A detailed analysis of Harvard Business School's case study of Procter and Gamble. Prepared by Kandukuri Sai Omkar a 3rd yr Undergraduate student at BITS Pilani K.K Birla Goa Campus during an marketing internship under Prof. Sameer Mathur.

1. Harvard Business School
Case

4. WHAT IS P&G ?

5. Procter & Gamble Co. , also known as P&G , is an
American multinational consumer goods company
headquartered in downtown Cincinnati , Ohio , U.S. ,
founded by William Procter and James Gamble.

6. • CEO A.G. LAFLEY
• CEO BOB MCDONALD
• CEO DURK JAGER
• CEO JIM STANGEL
• CLAUDIA KOTCHA
• VICE PRESIDENT
• DESIGN UNIT
• MARC PRITCHARD
• GLOBAL BRAND BUILDING OFFICER
KEY PLAYERS

7. COMPANY BACKGROUND
1940 – 1980
• Business expansion internationally through acquisitions
• Divested brands that did not fit company profile.
• First Global Brands- Always, Pringles & Pantene (in 1980s)
• U.S.’s Top Cosmetics Company- acquisition of Noxell (1989) and
Max Factor (1991).
• Entry into pet-care market: acquisition of Iams (for $2.3 billion)
• $57 billion acquisition of Gillette in 2005 made P&G the Top
Consumer Goods Company.

8. P&G’s Billion- and Half-Billion-Dollar Brands

9. BRANDS OF P&G

10. INNOVATION AND R&D

12. • P&G had pursued a multi-brand strategy.
•P&G managed its brands across a category carefully ,
with each getting individual support.
• A new design unit was introduced in P&G which
complemented function-driven process .

13. •A consumer-centric marketing approach was followed.
•Customization is done on the basis of needs of people.
•Focused on “Return On Marketing Investment” and
shopper marketing experience .

14. •As a whole the marketing strategy changed from
Function, Performance and Price to Consumer-centric
focus and Design.
•New strategies were implemented such as ROMI
(return on market investment), Store back Approach.

16. • A lot of innovative approaches were introduced in product
and market research which gained both qualitative and
quantitative information from the consumers, in turn
resulting better products and positive buying behavior.
Qualitative:
• focus group discussions
• customer interviews
• in-store interviews
• in-context visits
Quantitative
• Data acquisition - habits & practices
of consumers.
• Personal endorsement approach
e.g. Vocal Point- P&G’s word-of-
mouth program.

17. Word of mouth advertising was followed, especially in
relation with women through interesting campaigns such as
“Thank You Mom” & “Loads of Hope” which acted as a means of
emotional branding.

18. Expenditure on
consumer marketing
• $500 million spent
• 20,000 market research studies
• 5 million consumers
• 100 countries
Technology
• Stake in Ocado (2008)
• Partnership with Tobii (2010)
• Neuromarketing (psychological surveys)

20. Day time radio Dramas
Soap Operas
• Products are advertised through dramas , T.V.
Commercials and operas instead of including
wholesalers and retailers in the chain.
•Lafley, Stengel and Kotchka aimed towards design
and emotion-driven advertising along with
benefits and functionality .

22. • Sponsored the U.S. Olympics in 2010, 2012 winter games,
Russia and 2016 summer games and Brazil.

23. • Fitness Campaign through NFL sponsorship and
major campaign “Thank You Mom” which gained
over 17 million views on YouTube and earned 33.6
Billion in media impressions.

24. CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

25. Covergirl Cosmetics
Gillette – Roger Federer
Pantene

26. MEDIA SPENDING

27. • During recession in 2009, P&G shifted to coupons and in-
store promotional activities to maintain its media presence
while shifting advertisement costs.
• In 2010, P&G increased its advertisement spending by $1
Billion with a 20% increase in media impressions and
hence higher revenues led to an increase in dollars spent.
• Mc Donald, who became the CEO in 2010, stated that P&G
would maintain same level of spending while shifting
dollars to digital advertising and other new media to
broaden the audience.

29. Web Series
“My Black is Beautiful”
“Buppies”

30. Web Sites
“BeingGirl.com”“pampers.com”

31. Television Commercials

33. • In 2007 two social media sites were launched namely
“Capessa” and “People’s Choice” for women on
Yahoo! Health and associated with People’s Choice
award.
• Aquired huge number of friends on Facebook and
learned how to use them.
• A website for household advice for men called
Manofthehouse.com was started in 2011.

34. COMMUNITY PROMOTION

35. •T-shirts with slogans and endorsed celebrities used to promote
sale of products like Tide . The t-shirts were worn by celebrities
, sold online and proceeds went to hurricane affected people .
• A mass promotional activity held in Times Square targeted
holiday shoppers , generated YouTube ads and attracted youths
.

36. “Loads of Hope” Campaign - 2005
Laundromat to wash clothes of
survivors of Katrina Hurricane
by which Tide increased to the
best of its sales in next 10
years.

37. “Times Square” Campaign - 2006
An innovative advertisement
including restrooms and
spotless toilets used to promote
Charmin toilet paper which
was then loved by tourists.
Campaign created 9 YouTube
advertisements and generated
20 Million views in a month.
.

38. What next for P&G?
With its proven ability to campaign in all the environments through
traditional and non-traditional ways P&G continues to evolve and innovate as the
World’s Largest Marketer with an aim to reach out to 5 Billion consumers worldwide
with advancements in consumer research and product performance.

39. DISCLAIMER
Created by Kandukuri Sai Omkar, BITS Pilani K.K Birla Goa Campus during a Marketing
Internship under Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.