P&G: The Main Course

If there’s one thing I picked up from my full day at P&G it’s that from minute one of your tenure with them, you can make a huge impact on the company.

We met one Assistant Brand Manager who took $300,000, rolled out an extension of Febreze called “Febreze Sport” and generated over $7 million in revenue. And yeah, this was his first year.

In the process of creating ads for the product, he also got to meet Cincinnati Bengals stars Dhani Jones and Chad Ochocinco. Apparently, Mr. Ochocinco is much more down to earth than he lets on!

All in all we met at least 7 Kelley grads during our day here. P&G taught us boatloads about how to reach out to the consumer and understand him/her better.

How do you connect on a more personal level with a consumer when you are conducting research on seemingly “mundane” product like facial tissue?

How difficult is it to create an advertisement that not only is funny and engaging, but is effective in conveying the key message or product attribute that you want consumers to recognize?

So, how can an advertising campaign for Gain laundry detergent effectively promote its broader array of detergent scents? Apple Mango Tango anyone?

While the company has performance metric after performance metric that a product must excel in during testing, it is the brand managers and the consumer insight specialists that drive the growth of a product.

During our lunch break, we kind of had an extension of last night’s happy hour. 7 or 8 of us were paired with a P&G Kelley alum – who gave us more insight to the company and walked us around the office complex.

And the paper towels they use in the bathrooms are the most comfortable I’ve ever felt on my hand. First thing I’m doing when I have an income again – is ditching the generic paper towels I have at my apartment.

All of us walked away from our day at P&G with some understanding as to how it works to meet the goal of knowing its customers.

Mike Hardman