Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American

worldwide consumer Products Company focused on

the production, distribution and provision of
household, health care and personal care products.
Under its "Hill's Pet Nutrition" brand, it is also a
manufacturer of veterinary products.

The company's corporate offices are on Park

Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Colgate Palmolive is a company that operates in the
consumer goods and personal care segment
headquartered in New York, USA.

The company was established in the year 1806 and

has been dealing with personal care products like
oral care under the brand Colgate and bath and
shower products under the brand Palmolive. In
addition to this, the company also sells pet care and
veterinary products under the Hills Pet Nutrition
brand. Their oral care line Colgate has dominated
that segment for many years and still continues to be
one of the most solicited toothpaste brands across the
world.

The company also enjoys a very high brand

loyalty for the brand Colgate. The other popular
brands from Colgate Palmolive include Elmex,
Protex, Ajax, Kolynos, Tom’s Maine, Irish Spring,
Axion, Mennen, Sorriso, and Softsoap.Though
headquartered in the US more than 75 percent of the
revenue of the company comes from markets outside
the region, Asia being their biggest market. In
addition to Asia and USA, the company also
has operations in South America, Europe, Africa and
Australia. The company registered an annual turnover of 15.5 billion USD in the
year 2017.
Source: prowessiq.cmie.com
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Source: prowessiq.cmie.com
Source: prowessiq.cmie.com
SOURCE: MONEY MARKET

PRODUCTS
Source: www.colgateinvestors.co.in/media/1986/annual-report-2017-18.pdf

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Colgate Palmolive

Strengths are defined as what each business does best in its gamut of
operations which can give it an upper hand over its competitors. The
following are the strengths of Colgate Palmolive

 Indigenous Manufacturing: Quite unlike the competitors, Colgate

Palmolive owns their manufacturing facilities and indigenously
manufactures all their products. This ensures that there is higher
operational efficiency. The company owns 60 such facilities across the
world.
 History: Colgate Palmolive was found more than two centuries ago
and comes with a rich history. The company was the pioneer in
research and is one of the oldest companies in existence
today. Forbes has voted the company as one of the best places to
work with and the company has got a number of awards like Top 50
Green Brands. U.S.EPA awards Energy Star Partner of the Year
2015.
 Brand success of Colgate: Colgate is a brand which has enjoyed
enormous success and had high customer goodwill. Colgate has been
a pioneer in tubes of toothpaste, toothbrushes and oral hygiene and is
one of the most trusted brands in the world. This has made it the world
 leader in the oral care segment and also one of the biggest strengths
of Colgate Palmolive.
 Clear positioning: The reason behind the success of Colgate is the
clear need-based positioning that the brand has adopted. The
company has identified various oral care needs like sensitive teeth,
bleeding gums or bad breath and have variants of Colgate for each of
these needs.
 Testimonials: Colgate is a brand that enjoys high levels of customer
satisfaction and brand loyalty and thus most of their ads feature
testimonials from users if the paste. These advertisements increase
the credibility of the brand and positively impact the sale of the
toothpaste.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Colgate Palmolive

Weaknesses are used to refer to areas where the business or the brand
needs improvement. Some of the key weaknesses of Colgate Palmolive
are:

 Weak brands: In comparison to Colgate the other brands of Colgate

Palmolive like the Palmolive soaps are weak and do not enjoy the trust
and success of Colgate. The personal care line under Palmolive
struggles to match up to market leaders like HUL and P & G.
  Brand Dilution: Colgate has been always associated with the
signature white toothpaste. But as competitors have started
introducing new variants in areas like sensitivity, bad breath, bleeding
gums and kids toothpaste, the brand has been also introducing
new product lines in these categories. This increases the risk of
dilution of the signature Colgate Toothpaste.
 High cost of operation: There is a surge in the number of players in
both personal care and oral care segments and new products are
being launched frequently. In order to sustain in the race, Colgate
Palmolive will need to invest heavily in product research, advertising,
and promotions but may not be able to increase prices.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Colgate Palmolive

Opportunities refer to those avenues in the environment that surrounds the

business on which it can capitalize to increase its returns. Some of the
opportunities include:

 Unexploited rural markets: In most of the emerging markets there

are huge rural markets where personal care products are yet to create
an impact. The biggest rural markets are in China and India and these
offer huge potential for companies who operate in the personal and
oral care segment.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Colgate Palmolive

Threats are those factors in the environment which can be detrimental to

the growth of the business. Some of the threats include:
  Competition: The Company faces a lot of competition from brands
such as Closeup, Dabur, Sensodyne, and Meswak.
 Growing apprehension on chemicals: Customers are apprehensive
about the presence of chemicals in consumables and this is shifting
their choice from non-ayurvedic to organic or ayurvedic products. This
is a trend which can threaten Colgate Palmolive in both oral care and
personal care segments.

PESTEL ANALYSIS

Colgate-Palmolive Company PESTEL & Environment Analysis

 Political Factors that Impact Colgate-Palmolive Company

Political factors play a significant role in determining the factors that can
impact Colgate-Palmolive Company's long term profitability in a certain
country or market. Colgate-Palmolive Company is operating in Personal
Products in more than dozen countries and exposes itself to different types
of political environment and political system risks. The achieve success in
such a dynamic Personal Products industry across various countries is to
diversify the systematic risks of political environment. Colgate-Palmolive
Company can closely analyze the following factors before entering or
investing in a certain market-

 Political stability and importance of Personal Products sector in the

country's economy.
 Risk of military invasion
 Level of corruption - especially levels of regulation in Consumer Goods
sector.
 Bureaucracy and interference in Personal Products industry by
government.
 Legal framework for contract enforcement
 Intellectual property protection
 Trade regulations & tariffs related to Consumer Goods
 Favored trading partners
 Anti-trust laws related to Personal Products
 Pricing regulations – Are there any pricing regulatory mechanism for
Consumer Goods
 Taxation - tax rates and incentives
 Wage legislation - minimum wage and overtime
 Work week regulations in Personal Products
 Mandatory employee benefits
 Industrial safety regulations in the Consumer Goods sector.
 Product labeling and other requirements in Personal Products

Economic Factors that Impact Colgate-Palmolive Company

The Macro environment factors such as – inflation rate, savings rate,
interest rate, foreign exchange rate and economic cycle determine the
aggregate demand and aggregate investment in an economy. While micro
environment factors such as competition norms impact the competitive
advantage of the firm. Colgate-Palmolive Company can use country’s
economic factor such as growth rate, inflation & industry’s economic
indicators such as Personal Products industry growth rate, consumer
spending etc. to forecast the growth trajectory of not only --sector name--
sector but also that of the organization. Economic factors that Colgate-
Palmolive Company should consider while conducting PESTEL analysis
are -

 Type of economic system in countries of operation – what type of economic

system there is and how stable it is.
 Government intervention in the free market and related Consumer Goods
 Exchange rates & stability of host country currency.
 Efficiency of financial markets – Does Colgate-Palmolive Company needs
to raise capital in local market?
 Infrastructure quality in Personal Products industry
 Comparative advantages of host country and Consumer Goods sector in
the particular country.
 Skill level of workforce in Personal Products industry.
 Education level in the economy
 Labor costs and productivity in the economy
 Business cycle stage (e.g. prosperity, recession, recovery)
 Economic growth rate
 Discretionary income
 Unemployment rate
 Inflation rate
 Interest rates
 Social Factors that Impact Colgate-Palmolive Company

Society’s culture and way of doing things impact the culture of an

organization in an environment. Shared beliefs and attitudes of the
population play a great role in how marketers at Colgate-Palmolive
Company will understand the customers of a given market and how they
design the marketing message for Personal Products industry consumers.
Social factors that leadership of Colgate-Palmolive Company should
analyze for PESTEL analysis are -

 Demographics and skill level of the population

 Class structure, hierarchy and power structure in the society.
 Education level as well as education standard in the Colgate-Palmolive
Company ’s industry
 Culture (gender roles, social conventions etc.)
 Entrepreneurial spirit and broader nature of the society. Some societies
encourage entrepreneurship while some don’t.
 Attitudes (health, environmental consciousness, etc.)
 Leisure interests

Technological Factors that Impact Colgate-Palmolive Company

Technology is fast disrupting various industries across the board.

Transportation industry is a good case to illustrate this point. Over the last 5
years the industry has been transforming really fast, not even giving
chance to the established players to cope with the changes. Taxi industry is
now dominated by players like Uber and Lyft. Car industry is fast moving
toward automation led by technology firm such as Google & manufacturing
is disrupted by Tesla, which has stated an electronic car revolution.

A firm should not only do technological analysis of the industry but also the
speed at which technology disrupts that industry. Slow speed will give more
time while fast speed of technological disruption may give a firm little time
to cope and be profitable. Technology analysis involves understanding the
following impacts -

 Recent technological developments by Colgate-Palmolive Company

competitors
 Technology's impact on product offering
 Impact on cost structure in Personal Products industry
 Impact on value chain structure in Consumer Goods sector
 Rate of technological diffusion

Environmental Factors that Impact Colgate-Palmolive Company

Different markets have different norms or environmental standards which

can impact the profitability of an organization in those markets. Even within
a country often states can have different environmental laws and liability
laws. For example in United States – Texas and Florida have different
liability clauses in case of mishaps or environmental disaster. Similarly a lot
of European countries give healthy tax breaks to companies that operate in
the renewable sector.

Before entering new markets or starting a new business in existing market

the firm should carefully evaluate the environmental standards that are
required to operate in those markets. Some of the environmental factors
that a firm should consider beforehand are -

 Weather
 Climate change
 Laws regulating environment pollution
 Air and water pollution regulations in Personal Products industry
 Recycling
 Waste management in Consumer Goods sector
 Attitudes toward “green” or ecological products
 Endangered species
 Attitudes toward and support for renewable energy

Legal Factors that Impact Colgate-Palmolive Company

In number of countries, the legal framework and institutions are not robust
enough to protect the intellectual property rights of an organization. A firm
should carefully evaluate before entering such markets as it can lead to
theft of organization’s secret sauce thus the overall competitive edge.
Some of the legal factors that Colgate-Palmolive Company leadership
should consider while entering a new market are -
 Anti-trust law in Personal Products industry and overall in the country.
 Discrimination law
 Copyright, patents / Intellectual property law
 Consumer protection and e-commerce
 Employment law
 Health and safety law
 Data Protection

Work in progress