Procter & Gamble - Blogs and Spokesperson

P&G has an internal blog which they use to cover stories that involve the company and their brands.  However, P&G goes beyond only blogging about their products and brands. Their blogs cover useful knowledge about the company; What events and relief efforts that P&G has participated in, brand building, sponsorships, charities, and world organizations that P&G is working with.

Considering P&G's size, I think the best way for them to get external public attention would be to continue blogging the way the do. P&G does a great job involving themselves in relief efforts around the world and that's not only positive propaganda, it is the truth and the company should be proud to bring this to the attention of the public through their blogs. Many times big corporations are looked at in a bad light and helping less fortunate people is a strong way to give back some of the massive revenue that is drawn in. It's also a great way for them to continue to build on their mission of improving lives. They blogs are easy to access on the company site and are linked through their Facebook and Twitter pages as well.

Last August, P&G posted a blog about their involvement with a blogger convention called BlogHer. This showed their attempts to reach out and engage with outside bloggers, mainly the female blogging community. P&G used this as a way to establish rapport with these female bloggers and engaged them with new product introductions. P&G set up a "home away from home"  allowing the attendees to experience each product. This engagement was meant to provide information for positive press while developing new brand enthusiasts.

I think their blog strategy works for internal publics as well because it is providing stories that correlate and enhance the company personality - touching lives, improving life - which will give investors positive news and employees can earn more about what the company is doing.

Procter & Gamble does not have a spokesperson but they do have many famous spokespeople for their many different brands. Gillete uses Roger Feder, Derek Jeter and Tiger Woods, before his issues came out. Old Spice has used pro football players such as Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher. Stacy London speaks for Pantene and Ryan Seacrest is the spokesperson for Crest and Scope. I think P&G uses their spokespeople wisely because the personalities match the audience and consumers of each product. Top level athletes are perfect attention grabbers for the male market that uses Gillete and Old Spice. P&G does not advertise for themselves, just their brands, so I don't think a spokesperson is needed but if they were to use one I think a well respected and charitable celebrity would be a good representative for the personality and purpose of P&G.

Procter & Gamble - Media Relations

Media relations is obviously a crucial part of any companies success. Back in the day it was done by  traditional slow mailing and press releases filled with corporate speak.  That is way less engaging than what the internet has allowed media relations to become. In today's media relations world the way to connect with media and the way to offer journalists information and story ideas is by having dynamic online presence. The use of blogs, microblogs, social media and video sharing provides faster and more interesting ways of receiving and develop information into articles.

Procter and Gamble has a dynamic corporate newsroom with loads of information about products, promotions, events and corporate movements. They provide links to their social media and microblogs such as twitter and Facebook. Even better they offer their four most recent tweets on the side of the newsroom home page to allow journalists to see their tweets without having to leave the page. P&G is very aware that twitter, as Argenti puts it, "crawls with media at any given time, day or night." P&G posts anywhere between 3-10 times a day. Each tweet is an invitation to a press release, blog, or product update. They tweet to market their brands and announce new sponsorships. Twitter is great way to announce your company news and P&G utilizes it well, and their logo, default picture and bio all incorporate the P&G branding.

The P&G newsroom homepage has access to all media relation needs and intrigues the user to dive deeper into the releases. The very first thing you see in the newsroom is a scrolling list of P&G's top seven "featured views" and underneath that are the top seven "featured news releases". These are the top seven corporate blogs and new releases that P&G wants you to see and they offer a picture and snippet to intrigue the reader to click and become interested in the release. Underneath the snippets they have recent videos. Currently they have a Youtube video that interviews the subject of one of the corporate blogs. They show an interview with the new leader of the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) P&G's very own Asia Group president Deb Henretta. Henretta has been the leader for PG's Asia business and now will lead the APEC in its efforts to "advance Regional economic Integration and prosperity" as well as "reduce tariffs and other trade barriers across the Asia-Pacific region".  To read more about P&G's involvement click here http://news.pg.com/blog/innovation/asia-pacific-represents-%E2%80%98huge-growth-opportunity%E2%80%99. Visit the APEC site to learn more http://www.apec2011hawaii.com/what-apec. When speaking about newsrooms Argenti says "they give journalists access to information they want, when they want it. Plus, multimedia platforms like these are catalysts for increasing traffic to the corporate web site, and their content is completely in the control of the company"

P&G Corporate Newsroom  http://news.pg.com/.

P&G's media relations is consistent with their overall organizational personality. P&G is a company out to improve lives by offering products that make living healthier, cleaner and easier.  Their presentation of their media relation tactics is consistent with that personality and branding. When you enter the newsroom their is a picture of a mother with her small child smiling. The first snippet underneath is for a story about P&G's effort to help bring clean water to the Thai flood victims. Immediately without clicking anything the personality of P&G screams we care! and we will go out of our way to improve life with our products anywhere we can. They are targeting bloggers and journalists that will talk about their efforts and that care about organizations that are doing positive things around the world. In a quick search I found the P&G was benign covered in the Harvard Business Review blog, AdAge blog and multiple business blog. So P&G is doing a good job targeting high level media to match their high level brand.

Procter & Gamble - Online Newsroom, Social media and Blogs

I don't know about you but when I look for anything I like to find access to it all in one place. If I were in need of media relations I would praise any company that uses a corporate newsroom. Aregnti refers to newsrooms as "one stop shops for all media relations needs." This allows any media or stakeholder to become connected in to the company in multiple facets. Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, video's and photos, new releases, media kits, and company overviews.  P&G has a very professional yet user friendly online newsroom that provides all media content associated with P&G.

If you're a stay at home mom in this day and age you are most likely spending a good chunk of your time online with social media and blogs. P&G is very thorough and up on their social media presence. They are active members of Facebook and Twitter. Their Facebook page has a perfectly professional and inviting feel. It begins with their section "about us" which has quick snippets under categories such as, "about P&G", "News and Views", "P&G Innovations" and "2011 Annual Report". Each caption has a link to the full page on their corporate website. Their wall acts as a company news feed that P&G uses to announce new events, sponsorships, virtual tours and new products. There are pictures of all their products and the new innovations on the way. This is a nice way for people to see products and read a bit about their uses. The comment section on the page is a nice way to see compliments or complaints. Within their Facebook page they allow viewers to see their blog they have a wall with the first few lines of the story then a read more link which brings you to their P&G Views page on their website. They currently have 59,152 people who like their Facebook page. Check them out here http://www.facebook.com/proctergamble

As far as micro blogging P&G utilizes twitter as a corporation message board. Like their Facebook page they use their tweets as a way to announce events, innovations, awards and articles. They offer interactive links to RSS content on the corporate site as well as pictures and links to other sites that are covering a P&G products or involvement. They currently have 16,626 followers.

Who likes to watch video's rather than read? I do I do, and I'd bet most of you as well. Offering videos as a way to invite users and media into the company to get a visual understanding is a strong way gain supporters. P&G has not lagged in any digital field so of course they offers video sharing via their own Youtube channel. On there they provide video interviews, highlights of events all around the word, and product introductions and improvements. P&G has a blog roll that gives snippets of blogs within their newsrooms called P&G views which provides blogs within fourteen topics; Innovation, sustainability, leadership, purpose inspired growth and brand building, company strategy and product innovation to name a few. This gives media and users the chance to see inside 14 area's of the company and understand the motions being made within the company.

P&G's presentation throughout their online presence is consistently professional yet comforting and  inviting. They do a great job presenting their care taking personality in every piece of online content they present. It is important to not only present your brand identity but to make sure you do it consistently on all forums.

Procter & Gamble Authenticty, Uniqueness and Talkabilty

P&G maybe one of the most authentic corporations still around today.  P&G's heritage is above and beyond credible. Created in the mid 1800's as a candle and soap company, their business venture was clear, to provide people with honest quality soap and candles. P&G is still in business because of that passion to provide quality honest products. They have always made a point to foster strong individual employees, and connected them to the success by being one of the first companies to offer profit sharing. P&G’s motives have always been to provide quality and useful products, not just anything to make a buck. As I mentioned in the previous blog P&G has also been very generous with their earnings and donated to many struggling groups and communities around the world.

P&G’s business model has always been based on dealing honestly and directly with consumers, and they have always maintained a passionate pursuit to provide products "of the highest quality". P&G was one of the first companies to become a true brand. They began to mark their star candles with a simple star logo to ensure that the cables in the box were genuine. Consumers relied on the logo to ensure they were getting a P&G quality product. P&G removed the logo at one point but soon found that merchants began to refuse the deliveries because the products with the logo were the only ones that sold. Logo’s are crucial now, I could never buy a pair of Nike’s again if they removed the logo, it just wouldn’t feel right. Assuring their consumers the highest quality by branding their products, positioned P&G as the most unique and relied upon producers of soap and candles. And they created brand awareness.

P&G created a twist on business when with their innovative ways of marketing and connecting with their consumers. P&G began connecting with their consumers, by sending coloring books to children in exchange for wrappers. They sent prizes to consumers for writing poems about Ivory soap and sent free samples out with booklets explaining the many uses of Ivory. They went deeper into advertising by creating one of the worlds first radio soap operas and later entered TV. They placed P&G products in their shows as well as commercial breaks. Today P&G is active on both Twitter and Facebook, allowing consumers to see and read about whats new with P&G as well as allowing consumers to directly contact and pass on comments. P&G is constantly reaching their consumers and doing what they can to innovate and provide consumers with authentic products that will improve their lives.

P&G's talkability comes from their devoted pursuit to provide products with honest value.
Their hook is sharable because they continue to innovate new products with a commitment to high quality. When Swiffer came out their was a buzz amongst people because there was a new easy and effective way to mop floors, without the mess. No water bucks or drying clothes needed. Products like the Swiffer are what continues to make P&G successful and recognized. The last important piece of being talkable is, as Bhargava put it, to get out of the way and let consumers share their opinions. Well P&G has always welcomed opinions and valued feedback, and continues to respond by providing solutions through their products. Their openness with consumers allowed them to understand their consumers needs which was a huge factor in their success.

The personality of P&G is clear, their passionate about providing consumers with high quality products that deliver and help improve basic functions of life. They don’t just make it and put it out, they listen to consumers and respond. While making millions of dollars every year P&G still strives to do it honestly and never with a lack of quality.