Running head: COLGATE-PALMOLIVE 1

Colgate-Palmolive: Feedback Evaluation Strategy

Grant Ritter

Indiana Wesleyan University

COLGATE-PALMOLIVE 2

I. Evaluation

The stated goal of the chairman of Colgate-Palmolive (CP) is to remain “deeply

committed to advancing technology which can address changing consumer needs

throughout the world”. The CP message states: “Our goal is to…create products that

will continue to improve the quality of life for our consumers wherever they live.” Colgate

Palmolive: Business English Materials.com: ESL Lessons)

To that end, Colgate-Palmolive positions its toothbrush and toothpastes to

consumers who are concerned about gum disease and oral hygiene, stressing that their

products are specialized to prevent oral disease; the brunt of their research focuses

around that.

Another selling position – and this we see often repeated as per their marketing

appeal - is the sparkling smile that their products will help people achieve. Research,

simultaneously, devolves around ways to make teeth ‘sparkling white’ and we catch this

stance from the branding of their products from toothpastes that are supposed “to keep

your smile bright, beautiful and healthy” (Colgate: World of Care; online) to the way

that toothbrushes are designed so that they ‘whiten’ the teeth. In this way, they appeal

to consumers’ subliminal motives that ‘white teeth/ bright smile’ equates beauty and, in

turn, equates acquisition of that sought-after job, date, or deal (Ouellet, 2009).

Colgate also conducts a vast amount of research on issues peripheral to oral

health as long as it were in some way related, For instance, Colgate also positions

product as relevant to health as in ‘Healthy mouth, healthier body’ associating oral

disease with diabetes, stroke, heart disease, arthritis, and other negative conditions

(Colgate Total: online), and conduct surveys the world over (as, for instance, one survey

conducted in India and quoted in their newsletter) to indicate the association of oral
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE 3
health with general health.

All of its research is done, as far as possible on existing data and/ on human

subjects. As the company takes care to emphasize on its site “animal testing is

conducted only when all other options have been exhausted” (Our company,

sustainability. Concern for animal welfare). Animal research is suspended in the adult

personal Care Products category but is, otherwise, conducted with strict regulations in

outside laboratories under Colgate supervision on a minimum number of animals.

Colgate-Palmolive also runs fellowships and provides scholarships to support

scholarly research in nutrition and oral health/ dental education.

As regards feedback regarding its products so that it will know how to improve

them in the future, CP has Consumer Affairs Departments in more than 55 countries

and these serve as the company’s connection with consumers. Here, consumer

opinions, concerns, and inquiries are analyzed and assessed to see whether CP can

improve its products and remain aware of the market’s current requirements and

preferences. Many of the Consumer Departments also use surveys and other means of

gauging consumer satisfaction.

Colgate’s Consumer Insights Department conducts active market research and

trend analysis in order to identify consumer preferences and to forecast the future so

that they can meet consumers’ demands (our Company: Consumers.). This active

market research is targeted to all ages and all populations. A Feedback Questionnaire,

for instance, found on http://www.brightsmilesbrightfutures.co.uk/teachers_

feedback1.aspx is addressed to teachers of young children and stylized in a manner

that is apt to appeal to them tends to find out the brands of toothpastes that their pupils

would use and ways that Colgate can appeal to them. One of the questions, for

instance, asks:

How many pupils have been taught using the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE 4
Futures programme this academic year?

Another: In what formats do you prefer to receive Colgate resources?

A further example of a survey is found in the SmileTalk e-newsletter

(http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/OC/SmileTalk/CurrentIssue/One11/Survey.cvs

p?cid=US_ENewsletter_SmileTalk_One11) where Colgate asks the members of ‘our

community’ for feedback. Colgate uses tools such as the SmileTalk e-newsletter and

games and children’s activities to not only forge loyalty with its customers, and to attract

clients, but also to solicit response.

As per evaluation of its own company’s performance, Colgate has set for itself

critically defined goals and, in order to ensure that it meets these goals, scores its

performance according to Key performance indicators (KPI), which are critical indicators

of its objectified success. These KPI are used to gauge its management’s and

company’s performance.

II. Recommendation

Colgate tries extremely hard to improve its performance and meet its

consumers’ preferences. Its work in this area is remarkable and, no doubt, constitutes

one of the factors that results in its success.

All of its strategies are equally promising, although it seems to me that its online

and offline surveys and similar research methods would be more productive than its

newsletter. The problem with surveys, however, includes the fact that responses may

be biased, erroneous (due to fatigue, rush to complete survey, elements of mood etc.),

intentionally dishonest/ misleading, and unintentionally dishonest since people are not

always aware of their true intentions and motives. Most productive, therefore, may be

Colgate’s initiative in funding related scholarly research. Here, individuals, outside of the
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE 5
Colgate community and, therefore, likely more objective conduct research using a

variety of methods.

A recommended method of research would be netnography where the

researcher either remains anonymous and ‘lurks’ on the site surreptitiously picking up

and recording traces of online option and environment, or acts in the capacity of

participant in a manner that is more similar to traditional ethnography (Bowler, 2010).

Netnography has been shown to be an invaluable resource for marketers,

specifically in areas of more sensitive marketing where consumers may not be so

readily willing or available to discuss or share their perspective. Online, in an

environment where identity is protected, the individual feels free to articulate his or her

opinion and beliefs. Several corporations have already adopted forms of netnography

via their structuring chat-groups and encouraging online discussion on their site, so that

they can later pick up snippets of opinion. More than one hotel, for instance, frequents

tourists-connected websites and ‘lurks’ either surreptitiously picking up participants’

recorded experiences of their particular hotel, or soliciting this information under the

assumed guise of another tourist.

Netnography itself is a wide field that embraces various methods that include

surveys, interviews, journals, focus groups, structural network analysis and ethnography

(Bowler, 2010). As regards Colgate-Palmolive, I might select ethnography (i.e. pure

lurking), surveys, and perhaps differential interviews in order to conduct open-ended

questions and to explore responses.

COLGATE-PALMOLIVE 6
References

Bowler, G. M., Jr. (2010). Netnography: A method specifically designed to study

cultures
and communities online. The Qualitative Report, 15(5), 1270-1275.

Colgate: World of Care. Available from:

http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/HomePage.cvsp

Colgate. our Company: Consumers.

http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/Corp/LivingOurValues/Sustainability/Res

pectForPeople/RespectForConsumers/UnderstandingConsumers.cvsp

Colgate. Our company, sustainability. Concern for animal welfare.

http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/Corp/LivingOurValues/Sustainability/Res

pectForOurPlanet/ConcernForAnimalWelfare.cvsp

Colgate Total. Available from:

http://www.colgate.com/app/ColgateTotal/US/EN/MBHC.cwsp

.Colgate Palmolive: Business English Materials.com: ESL Lessons

http://www.businessenglishmaterials.com/colgate-palmolive.html#ixzz1JK6xc4ou

Ouellet, P. (2009). P & G and Colgate-Palmolive: Prices Up, Cost Down . Retrieved on

4/20/2011 from:http://www.news-to-use.com/2009/05/p-g-and-colgate-palmolive-

prices-up-cost-down.html