Case Study: Colgate

First of all I would like define the term, product. The word product qualifies a marketing concept. A product is more than a person, place or thing. Nothing is more important to a marketing strategy than the ?product concept?. A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption and that might satisfy a want or need; it includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations, and ideas. In fact, finding the right product concept is one of the four critical objectives of marketing.

Toothpaste is an oral care product. Antacid is a drug while dandruff shampoo is a hygiene product. All of these come under health care products. Therefore, Colgate?s core product is a health care product when it sells toothpaste or other products in its new line. The core benefit the product will provide to consumers is total health care. For example, Colgate?s toothpaste is an actual product. It?s name, ingredients, styling, features and packaging and other attributes have all been combined carefully to deliver the core benefit ? a convenient high quality way to clean the teeth and maintain fresh breath.

I would classify Colgate aspirin under drugs, Colgate dandruff shampoo under hair hygiene, while the Colgate toothpaste under the oral hygiene products. These classifications would increase competition with other companies. For example, Colgate aspirin-free pain killer to compete with Tylenol, Colgate ibuprofen to compete with Advil, Colgate cold tablets to compete with Contac, Colgate night time cold medicine to compete with Nyquil, Colgate antacid to compete with Rolaids, Colgate natural laxative to compete with Metamucil, and Colgate dandruff shampoo to compete with Head and Shoulders. Colgate is already strong in oral hygiene. Due to this competition, there would be price changes. Colgate will have to decrease its price than other brands. This is because, people are really price conscious, and as long as the price is