"I recommend today's marketing model is broken. We are precisely applying antiquated thinking and work systems to a higher life of possibilities...The traditional marketing model is obsolete."- Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer, P & G, Association of National Advertisers, Oct 2004.
The notion that marketing and advertising attitudes must change is no longer a theory just banded about by Internet marketers. Perhaps the big boys and the major world players at the moment are accepting that the mass marketing techniques, of your last half a century, are not used penetrating audiences like they designed to. There's visiting should be a shift in the whole approach of advertising if it's going to maintain any relevancy with an increasingly cynical consumer.
When discussing marketing it doesn't get any bigger than Proctor & Gamble, among the largest suppliers of household products on the earth, and certainly one of the biggest advertisers. With brands like Ariel, Head and Shoulders, Pampers and Crest, they must be at the forefront in utilising new methods to have a few into people's homes. With the mega brand no more revered as some variety of deity, P & G should need to learn how to communicate with the influential consumer networks, and persuade these to talk positively about a few.
P & G consists of a long tradition of innovation and groundbreaking the way they tend to have broadcast their messages. They have been the first one to start advertising nationally, way back in 1880, and also have taken the concept of product placement to another level with your Soap Opera productions devised to hook female viewers onto their shows and shampoos.
Recently, P & G enlisted a multitude of 600,000 'connectors' to spread what it s all about in their 'Vocalpoint' campaign (an extension within their earlier 'Tremor' scheme amongst teenagers). Their 'connectors' were supplied with coupons to distribute to their colleagues, and free samples to impress conversations about P & G products. As Steve Knox, Vocalpoint CEO, recognised, "we all recognise that the number one kind of marketing is an advocacy message from a trusted friend." With Vocalpoint, P & G are utilising the rule and relevancy of social sites to enhance many through interaction and trust. People might not any longer take heed to brands, however they are going to take heed to advice of friends.
The perception that shift was on your horizon had already been identified by their former global marketing officer, Bob Weiliing. In a 2002 interview, Bob's view could be that the Internet isn't likely to exchange the mass 'push' medium of TV, but instead can be tailored to the individual. An internet environment work extremely well for when there's a personal passion to learn more about a services or products. Gaining advice, direction and also the latest product news are services not pre-made on only a 'push' medium. TV is about the mass market message, whereas the internet is ideal for individual relationship building.
Bob's conclusion, in the way ahead for P & G's marketing success, lay in training the way to combine each. They had to preserve the relevancy of a typical 30 second TV ad, whilst also utilising the extended attention and interaction accessible on the internet. Also this meant persuading the two warring marketing factions to work together to find a solution - to obtain the technophobes actually talking to the internet evangelists. It was been obvious recently that Bob's successor, Jim Stengel, subscribes firmly to the latter camp.
In 2005, P & G cut their TV ad spend by 8% to a mere $677.3 million, a bold move as well as a definitive shift onto non-traditional media. Just recently, they contacted digital and interactive agencies in the united kingdom to set together its first digital agency roster for Western Europe, also to find innovative new ways of populating their brands online.
We are now noticing the rise of interactive websites built to keep hold of eyes and encourage return visits. A year ago a music themed site for Old Spice was launched with free downloads and song samples to appeal to the 16-24 iTunes generation. Another notable example was the campaign for Pringles crisps throughout the FIFA World Cup. A website created where people could upload videos of themselves imitating the TV ad, mirroring the appeal of YouTube to have a young internet savvy audience. Both content driven sites built to develop the brand through interaction, relevancy and value.
P & G have also learnt the teachings preached by legions of corporate bloggers. Giving information worth you develop trust and confidence; consequently, folks will want to have a relationship along with your brand and you become customers. Their Pampers website builds an affinity having its audience in the provision of advice and help. To be a valuable resource for young mums, it enriches their association with the name and can provoke an appealing response the next time journey buying nappies.
P & G's Hand-crafted Simple website is usually a flagship in online marketing, possessing own Tv series and guides on good housekeeping. Rather then being blasted with product placement, the site simply develops relationships with its audience through its news and articles. Once your trust is gained you certainly will inevitably join the newsletter, with further promises or free samples, coupons, special offers and sweepstakes all pulling you into their trap of becoming a convert with their products. 'Home Made Simple' creates the perfect buying environment by developing trust, as well as the craving to have got a relationship with their brand, just what new form of web marketing is about.
For the Association of National Advertisers Conference, earlier this month, Jim Stengal and P & G's CEO, A.G. Lafley, outlined their mission to carry their brands on the 'pull' age of relationship marketing.
Lafley reinforced the views of Bob Weiling, they had to get familiar with ways to make relationships with their audience from the various 'touch points'. Their future lay in mastering the way to integrate their strategy across all of the mediums available, instead of depend on the existing one approach 'push' bombardment of promotion messages. His crucial point was which they had the need to understand how to "let alone" as "the better in complete control we are precisely the better from touch we become." P & G had the need to move beyond focusing your attention on merely transactions, and instead specialise in building relationships by being more responsive and receptive to what their audience, the 'boss', wanted.
Jim Stengal opened his speech which has a plea to his fellow marketers to "stop thinking about consumers and commence thinking about people." He was suggesting a paradigm shift in how they approached marketing and advertising. Their clients were no longer just demographics, but individuals to be empathised and engaged with. That they had so that you can take heed to what individuals wanted out of your brand compared to telling them just what brand should mean your family. A new stage of understanding were required to be created on why people should place trust in a relationship P & G's brands rather than simply superficially appealing to their desires (a tactic which has served copywriters since their inception).
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Many proctor and gamble Web entrepreneurs are eager to hammer the nails into TV's coffin, whilst traditional advertising execs sit on their hands looking forward to the 'web 2.0' bubble to burst. P & G have, because the start of the last decade, been steadily moving coming from a monolithic, lumbering marketing dinosaur into a web savvy, feedback focused livewire. If you find yourself an early adopter of many new 'trust' focused marketing philosophy, P & G really should be correctly to solving the puzzle of marketing online and maturing their brand's message for your proctor and gamble coupons sceptical consumer.
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