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Colgate Max Fresh: Global Brand Roll-Out

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Colgate Max Fresh: Global Brand Roll-Out
Nigel Burton, the president of global oral care at Colgate-Palmolive Company (CP), is reviewing market launch plans for a new toothpaste, Colgate Max Fresh (CMF) by CP’s Chinese and Mexican subsidiaries. Both launch plans involved departures from the CMF marketing program for the USA launch six months earlier. Burton must decide whether the costs of marketing program adaptation in China and Mexico can be justified. “Was CMF launched in the U.S. with a global marketing program? If not, what aspects were not transferable?” The reality is that the U.S. Marketing team took little or no account of the global transferability of their program. They simply sought to develop the best possible …show more content…

Exhibit 2A shows that 63% of consumers (equal second in frequency) rate “freshens breath” as a “must have”. The concept of CMF (Exhibit 3) focusing on providing consumers with “a whole new dimension of freshness” seems highly relevant.
The prime target market is young singles and this is reflected in the selection of Emily Procter.
There is no indication in the case that U.S. CP mangers considered the possibility of a worldwide roll-out when they developed the U.S. marketing program - Emily Procter is unknown outside US + breath strips were very much a U.S. phenomenon so it was not obvious that a new product based on mini breath strips, as the reason to believe, would travel across borders anyway.

Were China’s changes to the CMF marketing launch program justifiable?
In China, CP and Procter & Gamble were locked in close combat for share leadership in one of the world’s fastest developing and largest toothpaste markets. Unlike in the U.S., Crest Whitening Expressions and Crest + Scope had not yet launched in China. CP China therefore had time to “get it right”.
They had to adjust the U.S. marketing program in China. Emily Proctor, the U.S. actress, was unknown. The Chinese had no experience of breath strips. They also had distinct flavor preferences. CP managers in China felt that they “needed to connect with youth at an emotional level” since freshness was a relatively new concept in

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