Colgate-Palmolive Co CL

Unrelenting Focus on Brand Spending Should Support Colgate's Moat Even Amid Macro Challenges

While concerns abound with regard to consumers' financial health and their willingness to pay up for the essential goods in Colgate-Palmolive's portfolio, we believe the firm is navigating the uncertain landscape astutely. Under CEO Noel Wallace, Colgate's strategy has centered on elevating research, development, and marketing spending (on its core mix, in adjacent categories, and throughout the digital realm) and expeditiously responding to evolving consumer preferences. Colgate has worked to bring products to market in as little as 6-12 months, down from 18-36 months historically. The prudence of this course has been evident, as Colgate chalked up 24 consecutive quarters at or above its 3%-5% long-term organic sales growth target through the end of 2024. We believe this reflects the firm's renewed focus on consumer-valued innovation across price tiers and elevated brand spending. Colgate has spent an average of 12% of sales on marketing over the past five years, about 200 basis points above the level in 2017-19.