"I believe today's marketing model is broken. We are most certainly applying antiquated thinking and work systems to a better whole world of possibilities...The standard marketing model is obsolete."- Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer, P & G, Association of National Advertisers, Oct 2004.
The notion that marketing and advertising attitudes ought to change is not a theory just banded about by Online marketers. Including the big boys as well as the major world players are accepting the mass marketing techniques, of a typical last 50 years, no longer penetrating audiences like they employed to. There is certainly going to ought to be a shift within the whole approach of advertising should it be about to maintain any relevancy which includes an increasingly cynical consumer.
When discussing marketing it does not have to get any larger than Proctor & Gamble, among the list of largest suppliers of household products on the planet, and certainly among the biggest advertisers. With brands like Ariel, Head and Shoulders, Pampers and Crest, they ought to go in the lead in utilising new methods to obtain their products into people's homes. Together with the mega brand not any longer revered as some sort of deity, P & G may need to discover ways to communicate with the influential consumer networks, also to persuade them to talk positively about their products.
P & G has a long tradition of innovation and groundbreaking in the way they've broadcast their messages. These were the first one to start advertising nationally, long ago in 1880, and still have taken the thought of product placement to another level along with their Soap Opera productions designed to hook female viewers onto their shows and shampoos.
Recently, P & G enlisted an army of 600,000 'connectors' to spread the answer with their 'Vocalpoint' campaign (an extension of their total earlier 'Tremor' scheme amongst teenagers). Their 'connectors' were supplied with coupons to distribute for their colleagues, and free samples to impress conversations about P & G products. As Steve Knox, Vocalpoint CEO, recognised, "we understand the most imperative form of marketing is definitely an advocacy message coming from a trusted friend." With Vocalpoint, P & G are utilising the rule and relevancy of social networks in promoting some through interaction and trust. People might no longer hearken to brands, however will always hearken to the advice of friends.
The perception that shift was in the horizon had already been identified by their former global marketing officer, Bob Weiliing. Within a 2002 interview, Bob's view could be that the Internet might not exchange the mass 'push' medium of TV, but instead might be tailored into the individual. A web environment can be used for when there exists personal passion to find out more a couple of service or product. Gaining advice, direction along with the latest product news are services not readily available on merely a 'push' medium. TV concerns the mass market message, whereas the internet is flawless for individual relationship building.
Bob's conclusion, on the way ahead for P & G's marketing success, lay in training how you can combine the two. That they had to sustain the relevancy of many 30 second TV ad, whilst also utilising the extended attention and interaction accessible online. This also meant persuading the 2 warring marketing factions to operate together to discover 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 the 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 eye balls 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 desire a relationship with your brand and turn to be customers. Their Pampers website builds an affinity with its audience from the provision of suggestion and help. Being a valuable way to obtain young mums, it enriches their association with the brand and shall provoke a desirable response on the next occasion they depart shopping for nappies.
P & G's Handmade Simple website is really a flagship in online marketing, having its own Show on tv and guides on good housekeeping. As an alternative being blasted with product placement, the website simply develops relationships with its audience through its news and articles. Once your trust is gained you might inevitably enroll in the newsletter, with further promises or free samples, coupons, good deals and sweepstakes all pulling you into their trap of growing to be a convert for their products. 'Home Made Simple' gives the perfect buying environment by developing trust, and the desire to have a very relationship along with their brand, what are the new style of online marketing is all about.
At 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 into the 'pull' age of relationship marketing.
Lafley reinforced the views of Bob Weiling, that they had to educate yourself on how to make links to their audience in the various 'touch points'. Them for years to come lay in learning how to integrate their strategy across all the mediums available, in lieu of looking forward to the unique a technique 'push' bombardment of selling messages. His key point was they will needed to learn how to "let go" as "the more consistently on top of things we are the more due to touch we become." P & G required move beyond thinking in terms of merely transactions, and instead specialize in building relationships if you find yourself more responsive and receptive to what their audience, the 'boss', wanted.
Jim Stengal opened his speech by using a plea to his fellow marketers to "stop pondering consumers and begin brooding about people." He was suggesting a paradigm shift in how they approached marketing and advertising. Their customers were no longer just demographics, but individuals to be empathised and engaged with. They had to be able to listen to what users wanted coming from the brand rather then letting them know just what the brand should mean to the people. A fresh stage of understanding required 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 having 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 take a seat on their hands looking forward to the 'web 2.0' bubble to burst. P & G have, for the reason that start of the last decade, been steadily moving coming from a monolithic, lumbering marketing dinosaur into an on line savvy, feedback focused livewire. If you find yourself an early adopter of the new 'trust' focused marketing philosophy, P & G should really be correctly to solving the puzzle of promoting online and maturing their brand's message for your proctor and gamble coupons sceptical consumer.
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