Why is Proctor and Gamble the Most Skilled Marketer of Consumer Packaged Goods?

Introduction

Proctor and Gamble need no introduction. It is the most recognised marketer of consumer packaged goods. The growth of the company and its accolades are overwhelming. It has more than 1 million employees all over the globe. It is the market leader in more than 22 different product categories.

In all the categories, it gives cutthroat competition to all its market rivals. It has more than 23 billion global brands. On average, it spends more than $5 million a day on research and development and has total sales of more than $76 billion a year. Now let’s elaborate on how it has grown as a super-giant in consumer packaged goods.

Customer Knowledge

Proctor and Gamble spend most of its time researching different customers, which include both end consumers and trade partners. How did it do that? The answer is through continuous promotion, advertising, and intelligence gathering.

It literally spends more than 100 million dollars to gather research on just 10,000 customers every year and generates more than 3 million contacts through the mail and call centres. It puts a great deal of effort into getting its marketers and researchers to do field research and interact with customers in their home environment.

Long-Term Outlook

Proctor and Gamble really take its time to utilize all its opportunities efficiently and effectively. It takes time to make the best version of the product so as to make it a success. For example, it had a long, chaotic fight to make its potato chip a market hit.

Product Innovation

Proctor and Gamble continuously focus on the innovation side of a product. It devotes 1.8 million to research and development, which is an aggressively high amount for any company as it devotes 3.5 percent of its sales to that. Its research people are in an abundance that is really more massive than Harvard, Berkley, or MIT combined.

One part of its research is to develop brands for the new consumer market. Recent examples of its innovative products are Febreze, an odor-eliminating fabric spray; Swiffer, a new cleaning system that efficiently removes dust, dirt, or hair from floors and other surfaces; and the list is never-ending.

Quality Strategy

Proctor and Gamble produce products of over-average quality and continuously tries to improve them. There is no margin for error in promising a product as new and improved. There are a lot of examples of products that are on the bucket list. For example, Pantene shampoo or Pampers baby diapers—there is an endless list in that.

Brand Extension Strategy

Proctor and Gamble produce its brands in several sizes and shapes. It takes into consideration consumers of all pockets. This factor helps it move ahead of the competition. It uses its recognized brands to promote any new product. For example, the Mr. Clean brand has been extended from household cleaner to bathroom cleaner and even to carwash cleaner.

Multi-Brand Strategy

Proctor and Gamble promote several brands in the same product category. For example, Pampers and Luvs Each brand compete with a specific consumer group and with other competing marketers at the same time. It has also lessened the brand numbers and reduced the vast bundle of brands just to maintain and assemble a strong brand portfolio.

Communication Pioneer

With its acquisition of Gillette, it has become the largest advertiser, spending a large fraction of its sales on marketing. It has really been a masterpiece at promoting its brand on television for decades, and now it is flapping its wings to promote its brand on the web as well. The ads really add an emotional angle, which helps in communicating the best to their consumers and connecting them deeply.

Aggressive Sales Force

It is on the list of the top 25 sales forces by sales and marketing management magazine. The main reason for its success is getting into a happy relationship with big retail giants like Walmart. There are different people who work with this giant to continuously improve both the products that go to them and the process by which they get there.

Manufacturing Efficiency and Cost Cutting

The reputation that Proctor and Gamble has built over the years is due to its manufacturing power. It is one of the largest manufacturing companies. It always works on its production operations to keep the cost of its products low in the industry.

Brand Management System

Proctor and Gamble created a brand management system in which a single executive is answerable to each brand. This system is copied by many, but they could not reach the place where it is now. It has modified its general management structure in such a way that each brand category is now run by a category manager with sales volume and profit responsibility.

Although this new formula is not eligible to replace the brand management system, it helps to sharpen the strategic aim to make consumers happy and retain competition in the market.

Conclusion

So as we can see, the great success of this giant is not limited to one particular reason; rather, it depends on a number of factors. These factors have helped it become a market leader.