Colgate-Palmolive Bets on Omnichannel Demand Generation Enabled by AI
Colgate-Palmolive is continuing to execute on its long-term, 2030 strategy, which is nine months underway and focuses on tech-enabled omnichannel demand generation.
The approach reflects the company's response to a sluggish consumer spending landscape, particularly within the U.S. markets. In particular, Colgate-Palmolive has experienced softness in its Hispanic shopper segment amid the ongoing immigration volatility.
CEO and president Noel Wallace said the latest stage of the strategy shifts how content and messaging around products are delivered so the company can reach consumers at the right moments to drive purchase behavior.
It revamps the company's organization structure, de-siloing it from an e-commerce business in a brick-and-mortar business and turning it into a single, commercial, holistic organization that is deploying strategies to win the omni-demand consumer.
"The goal is to deliver consistency of this consumer-centric model around the world to build brand strength and penetration," said Wallace during the company's recent earnings conversation. It's a strategy accelerated through investments in digital, data, analytics and AI.
These tools will optimize the supply chain through predictive analytics and automation to elevate personalization efforts in a new dynamic environment, she said. "This is intended to deliver personalization at scale, drive optimal asset utilization, minimize downtime, improve service levels and enhance quality systems," she added.
As part of this, Colgate-Palmolive is increasingly focused on revenue growth management, balancing pricing and volume, and creating new pricing opportunities that include strategic price pack architecture, using AI to make smarter decisions around promotions and premiumization.
The company also looks to ramp up advertising, for which the percentage of sales was down in the fourth quarter. Colgate-Palmolive expects to benefit from intelligent advertising to drive market share and penetration.
"The [2030] plan is enabling us to look at the structure that we have today and find ways to optimize that, to drive faster decision-making and to organize ourselves against a very challenging and changing consumer environment around the world. It requires us to be very fluid and dynamic in terms of our content — and how we advertise, execute digitally and personalize our messaging at the right time and the right place," said Wallace.
