Colgate-Palmolive :: Oral Hygiene Industry

Colgate-Palmolive has remained a leader in the oral hygiene industry. The company operates all over the world and has been successful in all markets. One reason the company has remained successful is because the company understands its customers and customer buying behaviors. This paper will discuss different segmentation variables for Colgate-Palmolive. This paper will also discuss the behavioral influences. Finally, this paper will make some recommendations for the Colgate-Palmolive company. Segmentation Variables According to Keller and Kotler (2009) there are four segmentation variables. Those four variables are geographic, psychographic, demographic, and behavioral. Colgate-Palmolive operates in four geographic divisions: North America, Latin America, Europe/South Pacific, and Greater Asia/Africa (Datamonitor, 2011). The company sells its products in over 200 countries (Colgate-Palmolive, 2011). Demographic variables include age and life-cycle stage, life stage, gender, income, generation, and social class (Keller & Kotler, 2009). According to Laidler and Quelch (2011) â€Å"CP’s consumer research indicated that consumers of the baby boom generation (adults born in the 1940’s, 1950’s and early 1960’s) were becoming more concerned about the health of their gums as opposed to cavity prevention and were willing to pay a premium for new products addressing this issue.† Colgate offers a wide variety of products that address total oral care. Mothers, Hispanics and people with a busy schedule are also a target market of Colgate-Palmolive. Women and mothers are generally the person that does the shopping for the family. Pictures of mothers and their children are in many of their advertisements. The United States has a growing Hispanic population that Colgate has begun to market to. The company has advertisements in Spanish and packaging in Spanish (Veiders, 2008). For people on the go, Colgate developed the Colgate Wisp. In order to better understand the psychographic variable the company has put into place a new business planning tool. This new business planning tool will help executives measure the impact of the company’s advertising strategies. The business planning tool will also help the company determine where they should reallocate advertising and promotional spending (DeSanto, 2010). There are many consumer behavioral variables. Many of Colgate’s products are impulse buys and are decided in the store (Drug Store News, 1900). The company realizes how important shelf space and in store promotions are. They are offer a wide variety of products to fit anyone’s needs.