Colgate presentation

Understanding & Analyzing the depth of channel sales of Colgate products in Ranchi-2 and taking action point to

increase depth of distribution

By:Rahul Raushan

Introduction

Colgate, an oral hygiene product and one of the name sake brands of the Colgate-Palmolive Company, is a manufacturer of a wide range of toothpastes, toothbrushes and mouthwashes.

Colgate-Palmolive Company Is an American diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution & provisions of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents & oral hygiene products.

Colgate was ranked as India's #1 Most Trusted Brand across all categories for four consecutive years from 2003 to 2007 and in 2011 and 2012 by Brand Equity's Most Trusted Brand Survey.

Introduction

Promoted by Colgate-Palmolive USA, present in India since last 50 years

It is the only brand to be in the top three from 2001-2012

Prior to this, Colgate was also rated as the #1 brand by the A&M – MODE Annual Survey for India's Top Brands for eight out of nine years during the period 1992 to 2001

Market leader with over 53.7% market share in oral care segment.

54%, 38% & 39% of market share in the toothpaste segment, toothpowder market & toothbrush market respectively.

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Innovative Products

Colgate Active Salt- 1st toothpaste to contain salt

Colgate Advanced Whitening- Silica enabled toothpaste

Colgate Maxfresh with Cooling Crystals

Colgate Total

Colgate Herbal

Colgate Sensitive and sensitive Pro-Relief

Colgate Visible White

Colgate Sugar Acid Neutralizer

Distribution Channel

Physical distribution of goods and products is a process of reaching out to the customer. After the production process is over the main concern of the company is how to make that product available at the nearest shop of the target customer .For this the company need to have an effective distribution network which is cost effective, reaches out to every nook and corner of the target market and delivers the goods the shops on time so that there is no scarcity. Thus a company needs to have very clear cut understanding of the geographies of that particular area for an effective distribution channel.

Basically there are two types of market Viz. Urban market and rural market. Both the markets are very different from each other in terms of preference, frequency of goods sold, price and quality. With respect to FMCG it has been seen that the frequency of sale is faster in the urban market and not in the rural market. The area that was given to me is urban market, I was assigned HSL, Doranda, Sector 1 & 2, J.P. Market, Latma & Singhmore, Hatia-2, these are the area which comes in Ranchi-2.

Factors affecting the choice of distribution channelVarious factors which affects the choice of the distribution channel are :

Factors relating to product characteristics

Purchase frequency Perishabilty. Selling Price per unit. Standardized product.

Market factors and consumer factors

Consumer of industrial products Number of purchasers Geographical distribution of consumers. Size of the order

Company Factors

Financial resources Size of the company. Product Mix. Attitude of the company’s executive.

Factors affecting the choice of distribution channel

Environmental factors

Economical consideration. Legal restrictions. Social and ethical considerations.

Middle man consideration

Service provided by the middleman. Attitude of the middle man. Availability of the middle man. Sales volume potential. Cost of channel usage

Trainee workings

We have been assigned the following works to do that has been done in Three different phases that are as follows:

First Phase (2 weeks from starting) : In this phase we were required to focus on the store addition, ERC, Bill cut, and to take care of the total calls that has been assigned to the respective salesperson.

Second Phase (3rd Week) : In this phase of our project we got an opportunity to Launch a new Innovative Product of Colgate that is Sugar Acid Neutralizer along with Bill Cut and Store addition.

Third Phase (4th Week) : In this phase we conducted a survey in Medical Stores to strengthen the distribution network in the medical category.

SUGAR ACID NEUTRALIZER: A

Revolutionary Toothpaste

SAN Launch at a Glance

SWOT Analysis

Strength

Strong Brand Value Wide Distribution Network Strong Market PresenceFocus on New Product DevelopmentHaving wide range of options

Weakness

Schemes for Retailers are not often introduced

Opportunities

Emerging Market Growth Deploying Advanced Technologies Growing Population Increasing awareness towards oral health and hygiene.

Threat

Competitive Landscape from other private label growth Local players being more active in the marketIncreasing Commodity prices

Achievements

51 New stores added in my Route

SAN Launch in my Route has been completed just in 1 Day whereas we were assigned to launch the New Product SAN in 3 days.

Completed SAN launch assignment in Another Route with another salesman in just 2 days.

Convinced the salesman to complete his total call on daily basis so that it will Increase the performance of the Salesman.

Also focused on the Sales of the Toothbrush store wise so that it will increase the reach of toothbrush to the retail market.

Distribution Analysis

While working in the market we noticed a gap between the Retailer and the distributor. Some of the Important notices are as follows:

There were so many stores left where the Colgate salesman never approached even if they were reachable easily.

Salesman did not approach to those stores because they thought that if they will add the new store it will Increase the pressure of Bill cut and ERC target on them.

There were also a communication gap between the company and the stores as the stores and retailers were not up-to-dated with the schemes that has been run by the company.

The salesman are more keen to sell the product and take the orders from the Whole sellers because they easily fulfill the value target of the salesman.

The salesman should focus on selling the different lines of the product rather than mere selling single product

Findings

By visiting the market on the regular basis there are few findings which need to be focused to increase the depth of distribution in Ranchi Market.

Salesman are reluctant to add new stores

OCC Counters are not paid their cut on time

Schemes are not communicated to the stores and even to the whole sellers properly

Supply of the product is not properly managed which create hassles in selling the product

Few products are not available with the distributor which sometimes create problem while taking order.

In Hatia market few stores give order to Khunti Distributor which affect sales of Hatia.

Rate is also a very important issue as some of the retailer take the product from few whole seller who offer them cheaper rate.

Suggestions and Recommendation to Increase the depth of Distribution

Proper communication by the salesman to the retailer about the different schemes should be done so that it will increase the sales value and volume.

Skill and sales training is required to be given to the salesman to strengthen the distribution as salesman are the backbone of the channel

OCC Counters should be given their cut on time so that they will be motivated to sell the product

Availability of every product at the stock point is very essential from the sales point of view.

Proper audit of the route list is very essential as in so many route few store are added which do not exist on ground which hamper the performance of the salesman.

Mechanism should be developed so that salesman sell the products to the Medical stores also.

For whole sellers there should be a separate sales team so that the others may completely focus on retails business and it will increase the depth of the distribution.

Proper stratification of market is very important so that another market do not enter and sell the product to Ranchi as it ultimately hamper the business of the company.

Conclusion

To conclude we may say that Colgate is a generic product in Toothpaste segment and oral care and brand name is enough to sell the product but due to some factors it is not able to cater the complete market and there are still few counters which are untouched due to several reasons. To increase the Depth of the distribution the company should focus on the approach of the salesman so that sales could be increased and along with sales the company need to focus on supply also so that gap that exist in the market could be filled up.

THANK YOU