The Marketing Revolutionaries

Started in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble, P&G is today a global leader in branded consumer goods with a market capitalization of $231.98 billion.

P&G is a Marketing Behemoth with the world’s largest advertising budget of $8.68 billion as of 2010

P&G is a pioneer with a number of industry-firsts in the marketing and manufacturing processes divisions.

In 1887, P&G established a professional R&D division boasting one of the first corporate labs for consumer goods, replacing the age old trial and error testing method.

Innovation and R&D

P&G’s dedication to innovation created new categories of products like disposable diapers (Pampers) and Liquid Fabric Softeners (Downy).

Connect-and-Develop

In 2000, P&G introduced a new structure and innovation approach which involved –

50% of innovation and new products coming from P&Gs network of labs, and the rest 50% through non-P&G labs.

This structure led to a very successful product innovation across its various categories.

P&G experimented with several now-classic marketing tools in its effort to promote and market its Ivory Soap.

IN THE 1880S, THIS WAS THE FIRST PRODUCT TO BE DIRECTLY MARKETED TO THE CONSUMERS.

P&G used – • Magazine Advertisements• Mass Mailing samples of Ivory along with a

booklet• Follow up letters and making women

ambassadors called “Patronesses”• Used contests to highlight the functionality

of the “floating” property of the soap.• The term “Soap Opera” has its origin in this

period when P&G sponsored radio and TV programs that targeted women, to advertise its products.

A shift in the Marketing Strategy

The year 2000, under CEO A.G. Lafley, saw a shift for P&G from its past focus on function, performance, and price; towards a more customer centric approach, with the goal to make P&G the top product design company in the world.

The new design emphasis shifted the company towards a more consumer centric marketing approach.

This marked a shift from the traditional process-oriented and template driven culture towards one involving deeper understanding of the customer.

P&G developed metrics to measure brand loyalty and customer relationships, arising from the need to measure the Returns on Marketing Investment.

P&G invested hugely in Market Research, interacting with more than 5 million consumers across more than 100 countries.

It conducted over 20,000 research studies each year, and invested nearly $500 million into developing and executing these studies.

AdvertisingP&G has been a marketing trailblazer

from the outset – • Ivory, the first product to be

advertised to customers directly subverted dependence on wholesalers, distributors and retailers.

• Soap operas owed their existence to P&G.

• It managed several brands in the same category by uniquely positioning them and advertising their chief differentiator.

• Post 2000s, P&G’s advertising strategies shifted from functionality advertising to more design and emotion driven advertising, which is apparent from its tag line today – Touching Lives, Improving lives.

P&G leveraged a number of sponsorship opportunities across its portfolio.

• Sponsor for the Olympics Games 2010

• 2012 Winter Games in Russia

• 2016 Summer Games in Brazil

• National Football League Sponsorship

• Celebrity endorsements • Sports star endorsements

P&G took care of its Digital Marketing meticulously

• 1990s – Digital activity limited to brand websites• 1999 – It formed an interactive forum with

pampers.com, which was followed by beinggirl.com in 2000.

• 2006 – A leap in the company’s digital activities, it undertook online research, online serials, video games and a YouTube channel for its heartburn treatment Prilosec.

• 2006 – The company also entered into an SMS contest to promote the Crest Toothpaste.

• 2007 – Launched 2 Social Media sites for women.• 2010 – It initiated a web series to showcase its

products Its Old Spice TV commercial and

YouTube adv. went viral with immense feedback and the

company initiated a feedback campaign which subsequently led to great promotion on Twitter.• 2011 – Launched Social Media site for Men.

P&G began expanding into international markets in the early 1930s.

It carried out its business diversification primarily through careful acquisitions and also through R&D.

The Acquisition of Charmin Paper Mill (1957) and the Folgers Coffee (1963) are some of the initial noteworthy acquisitions among giants like Gillette (2005) and CoverGirl (1989)

P&G maintained its Marketing Budget even when recession hit the economy in 2009, by shifting its costs.

Community Initiatives

Since 1837, P&G has built a rich heritage of touching consumers’ lives with brands that make life a little better every day.

P&G touches and improves the lives of about 4.4 billion people around the world with its portfolio of trusted, quality brands with a record 24 billion dollar brands.

With operations in about 80 countries, P&G brands are available in more than 180 countries worldwide.

These facts make P&G the ultimate marketing pioneers and a company to look up to and learn from.

Hats off to Procter & Gamble.

A PRESENTATION BY ANIRUDDHA PODDAR.

CREATED DURING A MARKETING INTERNSHIP UNDER PROF. SAMEER MATHUR, IIM LUCKNOW.