Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty Ltd Target Market - Case Study Example

Marketing mix Student’s name Institution: Introduction Business success if defined by the level of profits generated by a company or an organization. Given the fact that the Main aim of every business is to maximize profits, companies and organizations usual set some strategies that direct them to their desired level of success. Among the set strategies are the marketing strategies which enable a company to sell more of its product. Large volumes of sales with minimal expenditure results to high levels of revenue generated resulting to high profits and hence success (Goldman 2012). In implementing the marketing strategies, business techniques are normally used some of which are; the marketing mix model, the SIVA system, PESTLE analysis and the Segmentation and Portioning model. Marketing mix is the most famous model used in implementing marketing strategies. The model entails mixing various components of a product known as (4Ps), product, promotion, place and price so as to come up with an optimal combination that generates the highest possible level of profits with fully customer satisfaction (Shapiro 2001). Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd target market Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd was found in the year 1921. The company is a part of the large company Colgate Palmolive in the United States. Colgate- Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd is a well established business. It has four main market segments; medical sensitive, taste, economic, and beauty conscious. The medical segment is slightly narrow to provide an introduction of more pioneering products like the Colgate Total Grind Control. More consumers on the medical segment make purchasing decisions based on environmental factors (Dufour, 2008). The pie chart below shows the Australian target market. Consumers’ needs The economic segments consumers demand for low price product so as to minimize the total costs. Human beings are rational and so they also seek to minimize cost while maximizing the optimal satisfaction derived from consuming a product. As the economic segment demands for low priced toothpaste, they also demand for high quality products. The medical segment consumers’ needs are healthy product. This consumers value more health than the price the toothpaste is sold at (Frey 2012). The taste segments demands for toothpaste brands with good taste despite of the price and the beauty conscious segment base the purchasing decisions on how the product looks. This group of consumers goes for the beautiful brands despite the price level. Marketing mix In striving to make more sales, the company has some marketing strategies which help in performing business operations. For effectively implementation of the marketing strategies, Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd uses marketing mix as its business technique. Marketing mix as earlier defined is the combination of the various products components 4Ps in order to come up with the optimal combination that generates high profit level with optimal customer satisfaction (Dick man 2007). Product The studied product from the Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd is toothpaste. Tooth paste is a product line with various flavors such as Colgate, aloe, cupcake, jasmine, scotch, eggplant, bacon, chocolate, pickle, and curry among many others. The various flavors of tooth paste helps in meeting the needs of consumers from all the four segments. The medical segments consumers’ needs of having healthy toothpaste are satisfied by flavors like aloe toothpaste. The economic segments consumers’ needs are satisfied by the low price brands of tooth paste such as Colgate which has a slightly low price compared to the other flavors (Baker 2010). Taste segments consumers needs are satisfied by the toothpaste flavors such as the chocolate toothpaste and the cosmetic segments consumers’ needs satisfied by toothpaste flavors such as cupcake which looks more attractive. The various tooth paste flavors therefore satisfies all the consumer’s needs. Toothpaste, the product studied, is a shopping product. The main reason as to why this product was chosen is that toothpaste is consumed by almost every individual and so its market is very large. Toothpaste is very important to an individual’s health. It is among the basic needs and an individual can hardly survive without it (Shapiro 2001). For good health teeth, one needs to brush his or her teeth after every meal where he or she uses toothpaste. A core product is a product that can be modified into various forms and uses. The company’s core product is the core product since it can be used to serve various purposes. Apart from maintaining cleanness, some tooth paste flavors are used for curing unhealthy teeth while other tooth paste flavors used for maintain good breath for people with bad mouth smell. Actual product is the toothpaste that is used only for maintain clean teeth and no any other purposes. Augmented tooth paste products are the tooth paste flavors with more benefits derived from their consumption than the core toothpaste products (Rose bloom 2011). Tooth paste has an effective brand. The most effective brand of toothpaste is Colgate which most of individuals use it. Colgate serves various purposes and so it is the most effective brand which satisfies majority of consumers needs. All tooth paste brands and flavors are normally packed in small tubes which are usually put in small boxes for hygienic purposes. This form of packaging makes the product maintain the shape, cleanness and look for a long period of time. Consumers find the product well kept which attracts them to purchase it (Goldman 2012). Various brands of toothpaste are packed slightly differently. The most difference between them is normally the color but the shape is the same for most of them. The different colors in packaging deliver a product differentiation. Toothpaste is at growth stage in the product cycle. The company is now benefiting from economies of scale as it continues to expand due to the increased demand of toothpaste (Levinson 2004). Promotion Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd does its product promotion through various ways. Internet sources such as websites face book and twitter are used to advertise the product which equips consumers with enough information concerning the product. The marketer chose to advertise toothpaste because they are easily accessible to majority of the consumers. Almost everybody uses tooth paste. With the current digital world, the largest population of people can access internet sources through their mobile phones, computers, and tablets among other communication devices (Frey 2012). By using these sources of information, every consumer can access the information and hence effectively reaching the target market. In providing information concerning the product, Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd uses on-line communication since it is the most effective mode of communication. Face book is the most used by the company in promoting its product. During the study, it was identified that, the Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd produces high quality products which are distributed to various parts of the world through various distribution channels. The company also sells its product at various prices depending on the type of brand (Dick man 2007). Place Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd uses an intensive distribution strategy in supplying its toothpaste products. Toothpaste is a low priced product and so this is the best strategy to be used in supplying toothpaste to the targeted market. With intensive distribution strategy, the retail distributors offer more information concerning the product to the final consumers. Not all consumers are able to access the provided information and this helps those with no information get to know about the product. This type of distribution makes the product easily accessible even in the remote areas and so consumers get satisfied by the product (Baker 2010). Consumers are also able to give their comments concerning the product making the company to correct its mistakes and consumers derive more satisfaction. Toothpaste cannot be distributed on-line since it is a hard product and not soft product. The company can only advertise it online but it cannot distribute it on-line. Retailers are used in distributing the product to various places so as to reach all the customers (Shapiro 2001). The Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd distributes its product through some retailers such as the supermarkets, shops, small kiosks, and canteens among others. With all this retailers, toothpaste is accessible even by the remote consumers. Price Colgate- Palmolive Australia company usually prices its products at a slightly low price than that of its competitors. Due to the large size of its business, the company benefits from large economies of scale by producing its product in large quantities. This reduces the cost of production and so the company is able to sell its product at low prices and still generate enough profit. Tooth paste is packed in various sizes (Rose bloom 2011). The smallest size is usually ten milliliters while the largest size is five hundred milliliters. The various sizes are sold at various prices the smallest being the cheapest while the largest is the most expensive. However the price tends to increases with a decreasing rate with the increase in size of the product. For example, a consumer who buys five hundred milliliter toothpaste may spend ‘less money than the one who buys more ten milliliter tubes of the same product (Rouffignac, 2003). Some of the product brands have some additional benefits by purchasing them. The additional items attached in some of the brand are toothbrush, sweets among others. These additional items are meat to create a difference with the other brands so as to get more demand in the market. For example, a consumer mostly teenagers will be much interested in purchasing a product with things like biscuits attached to it since they believe it is given freely. However, these additional items are not freely given and the consumer pays for them indirectly (Levinson 2004). The product price under such circumstances is usually high than which covers even the cost of the additional item. By paying the higher placed priced on the product, the additional item costs are also covered. Pricing tactics are the attempts used by a firm to sell its product at a relatively low price so as to attract more buyers as a way of attracting more customers. The Colgate-Palmolive Australia Pty. Ltd produces its products in very large quantities. This is their pricing technique since by producing goods at large quantities; the cost of production is minimized. With the low cost of production, the company is able to price its product low and still make reasonable profits. This technique increases the demand for its product and hence the company making more sales (Goldman 2012). Comparing with the other 3Ps, the low price is very consistent with the company’s marketing strategy. With the low priced commodities, the company sales large volumes of its product, toothpaste and hence meets its marketing strategy of making more sales. Competitive advantage The use of marketing mix model has helped the company gain high competitive advantage. With the low price levels of its product, it has attracted many consumers especially those from the economic segments (Frey 2010). Human beings are rationale they would always go for the low price products. The increased demand due to the low price enables the company to make large volumes of sales more profit generated. With the high levels of generated profits, the company is able to expand its business and hence enjoy more economies of scale. The company’s business expansion enables it to produce its products in more large quantities reducing further the cost of production and hence their product prices lowered further enabling the company to gain more competitive advantage (Dufour 2008). Colgate- Palmolive Company produces very high quality products. This attracts its customers especially those from the medical segments who highly value their health. Such consumers always go for high quality products as they believe them to be the healthiest. With this, the company’s volume of sales also increases making it to be highly competitive. Colgate Palmolive Company advertises its products through various sources. Consumers are able to access information concerning the product and the company itself. This makes more individuals develop the willingness to consume this product from the company and so the number of customers keeps on increasing with an increasing rate (Dick man 2007). This increases the volume of sales the company makes and hence become much competitive. Given the fact that the company has its locations in various places in the world, consumers are able to access the product from any place. This also makes the company to sale more of its product since it is highly accessible. The various product flavors produced by the company also contributes to it gaining a competitive advantage. The various flavors tend to serve the needs of all the customers from all segments; economic, medical, taste and the cosmetic segments (Baker 2010). The economic segment consumers can find low priced products, the medical segment consumers can find high quality products, taste segment consumers can access good taste products and for the cosmetic segment consumers, there are brands with a beautiful look. All the various flavors that serve the needs of all consumers contribute to the company gaining a high competitive advantage in the market. Conclusion Success of the marketing mix as a solution to the target consumers needs. Marketing mix has really helped the Colgate-Palmolive company in meeting its various consumers’ needs. The various flavors produced satisfy all the consumers from the various segments. By producing high quality products, the medical segment consumers are really satisfied since they demand for healthy products. The relatively low price products enable the economic segment consumers to satisfy their needs by purchasing large quantities at a favorable price. Product promotion also enables the medical segment consumers to identify the healthy and unhealthy products and so purchase those that derive their optimal satisfaction. Placement which ensures that products can be easily accessible satisfies the needs of the economic segment consumers since they receive the product at very minimal cost. It can therefore be concluded that, marketing mix is among the best models to be used in implementing a company’s marketing strategies. By combining the various product components, a company is able to come up with an optimal combination that satisfies the consumers’ needs and also the generated enough profits. Consumer satisfaction makes a company to make large volumes of sales in the market. Consumer satisfaction with high generated profits directs a company to success in its business operations. References Baker, W. L. (2010). The price advantage (2nd ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Dick man, S. (2007). The marketing mix: promoting museums, galleries & exhibitions. Melbourne, Vic.: Museums Australia Inc. (Victoria). Du four, G. H. (2008). Strategy and tactics:. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Frey, A. W. (2012). The effective marketing mix; programming for optimum results. Hanover, N.H.: Amos Tuck School of Business Administration. Goldman, J. (2012). Public relations in the marketing mix: introducing vulnerability relations. Chicago, IL: Crain Books. Levinson, J. C. (2004). Guerrilla travel tactics hundreds of simple strategies guaranteed to save road warriors time and money. New York: AMACOM. Rose bloom, C (2011). The complete trading course: price patterns, strategies, setups, and execution tactics. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Rouffignac, P. (2003). Packaging in the marketing mix. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Shapiro, B. P. (2001). The marketing mix. 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