Colgate Toothpaste Under The Oral Hygiene Products example essay topic

First of all I would like define the term, product. The word product qualifies a marketing concept. A product is more than a person, place or thing. Nothing is more important to a marketing strategy than the? product concept? A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption and that might satisfy a want or need; it includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations, and ideas. In fact, finding the right product concept is one of the four critical objectives of marketing.

Toothpaste is an oral care product. Antacid is a drug while dandruff shampoo is a hygiene product. All of these come under health care products. Therefore, Colgate's core product is a health care product when it sells toothpaste or other products in its new line.

The core benefit the product will provide to consumers is total health care. For example, Colgate's toothpaste is an actual product. It's name, ingredients, styling, features and packaging and other attributes have all been combined carefully to deliver the core benefit? a convenient high quality way to clean the teeth and maintain fresh breath. I would classify Colgate aspirin under drugs, Colgate dandruff shampoo under hair hygiene, while the Colgate toothpaste under the oral hygiene products. These classifications would increase competition with other companies. For example, Colgate aspirin-free pain killer to compete with Tylenol, Colgate ibuprofen to compete with Advil, Colgate cold tablets to compete with Contac, Colgate night time cold medicine to compete with Nyquil, Colgate antacid to compete with Rolaids, Colgate natural laxative to compete with Metamucil, and Colgate dandruff shampoo to compete with Head and Shoulders.

Colgate is already strong in oral hygiene. Due to this competition, there would be price changes. Colgate will have to decrease its price than other brands. This is because, people are really price conscious, and as long as the price is cheaper, along with a name that you can trust, people are going to buy that over others. Colgate also might alienate customers by slapping its name on so many products. If consumers are dissatisfied with one product, they might be dissatisfied with everything across the board.

These classifications also require a high level of advertising and promotion expenditures, 25 percent of sales on year-round media alone. Industry observers estimate that Colgate should have at lease several hundred million dollars in sales to be large enough to afford the fixed costs of advertising. Furthermore, Colgate would loose its narrow focus on oral-care products and would leave space for other potential competitors to enter the market. Brand decisions typically are decentralized and ad hoc. Colgate conducted studies to learn the strength of its brand name with consumers. Colgate believes in the following equation: brand awareness + brand image = brand equity.

Its studies found out that Colgate was number one in brand awareness and number two in brand image and as a result it ended up being number two in brand equity. Due to this Colgate has adopted a strategy that aims to make it the best global consumer products company. It believes that oral care and over the counter drug products are very similar. Both rely on their ingredients for effectiveness; both are strictly regulated; and both have virtually identical marketing elements, including common distribution channels.

Colgate drives top-line growth by developing innovative new products bringing them quickly to global market and supporting them effectively. They are prohibiting from over promoting their brand to produce short-term profits at the expense of long-term brand equity. Colgate is a powerful brand in oral care. Therefore it has consumer franchise? it command strong consumer loyalty. Therefore adding the Colgate name with other products would increase customer purchases even if the price were high. A product line is a group of products that are closely related because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same types of outlets, or fall within given price changes.

Colgate is fully participating I its growth by offering consumers a range of affordable products. If we look at Colgate, its product line decision includes marketing a new line, which includes products, related to health only. They are marketed through the same channels and usually fall within reasonable prices. Colgate is positioned as a high short-term profit earning company.

That's why it emphasizes on selected items for market growth and profits. Colgate's financial strategy is designed to increase gross profit margin and reduce overhead on a continuous basis. Because advertising drives growth, Colgate invests substantially on advertising. I would say that decisions made by Colgate are consistent because it has continuously met or exceeded its target to increase gross margin.

4. Packaging includes the activities of designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product. I would package the products under primary packaging, as in including products immediate container, for example the bottle holding Listerine. There won? t be any secondary package, for example a cardboard box like the one used to package Colgate toothpaste. This is because secondary packages are usually thrown away and contribute to pollution as well as increased investment. My packaging would be designed to protect the product as well as attracting attention in order to increase sales.

It would include a description of the product as well. Better packages would give rise to customer affluence. This means that the consumers would have no obligations to pay a little more for the convenience, appearance, dependability, and the prestige of better packages. Good packaging would also create instant consumer recognition of the company or brand. My innovative packaging would give Colgate an advantage over competitors. For example, Colgate's nighttime medicine would come a drip-proof spout and cap; Colgate's shampoo would include a pump dispenser.

Developing a good package for a new product requires making many decisions and taking a lot of risks. My first task would be to establish a strong packaging concept. The packaging concept states what the package should be or do for the product. I have to make decisions on specific elements of the product, for example, size, shape, materials, color, text and brand mark. These various elements should work together to support the product's position and marketing strategy. Furthermore, my packaging techniques should be consistent with the product's advertising, pricing and distribution.

Cost remains an important packaging consideration. The development for new packages can take up to several months as well as can cost up to several thousand dollars. Labels may range from tags attached to products to complex graphics that are part of the package. Labels of Colgate may seem old fashioned and may need updating. Labels should be processed with care as they may mislead customers, fail to describe ingredients or fail to include needed safety warnings and lead to accusations from customers towards Colgate press charges.

In conclusion: In making packaging decisions, the company must heed growing environmental concerns about packages and make decisions that serve society's interests as well as immediate customer and company objectives.