Cleopatra Soap Missteps: Product and Pricing

I think the main underlying theme of this case is that what works for one market doesn't necessarily work for others. It's hard to believe that a huge, established, successful company like Colgate-Palmolive would make such a misstep. Just because Quebec and France are both French speaking regions does not mean that consumers have the same preferences or needs, wishes and wants. I wouldn't dream of saying that the US is the same as Australia, the UK, Ireland or South Africa. In fact, regions within the same country don't even consistently react the same way to products.

As far as the product, it seems like by positioning Cleopatra against Dove they needed to offer a product that had similar characteristics that have been proven to resonate with the Skin Care soap market. In this case, Dove has been successful using a strategy that relies on purity with low additives and little sent. Since skin care soaps are used as facial soap, more research needed to be done on how the Quebec market reacted to ingredients. My guess is that less is more, which would be very different to how the French market reacted. Also, if researched showed that the "pure" factor was important, the packaging, advertising and other placement needed to reflect that fact. Many more modern brands that focus on this "pure" market choose to use cleaner more simplified designs and placement strategies. The common color palate seems to be muted and centered on white. A gold shiny box probably wouldn't naturally resonate with this market. Since that shiny gold box held in the scent, maybe revised packaging might have lessened the intensity of the fragrance.

The pricing strategy for Cleopatra seemed to be off base. The case acknowledges that the Canadian soap market was extremely price sensitive. While I can understand why Colgate-Palmolive wanted to maintain its pricing to avoid a race to the bottom and preserve margin, it seems quite bold that they would price an unproven product higher than Dove, the "Cadillac" of the skin care segment. The key to the success of Cleopatra seemed to be consumer trials, if the price was so high that consumers were unwilling to try the product and become familiar with it, the company might have priced themselves out of the market to start with. Also, by not providing multipacks at a slightly discounted bulk price, many consumers that only purchase in larger packs did not have the opportunity to try it out. Also, based on the advertising I have seen, looks like they might not have included a strong enough "call to action" in order to stimulate trials. In a region where "a soap is a soap is a soap" Cleopatra didn't provide enough of a value proposition to get people over the price hump.

Also, because the company chose to use a pull strategy, the retailers didn't have much incentive to push the Cleopatra product. This might have been a misstep in how the product was rolled out. By spending additional funds to establish stronger relationships with the retailers, the company might have earned more premium positioning and promotional opportunities.