CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
1.1. AN OVERVIEW Colgate Palmolive is a well reputed company with a large
series of its well known products having different varities in terms of flavor.
Colgate is one of the most prominent products of Colgate Palmolive.
But Colgate now planning to target hyper-sensitive or sensitive teeth
person. It is an gums cooling toothpaste and gives instant relief and ultra softness
toothpaste which is specially manufactured for sensitive teeth. The company
competitive edge is best quality gums cooling paste with new pro arginine
technology which contains potassium nitrate, arginine. This will distinguish
colgate product from their competitors. Colgate sensitive pro-relief toothpaste
and toothbrush will be a high priced and high quality pastes and brush whose
price corresponding substantially with its quality. The company try to increase
their net profit more than 23% of the sales by the end of 2015.

1.2. COMPANY PROFILE:

Company name

Colgate Palmolive Ltd.

Date of Establishment

1937

Revenue

347.188 (USD in Millions )

Market Cap

111160.5286158 (Rs. In millions)

Corporate Address

Colgate Research Centre,Main Street Hiranadani

Gardens Powai Mumbai-400076, Maharashtra
WWW.colgate.co.in

Management Details

Chair person - J Skala

MD R D Calmeyer
Directors Derrick Samuel, J K Setna, J Skala,
K V Vaidyaanathan, M A Elias, P K
Ghosh, R A Shah, V S Mehta

Business Operation

Household &Personal Products

Background

Colgate-palmolive is Rs 1.300 crore company

started in year 1937. In Rs 2,400 crore domestic
market it enjoys 50% of markets share. It spread
across 4.5 million retails outlets out of which
1.5 million are direct outlets.

Financials

Total Income Rs 20606.60 Million (year ending

Mar 2014)
Net Profit Rs 4232.60 Million ( year ending
Mar 2014)

Company Secretary

K V Vaidyanathan

Colgate Palmolive is one of the leading companies in India in the FMCG

industry segment. Colgate Palmolive is the subsidiary of Colgate Palmolive Ltd.,
New York which is the parent company. Colgate Palmolive is a foreign - based
public limited company. The company is in business of consumer products for
more than 100 years. In india it is the numerouno brand.
The principles of governance of the Colgate Palmolive :

The Board of directors is experienced, independent, and highly

diverse

The board aims on the key commercial priorities and the

development of leadership

Opening the communication between the directors and management

Formulation of policies to guide good governance and integrity of

the business

The Board and audit committee supervises the integrity of the

financial statement

It is the responsibility of the colgate Palmolive people to provide

good governance

With the continuous improvements the governance become better

Good governance thrives from continuous improvement.

The board of Directors of the colgate Palmolive :

Fabian Garcia, Chairman

P. K. Gosh, Deputy Chairman

R. A. Shah, Vice Chairman

M. A Elias, Director

K. V. Vidyanathan, Director

Vikram Singh Mehta, Director

J. K. Setna, Director

The management body of the colgate Palmolive :

Roger D Calmeyer, Managing Director

Moses A. Elias, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Prabhaparameswaran, Vice - President Marketing

K. V. vaidyanathan, Vice President, Legal & Company Secretary

Debashish roy, Vice President, H. R

Shekarbaratwaj, Vice President, Sales

Arun kumar Pande, Vice President, I. T

SuredraManek, Director, Research & Technology center

1.3. COMPANY HISTORY:

In 1806, William Colgate, himself a soap and candle maker, opened up a
starch, soap and candle factory on Dutch Street in New York City under the
name of "William Colgate & Company". William Colgate in 1833 suffered a
severe heart attack stopping his business from selling.
But after a couple of years of recovery he continued with his business. In
the 1840s, the firm began selling individual cakes of soap in uniform weights. In
1857, William Colgate died and the company was reorganized as "Colgate &
Company" under the management of Samuel Colgate, his son, who did not want
to continue the business but thought it would be the right thing to do.
In 1872, Colgate introduced Cashmere Bouquet, a perfumed soap. In
1873, the firm introduced its first toothpaste, an aromatic toothpaste sold in jars.
His company sold the first toothpaste in a tube, Colgate Ribbon Dental Cream,
in 1896.
In 1896, Colgate hired Martin Ittner and under his direction founded one
of the first applied research labs. By 1908 they initiated mass selling of
toothpaste in tubes. His other son, James Boorman Colgate, was a primary
trustee of Colgate University (formerly Madison University).

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the B.J. Johnson Company was making a soap

entirely of palm and olive oil, the formula of which was developed by B.J.
Johnson in 1898. The soap was popular enough to rename their company after it
"Palmolive". At the turn of the century Palmolive, which contained both palm
and olive oils, was the world's best-selling soap.
Extensive advertising included The Palmolive Hour, a weekly radio
concert program which began in 1927 and Palmolive Beauty Box Theater which
ran from 1934 to 1937. A Missouri-based soap manufacturer known as Peet
Brothers merged with Palmolive to become Palmolive-Peet.
In 1928, Palmolive-Peet bought the Colgate Company to create the
Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. In 1953 "Peet" was dropped from the title,
leaving only "Colgate-Palmolive Company", the current name.
Colgate-Palmolive has long been in fierce competition with Procter &
Gamble, the world's largest soap and detergent maker. P&G introduced its Tide
laundry detergent shortly after World War II, and thousands of consumers turned
from Colgate's soaps to the new product.
Colgate lost its number one place in the toothpaste market when P&G
started putting fluoride in its toothpaste. But that didn't stop colgate. In the
beginning of television, "Colgate-Palmolive" wished to compete with Procter &
Gamble as a sponsor of soap operas. Although the company sponsored many
shows in part, they fully sponsored the serial The Doctors.

George Henry Lesch was president, CEO, and chairman of the board of
Colgate-Palmolive in the 1960s and 1970s, during that time transformed it into a
modern company with major restructuring.
In 2005, Colgate sold the under-performing brands Fab, Dynamo, Arctic
Power, ABC, Cold Power and Fresh Start, as well as the license of the Ajax
brand for laundry detergents in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, to Phoenix
Brands, LLC as part of their plan to focus on their higher margin oral, personal,
and pet care products.
In 2006, Colgate-Palmolive announced the intended acquisition of Tom's
of Maine, a leading maker of natural toothpaste, for US $100 million. Tom's of
Maine was founded by Tom Chappell in 1970.
Today, Colgate has numerous subsidiary organisations spanning 200
countries, but it is publicly listed in only two, the United States and India.
In June 2007, counterfeit Colgate toothpaste imported from China was
found to be contaminated with diethylene glycol, and several people in eastern
U.S. reported experiencing headaches and pain after using the product.
The tainted products can be identified by the claim to be manufactured in
South Africa by Colgate-Palmolive South Africa LTD, they are 5oz/100ml tubes
(a size which Colgate does not sell in the United States) and the tubes/packaging
contain numerous misspellings on their labels.

Colgate-Palmolive claims that they do not import their products from

South Africa into the United States or Canada and that DEG is never and was
never used in any of their products anywhere in the world. The counterfeit
products were found in smaller "mom and pop" stores, dollar stores and discount
stores in at least four states.
Colgate Palmolive is a $10.6 billion global company serving people in
more than 200 countries and territories with consumer products that make lives
healthier and more enjoyable. The company focuses on strong global brands in
its core businesses oral care, personal care, home care, and pet nutrition.
Colgate is delivering strong global growth by following a tightly defined
strategy to increase market leadership positions for key products, such as
toothpaste, toothbrushes, bar and liquid soaps, deodorant/antiperspirants,
dishwashing detergents, households cleaners, fabric conditioners and specialty
pet food.
COLGATE PALMOLIVE INDIA:
Headquarter in Mumbai.
Annual Turnover around 1100 crs.
Market leaders in oral care.
Colgate consistently won India no 1 brand of the year award from last
three years.
Colgate ranked among best employer in india.

 Customer base of more than 8 lacs retailers.

Serviced by company field force, more than 1800 stockiest & super
stockiest & their field force.
Colgate is the brand that people trust, for complete oral care protection
for themselves and ones they love.

1.4. RESEAECH METHODOLOGY:

Research Design Followed:
Descriptive Research is the research method used because descriptive
studies embrace a large proportion of market research. The purpose is to provide
an accurate snapshot of some aspect of the market environment. Descriptive
research is more rigid than exploratory research and seeks to describe users of a
product, determine the proportion of the population that uses a product, or
predict future demand for a product. As opposed to exploratory research,
descriptive research should define questions, people surveyed, and the method of
analysis prior to beginning data collection.

Descriptive & diagnostic Market Research:

The focus of descriptive research is to provide an accurate description for
something that is occurring. For example, which group is buying a particular
brand, a products market share within a certain industry, how many competitors
a company faces, etc.
This type of research is by far the most popular form of market research.
It is used extensively when the research purpose is to explain, monitor and test
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hypotheses, and can also be used to a lesser extent to help make predictions and
for discovery. Marketers routinely conduct basic descriptive research using
informal means. For instance, the head of marketing of Colgate Company may
email a retailer to see how the products are selling. But informal descriptive
research, while widely undertaken, often fails to meet the tests of research
validity and reliability and, consequently, the information should not be used as
an important component in marketing decisions.
Rather, to be useful, descriptive research must be conducted in a way that
adheres to a strict set of research requirements to capture relevant results. This
often means that care must be taken to develop a structured research plan. Under
most circumstances this requires researchers have a good grasp of research
methods including knowledge of data analysis.
Data collection technique
The primary and secondary techniques of data collection were used to
collect the data.
a) Primary technique of data collection: Primary data is that type of data
which includes the first hand information which is being collected from the
respondent through observation or direct communication with the respondent in
one form or the other.
Source of Primary data collection:
Observation.
Questionnaire
Discussion with some concerned people.
Here the major source used for primary data collection is Questionnaire.
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Here in this research the structured questionnaire prepared and mall

customers were asked to fill it individually. A structured questionnaire is type of
questionnaire, which includes closed ended questions and is in structured and
printed format.

b) Secondary data collection technique:

Secondary data means the data that are already available i.e. they refer to
the data which have already been collected and analyzed by someone else.
Secondary data has been taken from the company booklets, information manual,
website etc. this has been used to know about the organization, market share of
the organization, sales policy.
1.5. SAMPLING DESIGN:
Population:
In statistical usage the term population is applied to any finite or infinite
collection of individuals. Population means the aggregate of element from which
a sample is to be drawn, in the case of this project it covers walk in customers in
Korum Mall at star bazzar for the survey and it is a Non-Probability Sampling.
Sampling Unit:
It means whom to be surveyed. In this project, samples were taken from
different types of customer as children, young, old, etc form Thane city which
randomly selected. Here sampling unit is a General public of toothpaste user.
Sample size:
During the project 250 numbers of customers were interviewed as a
sample size.

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Sampling Technique:
Random sampling technique has been used to select the sample. A Simple
random sample is a group of subjects chosen from a larger group (population).
Each subject from the population is chosen randomly and entirely by chance,
such that each subject has the same probability of being chosen at any stage
during the sampling process.
Source and method of data collection:
Data includes facts and figures, which are required to be collected from
customers to achiever the objectives of the project which is used to determine
the present position and expectation of customer from this brand.
1.6. ANALYSIS AND STATISTICAL TECHNIQUE USED:
Percentage Analysis, Chi-Square Analysis and Weighted Average Analysis
have been carried out in this research study
LINES OF BUSINESS IN INDIA
Oral Care
Personal Care
Hard Surface Care (Household Care)
From the dentist

PRODUCT PROFILE OF COLGATE-PALMOLIVE LIMITED:

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(A)Oral care:
1. Toothpastes:

Colgate Dental Cream

Colgate Max Fresh
Colgate Active Salt
Colgate Total 12
Colgate Sensitive
Colgate Kids
Colgate Advanced Whitening
Colgate Herbal
Colgate Cibaca
Colgate Fresh Energy Gel
2. Toothbrushes:

Colgate Massager
Colgate Navigator Plus
Colgate Extra Clean
Colgate Extra Clean Gum Care
Colgate Sensitive Toothbrush
Colgate 360 Toothbrush
Colgate Zig Zag
3. Toothpowder

Colgate Super Rakshak

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4. Whitening Products

Colgate Advanced Whitening

5. Mouthwash

Colgate Plax

(B) PERSONAL CARE:

1. Body wash

Palmolive Aroma Body wash Relaxing

Palmolive Thermal Spa Body wash Firming
Palmolive Aroma Body wash Vitality
Palmolive Thermal Spa Body wash Massage
Palmolive Naturals Moisturizing Body wash Milk & Almond
Palmolive Naturals Moisturizing Body wash Milk & Honey
2. Liquid Hand wash

Palmolive Naturals Milk and Honey Hand Wash

Palmolive Aroma Liquid Hand Wash Relaxing
Palmolive Naturals Liquid Hand Wash Family Health
3. Hair Care

Palmolive Halo Shampoo

4. Skin Care

Palmolive Charmis Cream

5. Shave Preps

Shave Cream
(C) HOME CARE

AXION- dish washing paste

(D) PROFESSIONAL ORAL CARE:
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1. Gingivitis Treatment

Colgate PerioGard
2. Sensitivity Treatment

Colgate Sensitive
Colgate Gel Kam
3. Mouth Ulcer Treatment

Oragard-B
4. Specialty Cleaning

Specialty Cleaning
COMPETITORS ANALYSIS:
One of the best sources of information is to investigate competing
businesses. These businesses can provide a wealth of information that can be
used in evaluating the potential for your business. By evaluating how a company
markets its business, it is possible to determine the markets it is targeting. For
example, if competing businesses are advertising in Southern Living, they are
targeting affluent, middle age females. However, if they are advertising in the
sports section of a metropolitan newspaper, they are most likely targeting males.
In addition to collecting information on the markets they are targeting, a
competitor analysis can reveal packaging preferences, target market information,
pricing strategies, distribution channels and marketing strategies. Simply
evaluate the products and services your competitor is providing.
Market positioning for colgate sensitive Pro Relief toothpaste:
Market positioning involves the way a product is defined by customers on
important attributes. It is the place the product occupies in consumers minds

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relative to competing products. The core strategy is the matching of company

strengths and market opportunities and has two components:
Identification of group of customers to whom the company can clearly show
it has differential advantage.
The firm needs to position its offering in the customers mind.
My first priority is to maintain the good image of Colgate brand in the mind of
colgate customers by introducing a new product of an equivalent quality. I have
to position Colgate product in market in a way that can attract more loyal
customers.

1.7. NEED FOR THE STUDY

Understanding behaviour of consumers is a key to the success of business
organizations. Marketing personnel are constantly analyzing the patterns of
buying behaviour and purchase preference, decisions to predict the future trends.
Consumer behaviour can be explained as the analysis of how, when, what and
why people buy. Consumer behavior can be understood as: "The decision
process and physical activity individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring,
using, or disposing of goods and services." (Loudon and Della Bitta, 1980).
Nowadays, this phenomenon, can also be illustrated in the following way:
"activities people undertake when obtaining, consuming, and disposing of
products and services" (Blakwell, Minard and Engel, 2001).

There is a tremendous increase in FMCG consumers. This is due to

increasing number of literacy and growing influence of the media.
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The urban population in South India is expected to witness rapidly

changing aspirations and lifestyles, which will result in increase in demand for
FMCG.
The Consumption pattern of consumers is changing. The probable reasons
being more spending power, better education and access to various brands and
products, due to migration abroad and the TV boom. The readiness to
experiment is reported to be growing among the consumers. The consumers have
also become globalized in their thinking and are ready to indulge in some
impulsive shopping.

1.8. OBJECTIVES
General Objective of the study
The main objective of the study is to analyze the consumer behaviour and
brand preference towards Colgate tooth paste in Dharapuram town.
Specific Objectives
1. To describe the demographic profile of Colgate tooth paste consumers.
2. To study the style of purchase of Colgate tooth paste.
3. To assess how brand influences the purchasing pattern.
4. To analyze the different factors involved in purchase decision of
Colgate tooth paste.
5. To study the spending pattern of Colgate tooth paste consumers and its
influence on society.

1.9. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

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The study analyses the purchase patterns and spending styles of people
belonging to different segments of Colgate tooth paste consumers. The major
variables selected for the study are as follows:
Demographic Profile of Consumers
Gender (Male & Female), Age, Monthly Income, Educational
Qualification and Occupational status.
Major Factors identified for detailed study includes
Brands Selection, Point of Purchase, Size of the package, Place of
purchase, Brand Loyalty, Brand Awareness, and Spending Pattern.
1.10. MODEL OF CONSUMER BUYING PROCESS
Components of consumer buying process
a) Identify buying roles b) buying behaviour c) buying process
a. Buying roles
Initiator/Influencer provides information about the product/service
Gatekeeper controls the flow of information
Decider decides whether to shop the purchase or not
Buyer involves in actual purchase or the product
Preparer transforms the product into consumption
Maintainer provides repair/maintenance services

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 User use or consume the product

Disposer decides whether to continue or discontinue in using the
product

b. Buying Behaviour
Complex buying behaviour It is a behaviour of the consumer when the
purchase is highly inexpensive or the products which are bought
infrequently and risky
Dissonance reducing buying behaviour- It is a behaviour when the
consumer is confronted with a unfamiliar brand name in a familiar
product class
Habitual buying behaviour - It is a behaviour when the consumer doesnt
find difficulty in making a purchase due to awareness of brands
Novelty seeking buying behaviour - It is a behaviour when the consumer
involves in the purchase for novel or new brands
C. Buying process
Evaluation of alternatives - Consumer evaluates various alternatives
before making a purchase quality, price etc

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 Purchase decision - The factors that influence the purchase decision

are product choice, brand choice, dealer choice, purchase timing &
purchase amount
Post purchase behaviour

- After making a purchase the consumer

experiences satisfaction or dissatisfaction in using the product

1.11. LIMITATIONS
1. The study was conducted in Dharapuram Town, Tirupur District only.
2. The sample size was restricted to 250.
3. The study was conducted only in connection with colgate tooth paste.
4. The response from the samples is based on the situation during the time
of data collection and the genuiness of answering may vary.

1.12. CONSTRUCTION OF CHAPTERS

Chapter I
This chapter includes introduction to the study, Consumer behaviour,
Brand preference, Need for the study, Objectives, Scope of the study,
Methodology, Limitations and Construction of Chapters.
Chapter II
This Chapter is exclusively allotted for Review of Literature.

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Chapter III
Profile of the study area that is Dharapuram town is given in detail in this
chapter.
Chapter IV
Analysis and Interpretation is explained in this chapter
Chapter V
This chapter carries the findings of the study, suggestions for further
studies and conclusion is arrived. Bibliography
seventh Chapter.

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and

Appendix

follow

the