Procter & Gamble: Marketing

Capabilities

PROCTER & GAMBLE:A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

• Founded by William Procter and James Gamble in 1837

• Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA• $76.27 billion dollar net revenue as of 2015

BRANDS

Billion-Dollar BrandsActionell

ArielCharmin

CrestDawn

DuracellFebrezeGilletteHead &

ShouldersOlay

Oral-BPampersPantene

Tide

Major competitors

• ITC• Unilever• Marico• L’Oreal• Dabur

INNOVATIONS&

r&D

Took scientific approach very early than its competitors

Methods used to innovate and cost-cutting

Cut 15000 staff, promised more innovation

7 Global Business units (GBUs) replaced 4 Geographic Business Unit

3 new teams formed - Business development team, venture team, market development organizations

Then-CEO Durk Jager visions:

• 50% innovation from P&G’s labs• Rest 50% from connections worldwide, with non-P&G scientist• This made a workforce of 7500 scientists in P&G, and 1.5 million outside it• This led to successful products like Swiffer Dusters, Olay Regenerist, Crest Whitestrips, and Crest Spinbrush

Marketing strategy

“P&G recognized that building brands is not exclusively or even primarily a marketing activity. Rather it is a

systems problem. Better brands are based on innovation and continuous improvement throughout the company’s

operations and activities, starting with developed or acquired products with performance features that

consumers value.”

P&G strove to develop metrics that measured brand loyalty and customer

relationships. A customer-centric marketing strategy followed

Attention to Design

“We have an innovation process and we want to make sure that design is plugged in at the

front end” - Lafley

Alan Lafley took over as CEO in 2000, made major reforms

He set a goal to make P&G the top product-design company in the world.

P&G’s past focus on function, performance, and price, now came

with a design element.

New Design Unit was formed, its head Claudia Kotchka given immense

powers.

Design unit studied case studies, created a P&G design board

Created the Clay Street Project, bringing cross-functional teams from around the globe to Cincinnati for 10 weeks to create new brands based on

design

Stronger focus to ROMI - Return on Marketing

Investment

A shift from TV and print to digital and direct marketing

Project Apollo tracked media habits of  30,000 households representing

70,000 consumers

These data along with surveys helped P&G understand and decide marketing

tactics

Commitment to the Consumers

As part of ‘store-back approach’, P&G offered its consumers discounts and

promotions when the market was down with recession

• Extensive consumer research undertaken• Innovative approaches to consumer

engagement led to new marketing and promotional opportunities, for example Vocal Point

Through partnerships, P&G  identified visibility and attention that consumers gave to packaging, displays, and advertising

Advertising

Earlier, direct consumer advertising was practiced, like in case of Ivory

Innovations in advertising–Sponsorships in daytime radio dramas–Television commercials

Challenges faced in new markets

–Local and global competitors pose big challenge for P&G–P&G developed a ‘media-neutral’

idea to showcase its messages across a range of media–Experimentation with new media,

and radical shift from traditional advertising

Sponsorships

US Olympic team sponsor for 2010 Olympics

Worldwide sponsor for 2012 winter games, Russia

Worldwide sponsor for 2016 summer games, Brazil

Sponsored National Football League, attracting consumers with Play-60

initiative

Celebrity Endorsements

CoverGirl spokespersons were all of P&G, like Ellen DeGeneres, and

Queen Latifah, Sofia Vergara, Taylor Swift, Eva Mendes, Naomi

Watts

Pantene spokesperson included  Gisele Bündchen, Stacy London,

and Teri Hatcher

Tennis star Roger Federer was featured in Gillette Fusion Products ads

NHL player Alex Ovechkin was named a Gillette Brand

Ambassador in Russia and Eastern Europe in 2010

Sebastian Vettel became a brand ambassador of Head & Shoulders

shampoo in 2010

Digital Marketing and Social Media

With the launch of pampers.com in 1999, the digital marketing also took a new rise–Provided information to new and

expectant mothers–Served as an interactive forum

BeingGirl.com was launched in 2000–Provided information and expert

advice on “issues that teenage girls might be too embarrassed to ask a parent or doctor about, such as menstruation, eating disorders, acne and dating.”–The site advertised P&G tampons

and offered free samples

In 2006, launched mobile marketing campaign for Crest Whitening Plus Scope toothpaste–Encouraged customers to text ‘IQ’

or ‘EXTREME’ and take an ‘Irresistability IQ quiz’ to win iPods and other prizes

P&G launched ‘My Black is Beautiful’ campaign for African American women– Introduced 2 web series to promote this

P&G made YouTube sensation with Old Spice’s commercial  “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” –The ‘Old Spice Guy’ Isaiah Mustafa

answered people’s tweets for 48 hours in real-time–The video became huge online sencation

In 2007, P&G launched two social media sites–Capessa for women on Yahoo!

Health–The People’s Choice Community

Manofthehouse.com launched which featured household advice for men,

including tips on grilling burgers, cleaning toilets, and disciplining

children

Interactive Community Promotion

• Community service post 2005 cyclone Katrina hit USA• ‘Loads of Hope’ campaign launched

•Opened a Laundromat in New Orleans to wash survivors’ clothes

• T-shirts with slogans such as “Be seen, not spotted,” worn by celebrities • The T-shirts could be purchased online with all proceeds going towards families affected by the hurricane