COLGATE-PALMOLIVE (INDIA) USES MAPPLS’ BUSINESS ANALYTICS TO GAIN
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Highlights
Recent exponential potential FMCG market growth trend has led to a mad rush for domestic brands to come up in
the last few years made critical for global players like Colgate – Palmolive to stay one step ahead and use specialized
solutions that offer further penetration and strong branding with appropriate localization.
Colgate-Palmolive (India) wanted to partner with a GIS specialist to help them understand penetration, geographical
sales presence, target demographic demarcation, spatial understanding of product distribution.
Mappls’ Geo-Marketing solutions served as a single window information desk for Colgate-Palmolive to highlight and
analyze penetration, performance, competition presence across geographies, aiding in strategic decision making.
Colgate-Palmolive (India)
Colgate-Palmolive (India) today has one of the
widest distribution networks in India – a logistical
marvel that makes Colgate available in almost 4.64
million retail outlets across the country. The
Company has grown to a Rs. 3625 crore plus
organization with an outstanding record of
enhancing value for its strong shareholder base.
The company leads the 5881 crore Indian
toothpaste market by holding 53.7% of the value
market share.
The Problem
In the current decade, FMCG vertical growth has increased at 12 to 17 per cent, according to a Booz & Company study. By
2020, the study says the market size is estimated to more than double touching anywhere between Rs 400,000 crore and
Rs 620,000 crore. Contributors to this growth will be increasing consumption led by rise in incomes and changing
lifestyles. Sector analysts say the rise of the rural consumers too is another reason for higher FMCG growth in the current
decade vis-a-vis the last one. Rural India today contributes one third of FMCG sales and is likely to grow even further.
This trend has led to a mad rush for domestic brands to come up in the last few years as no one wants to miss out on the
action. This made critical for global players like Colgate – Palmolive to stay one step ahead and use specialized solutions
that offer further penetration and strong branding with appropriate localization. This became even more critical as buyers
are increasingly becoming very choosy about the products they want to acquire or take control of. Colgate wanted to
partner with a GIS specialist to help them understand penetration, geographical sales presence, target demographic
demarcation, spatial understanding of product distribution. The biggest challenge that was present in from of Colgate was
the scale of target geography and the demographics.
Delivery area mapping
The Solution
Mappls after understanding the problem scale and brand reputation put forward a business analytic platform which
involved development of a Geo-marketing cloud based software application for the client. Client’s entire universe, both
product wise and hierarchy wise (distributor, dealer, and retailer) was plotted on the map and integrated with their
internal ERP. Colgate-Palmolive’s sales representatives across various regions were also mapped against these outlets. The
application allowed the flow of Sales information against each store/counter/region/geography flows into the system on
daily basis. Based on the information obtained, sales performance analysis was done across geographies to identify
underperforming counters/regions, helping in overall decision making.
Each counter/store visit by each sales representative was also captured and represented by various color coding based on
the frequency of visits made in a report. Largely, the application served as a single window information desk for the client
Team to highlight and analyze penetration, performance, competition presence for an individual counter to across
geographies, thus aiding in strategic decision making. Mappls’ Geo-Marketing solutions helped Colgate-Palmolive
effectively in market planning and expansion. It provides a single window dashboard for demographics, sales data,
business asset spread and competitor network breakdown.
Mappls’ solution acknowledged that the key challenge in retail is to grow the market. Considering the drastic change that
social and economic landscape in India is undergoing and the competition looming in to grab this opportunity, having
sustainable strategies to grow the market by increasing penetration and consumption and holding on to it is a key
challenge for Retail players which has made GIS intelligence for decision making a mandatory requirement for leading
FMCG players.
Thematic map for site selection
Visualization of survey data on a digital map
Conclusion
The implemented solution ensured the strategic business decisions specific to the FMCG vertical is carried out in an
informed manner to help take on challenging changing FMCG industry paradigm proactively. The solution helped ColgatePalmolive find the right fit for products and people. It further helped the clients to dig deep into data and trends by
understanding the places they actually spatially happen. This helped Colgate-Palmolive view the marketplace like never
before. They were able to develop thorough in-depth understanding as to which people are where and why by viewing
real-time and historic data through a map. They further profited by running what-if scenarios, and change models easily.
The biggest advantage that Colgate-Palmolive felt was that implemented solution let them analyze before costly full scale
implementation.