.

 

Marketing Campaigns of Colgate

Marketing Strategies are the activities carried out by the company to promote their product to their targeted audience. They use different and creative methods to reach out to their target audience so that next time they go to buy a product they buy the product produced by the company

Let’s see some of the creative marketing strategies that were carried out by Colgate to promote their products

 

1. Attractive packaging

 

 

When it comes to packaging, Colgate is a mastermind. The packaging is very youthful, light, and decent, appealing to a wide range of people but still conveying the correct message.

Whether it’s Cavity Prevention toothpaste or Max Fresh toothpaste, the company’s advertisements and advertising campaigns accurately reflect what they’re selling, and by focusing on a very specific issue of oral health, they win the public’s confidence.

The Colgate Scholarship Offer Program was strategically initiated by Colgate.

It was designed to create an emotional connection with Indian families by assisting children in achieving their goals.

2. “The Smile Show”

 

 

Colgate started this campaign with the intention of bringing people’s attention to the most “visible” feature on their faces – their teeth. The audience is so focused on the teeth of the people in the images that they fail to notice the woman in the first picture has six fingers and in the second picture, seems to have an extra hand. This highlighted the importance of brushing and flossing and most importantly, made people stop and stare. Hence, giving the consumers a good amount of time to retain Colgate’s brand image.

“The Smile Show” – YouTube videos to reach targeted millennials.

The logical place to go when aiming to target a consumer base like millennials is YouTube and Colgate took this opportunity and turned it into gold. Colgate accumulated more than 24M views with the help of popular YouTubers like Andrea Brooks and Blair Fowler promoting and featuring on The Smile Show started by Colgate.

The video series obtained unbelievable brand metrics. It led the company to following increments

• 13% increase in brand awareness,
• 10.8% increase in purchase consideration,
• 1116% increase in brand interest 

 

3. Colgate’s location-based marketing strategy

Maha Kumbh Mela is a mass gathering of Hindu pilgrims and Colgate’s unique strategy helped them tap into this consumer genre. To reach its target audience, the company built a virtual circle around the pilgrimage site and used location-based targeting. As a result, when pilgrims entered the circle, they got a call and were greeted by an Indian radio personality named Amin Sayani. Amin encourages the pilgrims to stop by the Colgate booth for free samples and the chance to win prizes.

The results were a whopping 300% per cent increase in the foot traffic at Colgate’s booth

 

4. Colgate’s collaboration with celebrities

Colgate has collaborated with many different celebrities like Kareena Kapoor, Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, etc

One of the major examples of their smart collaboration is their collaboration with Ranveer Singh wherein advertisement that shows how Colgate max fresh makes you as energetic as Ranveer Singh

 

5. Customers Trust

Colgate has always created strategies that touch the sentiments of the customers 

They have participated in different social activities and has also collaborated with different NGOs to work on the upbringing of particular people depending on the project and needs of society

 

Social Media presence of Colgate

In today’s time when most of the public is using social media, it becomes compulsory for a company to promote its product on social media.

Colgate has a great social media presence where they have

• 126k followers on Instagram 
• 3613265 Likes on Facebook
• 3606740 Followers on Facebook
• 963 followers on Twitter 

Seeing at the social media accounts of Colgate we can say that they have maintained the colour scheme on their social media handles. They have been creating Posts with the colour RED. They have been using the colour red so much that now people have started believing that if toothpaste is wrapped in the wrapper of the colour RED it is a Colgate product. Instead of collaborating with celebrities, they have been posting pictures of the common person which creates an environment that many of the common people uses it and so new customers buy the product to try.

 

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, Colgate is a typical market-oriented organization with operations in over 200 countries. It offers a variety of new employee-oriented services for both senior and entry-level employees. Colgate is conscious of its social and ethical obligations. It is single-handedly responsible for managing the consumer market and facing competitors globally. 

Colgate has managed to get so commoditized that it is now a generic name for toothpaste across the world. Companies and marketers of the modern world should take inspiration from the FMCG giant. 

If you want to learn how you can build strong marketing campaigns, we would recommend you pursue a course that will help you equip these skills. IIDE’s Online Digital Marketing course has an industry-recognized curriculum that will help you master various tools and teach you how to nail digital strategies across various platforms.

Thank you for taking the time to read about Colgate’s marketing strategies. If you like this and want to know more about the different Marketing strategies of different brands and market leaders click visit IIDE’S  knowledge portal