Procter & Gamble initially failed to break into the Chinese diaper market with Pampers in 1998 due to cultural norms around cloth diaper usage and early potty training. To overcome obstacles, P&G conducted extensive market research to understand Chinese consumer needs and launched an advertising campaign emphasizing the sleep benefits of Pampers, backed by clinical studies. P&G also improved product quality, increased accessibility through Chinese manufacturing, and invested heavily in long-term advertising to educate the Chinese market and make Pampers the dominant brand. As a result, Pampers is now the top-selling diaper brand in China.

1. International Masters in International Business (IMIB)
School of International Trade & Economics (SITE)
Jiangxi, PR China

2. Dr. Chen Qi
Ph.D. in Economics
Presented To
Presented by: Group # 1

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Summarize P&G’s strategies to
conquer the obstacles?
-Presentation on-
Contents
1. Introduction to P&G
2. Products & Brands of P&G
3. Obstacles faced by P&G Pampers in China
4. Why P&G faced the obstacles
5. The strategies that P&G used to conquer the obstacles
6. Conclusion

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Introduction to P&G
P&G- Procter & Gamble Co. is an
American multinational consumer goods company
headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio,
United States.
Founded by William Procter and James Gamble,
both from the United Kingdom.
On October 31, 1837; 178 years ago
Its products include cleaning agents, and personal
care products.
In 2014, P&G recorded $ 83.1 billion in sales.
Number of Brands :300+
Countries its brands are serving :180+
Invested for Advertising in FY 2013 :$9.7 billion
Employees (2014) :118,000
No. of Company Destination Web :200 (Around)

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Products: P&G

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Brands: P&G

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Obstacles faced by P&G
Product: Pampers Market: China
Proctor and Gamble introduced the Pampers diaper to the Chinese
market in 1998. This entry into a new market failed due to the
following reasons stated next slides-

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Obstacles faced by P&G
It was not the cultural norm of Chinese parents to
use disposable diapers. In China re-useable cloth
nappies or Kaidangku are used.
The kaidangku are open crotched trousers which
allows for the child to squat and relieve
themselves in open area. This method was far
more economical for Chinese parents.
So to introduce disposable diapers in China was
challenging has P&G had to convince the
consumers why they were to spend on buying
disposable diapers.
Potty training in China started much sooner than
the countries in the western hemisphere.
Chinese potty trained their babies at 6 months as
opposed to 22-30 months for westerners.

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Why P&G faced the obstacles
P&G faced the above mentioned obstacles because they failed to conduct
proper market research before entering an emerging market.
For any multinational corporation such as P&G entering a new market it is
important that the proper intensive market research is conducted to
ascertain the needs, taste, culture of the potential market so that the
goods can be tailored to suit the individual market. P&G did not study the
culture of the Chinese people and this resulted the Pampers diaper in an
unsuccessful manner.
P&G unsuccessfully attempted to change the culture of China because
they failed to convince the Chinese market that they needed disposable
diapers and that adapting a new culture of disposable diapers would be
more beneficial to both the parents and the babies than the traditional
methods which were being used.

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Why P&G faced the obstacles
They placed emphasis on cost by producing a low quality cheap version
diaper for sale in China’s market. It had a more plasticky feel.Instead of
developing a unique product for the Chinese market, P&G made a lower-
quality version of U.S. and European diapers, wrongly assuming that
Chinese parents would buy these if they were cheap enough.
“It just didn’t work”
The Chinese parents wanted a product that was soft on their babies skin
and comfortable; just as much as the Western parents valued softness
and comfort for their babies so too did the Chinese.
When the product failed they shifted their focus to identify the underlining
reason.

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P&G strategies to conquer the obstacles
P&G then put its marketing machine into
motion. Pampers launched the “Golden
Sleep” campaign in 2007, which included
mass carnivals and in-store campaigns in
China’s biggest urban areas. The ad
campaign boasted “scientific” results, such
as “Baby Sleeps with 50% Less Disruption”
and “Baby Falls Asleep 30% Faster.”
The goal is to uncover the nuances of each market, and early on its
diaper research P&G discovered a universal need. Moms say the same
things over and over: We want more sleep.
With the help of the Beijing Children’s Hospital’s Sleep Research Center,
P&G researchers conducted two exhaustive studies between 2005 and
2006, involving 6,800 home visits, and more than 1,000 babies
throughout eight cities in China. Instead of cloth, the research subjects
were tucked into bed with Pampers. The results: P&G reported that the
babies who wore the disposables fell asleep 30% faster and slept an
extra 30 minutes every night.

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P&G strategies to conquer the obstacles
Also P&G came up with a new approach to product development:
“Delight, don’t dilute.” In other words, the diaper needed to be cheap, but
it also had to do what other cheap diapers didn’t — keep a baby dry for
10 hours and be as comfortable as cloth.
So P&G added softness, dialed down the plastic feel, and increased the
absorption capability of the diaper.
To bring down the cost, the company developed more efficient
technology platforms and moved manufacturing operations to China to
eliminate shipping costs.
No diaper brand, not even rival Kimberly-Clark, maker of Huggies, has
come close to spending as much on advertising in China, according to
CTR Market Research, the China-based division of American media
researcher TNS Media Intelligence. Since 2006, Pampers’ measured
media spend topped 3.2 billion yuan, or about $476 million — more than
three times as much as any other brand. In 2009 alone, P&G spent $69
million, compared to Kimberly-Clark’s $12 million spend for Huggies.

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P&G strategies to conquer the obstacles
P&G also developed a campaign on Chinese website where they asked
parents to upload photos of their sleeping babies. This further embedded
in the minds of the Chinese the study’s sleep message. P&G received a
remarkable response as thousands of photos were uploaded. Pampers
controls the currently holds the greater in a product category that barely
existed just a few years ago. P&G invested heavily in advertisements
which resulted in the rapid growth of the disposable nappy market in
China with P&G taking market leadership.

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Conclusion
Today, Pampers is the top-selling brand in China, a country where about
a decade ago the disposable diaper category hardly existed. P&G does
not release sales figures for specific countries, but Data monitor
estimates that the company has captured more than 30 percent of the
$1.4 billion market in China.
Considering all P&G’s shortcomings with the introduction of the Pampers
diapers in the Chinese market the company has managed to refocus and
re-strategize its marketing approach to currently controlling China’s
diaper market share.

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