reveries.com - jack haber - packaged goods marketing

DECEMBER 1998

You probably wouldn't pick Jack Haber out of a lineup of those suspected of killing Crest's 36-year-long dominance of the U.S. toothpaste market.

He passes an office where a young man is sitting on the visitor's side of an empty desk. Jack stops. With respectful irreverence he quips: "You having a good meeting with yourself?"

When the subject turns to Colgate's triumph over Procter & Gamble, he responds with understated hyperbole. "The funny thing is," he marvels, "Colgate Total comes in a tube, it looks like toothpaste and it tastes like toothpaste. But it's so different. It just goes so far past toothpaste as we've known it."

Jack has known toothpaste for quite some time now. His career started in advertising, at Ted Bates, working part-time in the media department for two dollars an hour -- on Colgate toothpaste. "When I went into the personnel office at Ted Bates, I had never been anywhere near an ad agency before," he recalls. "I remember there was this giant, red box of Colgate toothpaste. I just remember seeing that and thinking, 'wow...this is really the big time of advertising.'"

After Ted Bates, it was off to Foote, Cone & Belding, first in media and later in account management on the Clairol business. Clairol offered him a job in brand management before he was recruited to Colgate. That happened in 1981. His Colgate career began in a group called corporate new ventures and acquisitions, but soon changed to new products.

Jack then began moving up through oral care, in a variety of posts. He went to Colgate in Spain for a while, returning to the U.S. with a new charge for toothpaste strategy, worldwide. That's when he became involved in launching Colgate Total -- first in just five countries, then the global expansion. The success earned him an expanded role spanning all of consumer oral care worldwide.

A little over three years ago, Jack Haber was transferred to the U.S. company as Vice President and General Manager of Oral Care in the U.S., where he is currently consumed with altering the course of toothpaste history.

The truth: As a kid did you brush with Crest or Colgate?

Oh, Colgate. Colgate. Totally. Yeah.

Is there anything that differentiates the Colgate user from the Crest user? Demographics? Psychographics? Geographics?

There might have been patterns there, but they shift. They've really shifted dramatically, I'd say, in the last couple of years. Then, in the last six months, we've really had a major shift. Everything has changed in the toothpaste market because Colgate Total is now the best-selling toothpaste and the leading-edge consumers are using Colgate Total. So, there's a lot that's changing.

You've knocked Crest out of a market share leadership position it has held since 1962. How does that feel?

I started playing blues harmonica as a teenager, the guitar sometime later. Then the keyboards I bought on a lark one day. I write my own songs because I don't know how to play anybody else's.

(Laughs) I'm trying to think of something really diplomatic to say. It's good to win. Right? It's good to have the business successful. You can tell from the smile on my face!

Your press materials say that Colgate Total is the greatest evolution in toothpaste since the introduction of fluoride. What makes it such a breakthrough?

Colgate Total is unlike any other toothpaste. There are a lot of reasons for that. It has a unique formula, and in that formula are ingredients that have not been in toothpaste before. The benefits that Colgate Total provides are unavailable in any other toothpaste in this country.

It required approval from the Food & Drug Administration , which typically is not true of new toothpastes. It has a new seal of acceptance from the American Dental Association for its ability to fight plaque and gingivitis. It has a patent.

Most importantly, it really does give benefits that you don't get with other toothpastes. If you use it you can tell the difference. Your dentist can tell the difference. It's not toothpaste like you knew it before. It's changed what you could or should expect from your toothpaste.

The claim is that Colgate Total continues to work between brushings. How is that possible?

There's an ingredient in there called triclosan, which is an antibacterial. That is one of reasons, along with the fluoride, of course, that you prevent cavities, gingivitis and plaque and tartar. But there's another ingredient in the formula that helps retain the triclosan in the mouth, so that not only are you fighting bacteria or killing bacteria when you're brushing, but you're retaining the triclosan in the mouth, on the teeth.

So the advertising line is, "It's the brushing that works between brushings." Your teeth literally feel cleaner all day. If you use it, and then stop and use regular toothpaste, you'll notice that your teeth don't feel as clean through the day.

How did -- pardon the expression -- pip-squeak Colgate get ahead of Procter & Gamble's Research & Development juggernaut?

Well, I won't repeat that thing that you said! Actually, I can help you with some perspective on that. Couple of things. One: Colgate has been in the toothpaste business for a long time. Colgate toothpaste is over 100 years old.

The other key factor is that Colgate is, by far in the world, the leader in toothpaste and oral care. As you travel around the world, Colgate's market share in toothpaste is between forty and fifty percent. Our next largest competitor is less than twenty percent. Half the population in the world that's using toothpaste is using Colgate.

Procter & Gamble ran a print ad campaign that drew comparisons between its Crest MultiCare toothpaste and Colgate Total, in which P&G actually conceded an advantage to your brand. The ad actually seemed more like an ad for Colgate Total than for Crest MultiCare. Why do you think they did it?

I guess the advantage of Colgate Total is so great that even someone else's advertising shows it. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to speculate on why they did it. But Colgate Total was so successful so quickly. Colgate Total had 10.5% of the market in two months. It inspires reactions from other brands.

Crest reportedly is going to launch a brand called Crest Azure that's expected to claim similar benefits to Colgate Total. Are you scared?

Well, it's good to always be alert. But at this point, Colgate Total is the only toothpaste that has the formula that it has and that formula is patented. It's the only product I'm aware of that has the clinical benefits. It's the only one that has that approval by the Food & Drug Administration.

How about the marketing of the Colgate Total toothpaste brand? Are you doing anything that's especially interesting or innovative?

One of the most important things was the timing. Colgate Total was approved by the Food & Drug Administration last year, in July, and the marketing plan started almost instantly upon its approval.

The first thing we did was announce to the dental profession that Colgate Total was now available in the U.S., and we announced it to the retail trade.

In fact, we really started the marketing plan for the dentists and hygienists early, way before the consumer introduction, for the simple reason that the dentists are the people who educate their patients about oral health. Also, they could understand better what Colgate Total is about, what it does.

Michaelangelo put his feeling into a piece of rock and made you feel it, hundreds of years later. He not only did it once, he did it in different forms and all over the place.

The next thing that happened was we decided to introduce the product at the end of the year, which is sometimes a risky time to introduce a new product. But we decided to begin shipping Colgate Total on December 15th. And we were going to start the advertising and marketing sometime in January.

The retail demand was so strong that we literally had retailers' trucks lining up at the warehouses at a minute past midnight to get the Colgate Total to their stores. Within days, we literally had huge displays of Colgate Total in stores across the country. Usually it takes six to eight weeks to get enough distribution of a new product into new stores and they can start the advertising and couponing and everything. But within six to eight days we had full distribution.

We started advertising within ten days of the ship, which is unheard of. But the product was in the stores, the demand was building, and the product was moving out of the stores.

So we started supporting it earlier with advertising. We got on the air early, with a series of announcement promotions, which are very short commercials, 15 seconds. Their purpose was to announce that Colgate Total was here in a dramatic way and communicate the main benefits.

Then we transitioned from that into the ongoing advertising, which we called "The brushing that works between brushings," which was based on the same commercial we introduced around the world with. We used outdoor in New York, we had bus shelters, we had transit posters, we had little postcards in restaurants and bars. The advertising had a lot of impact. They had short, snappy messages that got right to the main point.

Everything got off to a really fast start. We did sampling, but instead of doing sampling through the mail, most of the sampling was given out by the dental profession to their patients, because when dentists see what Colgate Total does, they recommend it to their patients.

Colgate Total, very quickly, became the most recommended toothpaste by dentists and hygienists, which is also driving conversion. It's driving trial but it's really driving loyalty, because when your dentist tells you this toothpaste is really different, that you should use it because your mouth is going to be healthier, people pay attention.

Given that it's often hard to get retailers excited about anything other than slotting allowances, what was it that got them so jazzed about Colgate Total?

I think retailers, very often, wait for a new product that comes along like Colgate Total that really is different, that really does something different. Colgate Total has a track record around the world, and everybody has heard about it.

For retailers, the excitement was amazing. I went on some sales calls, and instead of the buyers wanting to know the usual things you talk about, the first question was, "When can I get the product and can I get the quantities that I want?" The demand, the anticipation, was there.

Then the product started selling and became the best-selling toothpaste so quickly. We have comments from retailers that Colgate Total is one of the top-selling items in their stores -- not just in Health & Beauty Aids but one of the top-selling items. And those lists usually include things like milk and bread. It just sold incredibly well.

Have you ever heard of Maimonides? He lived in Medieval times and was so good at so many things. How can you be a doctor, a philosopher, a scientist, an astronomer and a writer? All I do is sell toothpaste

What we've seen, when we look at the diagnostics in the marketplace is that the trial -- the percentage of people who are trying it -- is at record levels, by far. Not just by a bit. And then the repeat levels -- the percentage of people who are buying it again -- is record-breaking. So is the depth of repeat -- the people who are buying it again and again and again. The performance is unlike any other toothpaste we've seen before.

Are you doing any special programs with the trade?

Well, we're making it available to them! The product is tremendously responsive to promotion. When the trade puts it on display, when they put it on feature, the product really moves. With some products you get a little bit extra, but with Colgate Total it's so popular, when they put it on, it really takes off. So, yes, we give extra incentives for displays. The visibility of the product really helps. People see it and they buy it.

Is there anything else you're working on that Procter & Gamble ought to be worried about?

I certainly wouldn't tell them what to do! Colgate Total gets the most attention. But when you look at what's happened in the oral care business in the U.S. , over the last couple of years, we've introduced a few other products which have helped build the business also.

We've launched Colgate Whitening with baking soda and peroxide, and then Colgate Tartar Control plus Whitening. And those two products together make Colgate the number one whitening toothpaste in the U.S.

We just launched My First Colgate, featuring Barney. It's really important for parents to teach their children to take care of their teeth at a really early age. If you teach your kids that it's really fun to brush your teeth and they enjoy doing it, chances are they'll have healthier teeth for their whole lifetime. This was the first toothpaste that was designed especially for toddler's teeth and for toddlers to want to use. It's specially designed for their little, little teeth at that young age.

Somebody in the company recently said that ideas create business. Boy, did that stick inside me. You've got to have the courage to make those ideas happen.

While a lot of the focus has been on Colgate Total, we're looking at where are the needs in the marketplace, where we can have a product in the marketplace that addresses a need in a meaningful way.

Are there any other aspects of the business, looking forward, that you think look especially interesting?

Looking forward, from my perspective, there are still a lot of people who haven't tried Colgate Total yet! I'm not kidding. It really is such a good product. It really is different. A lot of products are really just about good marketing. But Colgate Total is an incredible, technological breakthrough that we were lucky enough to be able to market.

So, for me, the focus is to continue to grow Colgate Total. The goal is to get 100% of the people to use Colgate Total. Then we'll go onto the next thing.