"I feel 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applying antiquated thinking and work systems to a better whole world of possibilities...The standard marketing model is obsolete."- Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer, P & G, Association of National Advertisers, Oct 2004.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 and also the major world players are accepting the fact that mass marketing techniques, of a typical last 50 years, no longer penetrating audiences like they employed to. There exists going to have to be a shift inside the whole approach of advertising should it be about to maintain any relevancy having increasingly cynical consumer.
When discussing marketing it does not have to get any bigger and better than Proctor & Gamble, among the list of largest suppliers of household products in the world, and definitely 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 many into people's homes. In the mega brand not any longer revered as some type of deity, P & G may must discover ways to communicate with the influential consumer networks, and to persuade them to talk positively about their products.
P & G has a long tradition of innovation and groundbreaking in the manner they've broadcast their messages. They had been the first one to start advertising nationally, in the past in 1880, and have absolutely taken the objective of product placement to another level 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 message inside their 'Vocalpoint' campaign (an extension with their earlier 'Tremor' scheme amongst teenagers). Their 'connectors' were showered with coupons to distribute for their colleagues, and free samples to provoke conversations about P & G products. As Steve Knox, Vocalpoint CEO, recognised, "we know the most important form of marketing is definitely an advocacy message using a trusted friend." With Vocalpoint, P & G are utilising the rule and relevancy of facebook to promote some through interaction and trust. People might not hearken to brands, however will always hear the advice of friends.
The perception that shift was on the horizon had already been identified by their former global marketing officer, Bob Weiliing. Within a 2002 interview, Bob's view was that the Internet might not replace the mass 'push' medium of TV, but instead might be tailored into the individual. A web based environment can be utilized for when there exists personal passion to read more a few service or product. Gaining advice, direction and the latest product news are services not available on simply a 'push' medium. TV is mostly about the mass market message, whereas the internet is flawless for individual relationship building.
Bob's conclusion, on the future of P & G's marketing success, lay in figuring out how you can combine the 2. That they had to keep up the relevancy of many 30 second TV ad, whilst also utilising the extended attention and interaction accessible online. This also meant persuading them warring marketing factions to function together to discover a solution - to find the technophobes talking to the internet evangelists. It is 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 great britan 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 seeing 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 through the FIFA World Cup. An internet site 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 business bloggers. By providing information of interest you develop trust and confidence; consequently, individuals will want to have a relationship together with your brand and you become customers. Their Pampers website builds an affinity possessing audience in the provision of advice and help. As a thoughtful valuable source of young mums, it enriches their association with the manufacturer and can provoke an appealing response the next time journey searching for nappies.
P & G's Homemade Simple website is usually a flagship in online marketing, along with its own TV show 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 should inevitably to join the newsletter, with further promises of free samples, coupons, special offers and sweepstakes all pulling you into their trap of turning into a convert with their products. 'Home Made Simple' creates the perfect buying environment by developing trust, and also the craving to have a relationship with their brand, what the new form of search engine marketing means.
With 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 how you can integrate their strategy across each of the mediums available, instead of depend on the existing one way 'push' bombardment of marketing messages. His crucial point was which they were required to understand how to "let alone" as "the longer 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 focus on building relationships when you are more responsive and receptive to what their audience, the 'boss', wanted.
Jim Stengal opened his speech that has a plea to his fellow marketers to "stop thinking about consumers and initiate considering 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 hearken to what individuals wanted that came from the brand as an alternative telling them just what brand should mean to them. A new level of understanding had the need to be produced on why people should place trust in a relationship P & G's brands as an alternative to simply superficially appealing to their desires (a tactic that has served copywriters for generations).
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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 waiting for the 'web 2.0' bubble to burst. P & G have, for the reason that start of the last decade, been steadily moving using a monolithic, lumbering marketing dinosaur into an on line savvy, feedback focused livewire. By being an early adopter of the new 'trust' focused marketing philosophy, P & G should be in order to solving the puzzle of selling online and maturing their brand's message of the proctor and gamble coupons sceptical consumer.