¶ … CP China's changes to the CMF marketing launch program justifiable?
Burton's objective was to market Colgate Max Fresh (CMF) as global venture. Each country had its own assumptions and trends that would make certain products popular. For CMF to appeal to a Chinese market it had to investigate and target those specific selling appeals.
Del Levin, who was in charge of conducting R&D for Colgate in Asia, discovered that that whilst a potentially huge market existed for the product -- it being that Asia had a large freshness segment -- it had to be marketed in a particular way in order to best appeal to the Asian consumer. Firstly, the name itself - Colgate Max Fresh -- did not appeal as well as other names in China would; the name was therefore changed to "Icy Fresh." Secondly, original marketing that used 'breath strips' was meaningless to an Asian market and would have been better modified to "cooling crystals' which was more relevant and meaningful to Chinese consumers
Consumer surveys targeted to the Asian public carefully investigated the various nuances that would make the product successful in China and, to that end, discovered that freshness was still a relatively new concept to this particular market and that, therefore, careful research would have to be done in order to precisely assess potential selling points. It would have to be the youth who would be targeted and they would be targeted at an emotional level. Emily Proctor and her role were unknown in China, and, therefore, more expense would have to be absorbed in creating publicity, from the start, for the Colgate product. It would have to be centered around an Asian celebrity rather than the U.S. "Emily Proctor" approach, even thoguh greater expense and sacrifice to brand reputations would be involved.
More drastic changes were also made to CMF that involved modifying its flavor, graphics, and packaging too in order to appeal to the Asian market. The product, despite difficulties which included extension of time and expense, slanted itself as a "stand-up tube" toothpaste, packaged in a lighter shade of green, consisting of three flavors, Tea, Citrus, and Mint.
Consumer research showed potential success...
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