Colgate-Palmolive Company: The Precision Toothbrush
The Precision Toothbrush
① Decision Problem
• Colgate-Palmolive which is into Oral Care
Business worldwide consisting of
toothbrushes, toothpastes, dental floss
and mouth rinses.
• Susan Steinberg, Precision product
manager- a technologically superior
toothbrush than its competitor.
• CP offers two lines of toothbrushes in
1991- Colgate Classic for “value”
segment and Colgate Plus for
“professional segment”.
• August 1992, Precision was poised to
launch but Susan was confused about
steps to be taken for enabling Precision
to reach its full potential-
 Branding
 Market Segmentation
 Target Market Selection
 Positioning
 Advertising and promotion Budget
 Acceptable plans for her colleagues.
② Relevant Data Points 
• In 1991, U.S. Toothbrush market- $453 M
• Growth rate increased by 21% in value and 18%
in volume.
• Three different categories of brush : i) Super- by Colgate- No effects on other product but
premium ($2.29-2.89) - 35% UV &46% DS ii)
Professional ($1.59-$2.09) - 41%UV & 42% DS • Introduction Dilemma:- a. Positioning as
iii) value ($1.29)-24% UV & 12 % DS.
Consumer segmentation into three groups-
i)Therapeutic brusher- 46%, ii) Cosmetic
brushers- 21% & iii) uninvolved Oral health
consumers- 33%.
• CP- leader in U.S. retail toothbrush market-
23.3% volume share.
• Colgate Plus contributes for 16.9% in UV and
18.5% in DS in U.S. and major contributor in
CP’s market share.
CP toothbrush A&P budget - $24.1 M of which
$9.6 M for advertisement and $14.4 M for
Consumer and trade promotion for 1992.
③ Evaluating Alternative 
• Naming Convention:- a. Colgate Precision-
20% cannibalization of Colgate Plus but
helps in building brand equity, b. Precision
also not effective in building brand equity.
Niche Product – Pros. i) Launch in Super-
premium segment, ii) No cannibalization of
Colgate Plus, iii) No SKU needs to be
removed iv) can become mainstream in 4-5
years. Cons. i) Focused group ii) Less market
penetration( Y1= 8MM,Y2=15MM)
b. Positioning as Mainstream – Pros. i)
More market penetration (Y1=26.8MM,
Y2=44.1MM) ii) Constrained supply will help
the business. Cons. i) Cannibalization of
Colgate Plus ii) Dropping of Children Plus
from shelf. iii) If product doesn’t perform as
per expectation as case with Prevent may
cause huge loss.
 Colgate-Palmolive Company: The Precision Toothbrush
The Precision Toothbrush
④ Frameworks useful for this case 
To analyze Precision positioning, market segmentation, target market
selection  SWOT & 5Cs with STP framwrok can be used.
I. Strength  77% find it more effective and 55% found it different.
Technologically more advanced and better than its competitor.
II. Weakness  Need to educate more people as 82% purchases
are unplanned. Bit of conflict within team-members.
III. Opportunities Positioning the product in super-premium category
and consolidate its leader position in U.S. Toothbrush market. Baby
boomers concerned about gum and ready to spend money.
IV. Threat Oral-B has dental industry backing and already has its
product in super-premium category. And new offers, coupons by
other brands have made this market aggressive in their offering.
5Cs WITH STP
Customers can be target based on the based on their uses i.e.
therupatic, cosmetic and uninvolved in addition to how much
they know about precision. Since a leading brand, it has upper
hand over other brands and can place its product in either niche
or mainstream with high price and high effectiveness and slight
lower price with same effectiveness. Since toothbrush market is
expanding, launching new product will help in revenue.
⑤ Recommendation
For Precision to reach its maximum potential, it should be launched as
niche, super- premium product targeting therapeutic customers
initially. For next 3-4 years, it should focus on increasing its product
capacity and thus launch as mainstream product. It will thus not lead
to cannibalization of Colgate Plus model. It should launch at price
parity or slight higher than Oral-B indicator in the range of $2.69-
$3.09.
Since 22% toothbrush will be sold by dentist in 2022, CP should also
use this channel for two purposes i.e. i) more reach ii) since Oral-B
claims to be brand suggested by dentist, it can also use same.
CP should allot more budget to Precision as it’s entering into new
segment and it’s technologically more advanced and effective than its
competitor and with correct advertisement it will consolidate its
leadership position very firmly. Also, budget should be allocated to
educate customers about gum health, the more educated the
customers will, more will be selling.
For the name, it should go with Precision by Colgate as it will not
affect and other CP’s product and with time brand equity will also be
created.