Samenvatting

Colgate-Palmolive is an American company which operates on international level with the production and selling of oral, personal and home care products and pet nutrition products with a good price-quality relation. The organisation has set up a sales and marketing organisation in Spain in order to launch its products on the Spanish cosmetic market. Colgate-Palmolive has entered the Spanish market in 1980 and is nowadays selling different shower and bath products and hand soaps. Recently, Palmolive introduced a new product line on the European market: Palmolive Naturals with olive milk. This product has already been introduced on several European markets. The products will provide the need for personal hygiene and gives a pleasant rich Mediterranean feeling during the shower or bath and a soft and healthy skin.

It would be interesting for Colgate-Palmolive to introduce Palmolive with olive milk on this particular market because Spain is a Mediterranean country where the olive is a very important product. Moreover, one cannot find yet much variety of Palmolive products.

The target group of Palmolive with olive milk is Spanish households (of all income levels) who are searching for a product which makes their live healthier and more enjoyable but without paying much money for it. However they do value the quality of the product. The majority will be women who go out shopping. They are also interested in having a bath or shower product or liquid hand soap with natural ingredients such as honey and milk, olive milk and almond milk etc.

It would be interesting for the organisation to launch Palmolive with olive milk on the Spanish market. Firstly, by looking at the results of the internal analysis it is feasible for the company to export because of its strong financial position and its own sales and marketing organisation which is situated in Spain. Moreover, the company already operates on this market with other Palmolive products. Therefore the company already has made contacts with intermediaries.
Secondly, by looking at the external analysis of this report, it can be said that Colgate-Palmolive has several opportunities on the Spanish cosmetic market. It is said that the Spaniards have become more health conscious and their knowledge of the benefits of natural products has increased. They are also more interested in imported products. According to the Agency for international business and cooperation (EVD) the cosmetics, toiletry, health and beauty products industry is an extremely lucrative market.

Nevertheless, the intensity of competitive rivalry is very strong which is a significant threat for Colgate-Palmolive.

After looking at the result of the internal and external analysis Colgate-Palmolive has identified three strategies. Firstly, Colgate-Palmolive will therefore choose for direct export which will make it effortless to launch Palmolive with olive milk in Spain. Secondly, the company will make use of the knowledge and contacts of the Colgate-Palmolive sales office in Madrid. Thirdly, to promote Palmolive with olive milk on the Spanish market by putting an emphasis on the natural ingredients of the products and the good price-quality relation of Palmolive. However the main strategy of the company will be to make use of direct export. The distribution has the following structure: distribution between the American company Colgate-Palmolive, the manufacturer, the sales office in Spain and the wholesale and retail trade in Spain.

In order to launch Palmolive with olive milk successfully on the Spanish market Colgate-Palmolive has developed several targets concerning the export marketing mix:
• Penetration pricing strategy
• Promotion of Palmolive with olive milk on Spanish cosmetic fairs
• Distribution spread of 80 percent in the Spanish retail during the first half year