Colgate Total or Diet Coke

¶ … company Colgate-Palmolive. The writer discusses many aspects of the company including pricing, placement and other elements of selling the product. There were eight sources used to complete this paper.

Colgate-Palmolive Company is a company that provides many personal care and other types of products to consumers worldwide.

The Company manufactures and markets a wide variety of products in the United States and worldwide in two business segments: oral, personal, household surface and fabric care and pet nutrition. Oral, personal, household surface and fabric 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 (Colgate-Palmolive Company (http://biz.yahoo.com/p/c/cl.html).Pet nutrition products include pet food products manufactured and marketed by Hill's Pet Nutrition, a Company subsidiary. Principal global trademarks include Colgate, Palmolive, Kolynos, Sorriso, Mennen, Protex, Ajax, Soupline, Suavitel, Fab, Science Diet and Prescription Diet, in addition to various regional trademarks (Colgate-Palmolive Company (http://biz.yahoo.com/p/c/cl.html)."

The company has been in existence for almost a century, it was founded in 1923. It has based its success and growth on focusing on personal care products in addition to the cleansers.

The operations of the oral, personal, household surface and fabric care segment are managed geographically in four operating segments: North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Africa (http://yahoo.multexinvestor.com/FullDesc.aspx?target=/stocks/quickinfo/companyprofile/fulldescription&ticker=CL)."

One of the strongest markets that Colgate has is the oral care product line. This includes toothpaste, toothbrushes, tooth whitener, mouth rinse, and dental floss. One of the things that Colgate has done to insure its continued success is to market to target groups with each of its products. The Colgate tooth whitener is a relatively new product and its appearance on the Market has been largely devoted to those between 20 and 30 years old.

TARGET MARKET

The target market for the company's tooth whitener is couples and singles who are in their 20's and 30's. While Colgate enjoys selling the product to anyone who wishes to use it, the company's advertising has focused on this age group for several reasons. One of the main criteria for the focus is that this age group is when people begin to notice that their teeth may be losing their youthful whiteness and sparkle. The 20's and 30's is the time when aging begins and people start noticing things such as laugh lines, wrinkles and yellowing teeth. Colgate understands this and develops its marketing strategy to capture this consumer group and hopefully maintain them as customers for many years to come.

The three major competitors of Colgate with tooth whitening agents include Crest, Arm and Hammer and Britesmile. Each of these companies sells a product that is similar to the agents that are sold by Colgate Palmolive.

The target market for all of these companies is the same 20 to 30-year-old range. Because the companies are all competing for the same target market with this particular product it is important for the marketing by Colgate to be superior and above the rest (http://www.professionalteethwhitening.com/).

Colgate tooth whitener is positioned in the same section that the toothbrushes and toothpastes are sold. The reason for this is because placing it with other oral care products makes it less difficult to find. In addition there is an ability to increase sales as people shop the area for their toothpaste or toothbrush and see the tooth whitener on the shelf near those products.

It provides an easily identifiable and accessible area in which the consumer can locate the product with little effort at all. The marketing is developed in such a manner that it is an obvious oral care product as well. Commercials display people using the product at night and in the morning having whiter and brighter teeth.

The tangible characteristics of the product include being able to see whiter brighter teeth. Another tangible aspect of the product is having fresher breath as the whitener brightens the teeth.

While the tangible characteristics are important there are also several intangible characteristics of the product that are considered. One of these intangible characteristics is the fact that the person using the product "feels" better about their appearance. Feeling better about the color of their teeth may encourage them to smile more often and in turn this will make them appear more open and friendly. This can create a wider circle of friends and contacts.