Friday, November 4, 2011

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.

3 comments:

  1. I have to admit that I don't really think about P&G simply because they are not the name on the product - but working for a nonprofit I know P&G very well from a social responsibility perspective. I think because, generally speaking, women tend to be their target audience, they need to be (or appear to be) more socially conscious and genuinely concerned. In this case, I do tend to "buy it".

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  2. I think what you said about removing the logo is so interesting!

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  3. Dude, I found the part about the way they connect with consumers interesting. It honestly, don't ask me why, reminds me of when I was a little kid and there was that whole thing about Tootsie Roll Pops with the Indian shooting the star on the wrapper. Supposedly, if you found that on the wrapper, you could send it to the company and get like a years supply of lollipops. It just blows my mind man. The idea of their customers sending them poems about Ivory soap?! I mean, me and my soap are close, but certainly not that close.

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