Procter & Gamble’s legendary brand building approach (full disclosure: I was an Assistant Brand Manager on Max Factor and Vidal Sassoon at P&G in the late Nineties in London) is now evolving to meet the needs of new generations of consumers in what is being called "Brand 2030," which ensures each brand has a "Brand Ambition" (in other words a "Brand Purpose").
Their relentlessly disciplined consumer-centric approach revealed that new expectations from consumers around brands doing good required a new approach. As such, P&G decided to approach the topic in its own structured and methodical way: in typical P&G fashion, the company has ensured that Purpose isn’t treated as a buzzword but instead is articulated in a clear way, with specific measurable commitments and goals that must be met. I caught up with Procter & Gamble Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard who talked about how the articulation of purpose at P&G has changed over time, its Brand 2030 commitments, and how crucial this approach is in becoming "a force for good and a force for growth." (Click here for Part One of the interview that covers P&G's work around diversity and inclusion).
“We had a purpose for many years 'to touch and improve the lives of the world's consumers.' If you're not careful though, purpose can become disconnected from the business and it can become (for lack of a better word) 'distant' or 'fluffy.' Purpose can become very broad and not specific. We make a promise and then we keep our promises, and that's what the Brand 2030 goals are about where we're making promises that are grounded in good science and a solid plan,” said Pritchard. (Brand 2030 is also linked to another initiative, Ambition 2030 which outlines all the sustainability goals the company is setting itself.)
Pritchard expanded on how the company was reframing its purpose. “The 'end line,' so to speak, that we have used over the years has been that our purpose is 'to touch and improve lives, now and for generations to come'. What we have recently been talking more about trying to be both 'a force for good and a force for growth.' And by the way, it also is a force for growth because consumers expect more and more from companies today. Nine out of 10 people say they have a more positive image of a company when it supports social or environmental causes, and half say they make purchase decisions based on shared beliefs with the brand. And we have evidence from multiple brands, that those that are not only delivering superior performing products and packaging and advertising campaigns but are also doing good–they tend to grow more. And so it's good for business and it's good for the world.”
This purpose then also fuels the ‘how’ and the 'where'–which initiatives and which territories the company chooses to focus on. “The ‘how’ we do that is ‘we touch the lives of consumers and improve their lives based on products of superior quality and value that are also good for the communities and the world in which we live’. That's an important set of words because it's crucial that we identify those areas where we can do good. We call them 'citizenship areas' around community impact, diversity and inclusion, gender equality (where we really called it out because we felt that that was an important area given the consumer base that we have) and build it in such a way that it actually drives growth. Because when you do that, then it's sustainable. If you're just a force for good, but no growth, that's philanthropy, which is great but it's just not a business model that's going to work. If you're just a force for growth and you're not worried about being good, then, unfortunately, consumers are going to see that as the kind of company that's not consistent with their beliefs. So that's why we have to do both.”
Pritchard also explained how each brand in the portfolio could then interpret these areas to link it to their own particular consumer demographic and category imperatives. “Each brand then does need to specifically identify what is their particular role, what can they do? Always focuses on providing confidence for women of all ages and they can do that through feminine protection products of superior value. And then they also are now looking at how they are building confidence through things like 'Like A Girl' and helping young women, who believe it or not up to 20%, even in developed markets can't afford adequate feminine protection. So they have a program called End Period Poverty. So just by buying an Always product, we will give away a pad so to help those young women, who can't afford protection, to stay in school.
Part of this journey involves liberating the brand to find its own truths and insights. “We don't force it. It’s really up to the brand to figure that out; it's actually one of the things that we always advise brands both internally and externally, which is choose something that's going to make sense for your brand. Because if it's not authentic and organic to the brand, consumers will reject it. For instance, Head and Shoulders is a great one, where we're taking recycled beach plastic and creating bottles with that recycled beach plastic that's creating more, more awareness of the beach plastic problem in the world.” Another hair care brand, Herbal Essences has also done interesting work in creating an inclusive bottle design, working with designer Sam Latif and similar initiatives have also been announced by Ariel, Pampers and others.
The brand-specific approach is complemented by P&G’s corporate social impact initiatives. “So when it comes to social causes it's actually part of the company's purpose statement–‘making sure that the communities in which we live and work are flourishing.’ It could be something as simple as our company sponsorship of United Way around the world or the Children's Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) initiative, which is probably our biggest company effort. That's not a brand. It's actually the P&G water purifier packets that we just chose to get into ensuring that we provide clean drinking water to those who don't have it which was at the time a billion people.” The P&G water purification technology quickly turns 10 liters of dirty, potentially deadly water into clean and drinkable water, and was invented by P&G laundry scientists who were originally trying to separate dirt from used laundry water.
Finally, Pritchard also speaks to the important work P&G is doing to create new ethical standards in digital media (P&G spent $7.1 billion on advertising last fiscal year).“What we kept finding was we were investing more and more and we were getting less and less. So we called for really just some basic standards around viewability, audience verification, anti-fraud and brand safety. Transparency 2.0 is now focused on creating a 'clean media supply chain.' We need to now get control over content. It's no longer okay to have horrific content on any platform. The platforms are doing a lot and I think we need to give them appropriate credit and encouragement to keep going–but they need to keep going. The other thing we need them to do is get some semblance of civility on editorial comments and to not allow a lot of our conversations to be hijacked, or for hate and other kinds of messages to get through. We also want to see common privacy standards so people know what they're getting when it comes to engaging and just common sense, simple standards. And then finally we want to ensure that we have cross-platform transparency so we're not annoying people and wasting money. So that's the next generation of transparency that we're calling for. We will focus on those media suppliers and companies that meet these standards. We'll make them the preferred providers. It's important. We as a company (and me in the position that I'm in as the Chief Brand Officer of one of the world's largest advertisers), we can use our voices in advertising as a force for good.”
