1. Marketing Case
Study on
Procter & Gamble
Team Members
Muhotasim Ismam-38065 Abul Kashem- 38017
Rahbar Haque-36024 Sadia Rezvi-37010
Nazmun Nahar-38036
2. About P&G
Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) is an American multi-national consumer
goods corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio,
founded in 1837 by British American William Procter and Irish
American James Gamble. It primarily specializes in a wide range
of cleaning agents and personal care and hygiene products. The Procter
& Gamble Company is among the dominant firms in the global
consumer goods market. P&G is made of many individual brands, each
serving customers in different ways—but all with a focus on making
peoples’ lives a little easier.
3. How P&G Operates!
P&G operates on several principles:
Continuously studying their customers need and want.
Choosing opportunities carefully and turning them into strength.
Spend on R&D to innovate customer friendly product to ensure customer benefits.
Never compromising with product quality.
They reserve most of the shelf space to keep its competitors away.
Downsizing products of different sizes, flavours and shapes to cut cost.
Spending huge amount on advertisement.
Believe in low pricing rather than sales promotions.
Toughness for its competitors.
Different brand manager for every brand.
4. Brands and Products of P&G
• Dishwashing(Dawn dishwashing liquid, Ivory dishwashing liquid)
• Menstrual hygiene(Whisper menstrual hygiene products)
• Hair care (Head & Shoulders shampoo)
• Healthcare products(Vicks cough and cold products)
• Household(Tide detergents, Puffs tissues)
• Laundry detergents(Ariel laundry detergents, Tide detergents)
• Skin care(Olay skin care products, Perla bar soap)
7. Key success factors for P&G:
Societal marketing concept:
Brand name:
Customer
needs and
wants
Company
profit
Social
welfare
Brand
Extension
8. Quality products:
Innovative products through research and development:
Quality
materials
Efficient
productio
n process
High
quality
product
Innovative
products
Research
customer
needs and
market
Continuous
development
of products
9. Create right demand:
Cause related marketing:
Through continuous
research they bring
out the right product
for customers and
create need
P&G always support cause related
marketing. In fact its one of the main
factors of its success
10. Do proto-cycling with top leaders:
Develop project management skills:
Do a survey
on people
Immediately
start working
on it
Constantly
review the
product to
cope with the
changing
market.
Launch an
updated
product on
market.
Idea
generate
Develop
the idea
AnalyzeImplement
Evaluate
11. Pricing: know the value of their products:
Build strong customer relationship:
P&G believe in value based pricing. They ask for the
value they provide to their customers.
12. 1.Dependence on developed
markets(Poor Market Segmentation):
P&G gets nearly 45 percent of its revenue from
North America and almost 23 percent from
Europe. Nearly 65 percent of its total revenue
is from developed markets. In contrast, rival
Unilever is the complete opposite, with almost
58 percent of its income coming from
emerging markets, and 43 percent coming
from developed markets. That is P&G's most
significant problem: it is concentrated in the
slow-growth markets.
13. 2. Pricing Strategy Largely Geared
Towards the Premium Segment:
It's not just weaker overall demand that’s
hurting P&G's sales. Some of the company's
top-selling beauty products are priced at a
premium when compared to competitors. Amid
a sluggish economy, an increasing number of
consumers have been turning away from such
expensive items toward lower-priced,
accessible products. Unilever's value-for-money
approach has helped it not just win over
customers in emerging markets, but is also
helping it win over developed markets as well
14. 3. Imitable products, Limited Online Marketing and Less Business
Diversification :
One of Procter & Gamble’s main weaknesses is the imitable nature of its products. This weakness is
typical in the consumer goods market, where products from different companies have considerable
similarities. Having imitable products is a weakness because it makes Procter & Gamble susceptible to
imitation, which could reduce market share.
Limited online presence is another weakness of the company. Retail companies and manufacturers are
continuously increasing their online operations. For example, many small and large consumer goods firms
are using their respective e-commerce websites to sell products online. However, Procter & Gamble’s e-
commerce website, the P&G Shop, has limited presence that operates mainly in the United States. This
condition limits the benefits that the company gets from the global online market. Thus, improving
online presence can enhance Procter & Gamble’s marketing mix while boosting competitive advantage.
The limited degree of diversification refers to the company’s operations primarily in the consumer goods
industry. This condition makes Procter & Gamble highly dependent on the consumer goods market. As a
result, such limited diversification is a weakness that maximizes the company’s exposure to market risks.
In this element of the analysis of Procter & Gamble, strategic reform for e-commerce, product
development, and business diversification are emphasized.
15. 4.No Growth & Overvalued stock:
Procter & Gamble is projected to have
minimal revenue growth over the next
three years, with revenue rising from
$67.15 billion in 2018 to $71.76 billion
in 2020. The company needs to find a
way to drive more growth to get its
stock rising again . The stock isn't
cheap, The stock price is plagued with
no growth and is overvalued, which is
a recipe for being stuck in stagnation.
16. 5.Dividend Growth Is Slowing:
Over the past five years, P&G has averaged
just 4% dividend growth annually. P&G’s last
two dividend hikes were particularly paltry,
as the payout went up by just 3 and 8 cents
respectively.
Needless to say, if they pay you 2.76/share
now, and only bump it by 5 cents next year, it
hardly moves the needle. Your yield would
only move from 3.0% to 3.1% – still barely
ahead of risk-free bonds.
17. Watch-Out: Future Possible Threats
• Global and local competition
Competitors like Unilever, Nestle are constantly creating rivalries in the local and global market by
acquisition of more available brands in the market which drastically reduced the US sales of P&G during
the span of 2001-2015.
• Trade barriers in some countries
Trade barriers are a threat that can limit Procter & Gamble’s global growth. Such threat is significant in some countries with
protectionist trade policies that restrict imports, or in countries that have questionable policies on the operations of foreign
firms.
18. Imitation or counterfeiting of products:
• Imitation or counterfeiting is a considerable threat against P&G. For
example, small local firms can develop products that are highly similar
to Procter & Gamble’s products.
• This threat is based on the imitable
nature of consumer goods, which is one
of the major threats of P&G
Watch-Out: Future Possible Threats
19. Revolution of Online Marketing
• Online shopping portals like Amazon, Alibaba, eBay etc. are becoming more and more popular and they are
changing the way consumers purchase products and engage with brands.
• Customer is selecting whichever is cheapest at the time – driving loyalty to Amazon in place of the FMCG brand.
So, FMCG companies can’t rely on others within the supply chain to do this for them – they need to have their
own plan.
• Facebook, Instagram and other social platforms are rapidly replacing the TV or other forms of advertisements.
• Target consumers and their demands
Understanding consumer needs has always been at the heart of P&G. However, there could be a difference in
categorization for consumer needs in relation to the different ways of exploring and understanding them. It is
therefore important to identify the target audience and understand its demands and needs for digital marketing,
products and services.
“Consumers today don’t tell us what they want – the challenge is to know what they want. We have limited ways
of accessing that information nowadays”
Watch-Out: Future Possible Threats
20. Limited Online Marketing Opportunities
• Procter & Gamble’s e-commerce website, the P&G Shop, has limited presence
that operates mainly in the United States. This condition limits the benefits that
the company gets from the global online market. Thus, improving online
presence can enhance Procter & Gamble’s marketing mix or 4Ps, while boosting
competitive advantage.
In this Case, P&G will face threats in the future as other renowned groups has already established
global shopping opportunities by putting emphasis on their Product, Price, Place & Promotions.
Watch-Out: Future Possible Threats
21. Watch-Out: Future Possible Threats
• Sustainable Development: P&G is far
behind than other FMCGs
• There’s no alternative to sustainable development.
Fight to save the planet has turned into a battle between governments and
companies, between companies and consumer activists, and sometimes
between consumer activists and governments. It resembles a three-legged
race, in which you move forward with the two untied legs but the tied
third leg holds you back.
• While Procter & Gamble (P&G) is offering to save lives by giving clean
drinking water to the millions who have no access to clean water,
Unilever is focusing on saving water and hygiene.
Like P&G, it is claiming to bring clean drinking water to 500m people by
2020, mainly through its Pure it water purification system, and
improved hygiene to a billion people globally, through partnerships with
UNICEF and the World Toilet Organization which made tremendous
progress and impacted their overall performance hugely
Thus Unilever & other FMCGs have surpassed P&G by a huge distance
which should be covered in the future.
22. Watch out: Negative Impact of Social Media
• A Mexican mother claimed her baby died after applying Vicks Action 500 Extra on Nov 26, 2016.
• “After WHO’s declarations, like US Govt. Government of India has prohibited the manufacture for sale, sale and
distribution of fixed dose combination drugs (Paracetamol + Phenylephrine + Caffeine) with immediate effect’’
• Forcefully P&G released statement: “Our product ‘Vicks Action 500 Extra’ has the same fixed dose combination &
We have discontinued the manufacture and sale of ‘Vicks Action 500 Extra with immediate effect.”
• It Generated sales of Rs. 176 crore in the nine-month period ended on Dec 31, 2016.
• P&G lost 1.7% Market Share in the healthcare sector.
• P&G also suffered a significant drop of EPS due to this which was proven as a hoax later.
23. Recommendations
Business diversification to reduce risks
• The limited degree of diversification refers to the company’s
operations primarily in the consumer goods industry. This
condition makes Procter & Gamble highly dependent on the
consumer goods market.
• They must try to expand their businesses to diversify the risks
and strengthen their position in the market.
• To establish a new product is not always easy. So, they
should only go after any prospect after proper business and
market analysis to avoid risks as they have previously faced.
To be efficient strategic approach will help them conquer
success.
24. Recommendations
Fresh Market Segmentation and Target Marketing
• P&G mainly operates in the North American region. So, most of
their products fall under the premium segment. Whereas
companies like Unilever has overall better segmentation where
the not only target the wealthy portion of the society but also
offers products at different categories and price points.
• Have to cater to a larger scale of consumers from different
parts of the world(for example: South East Asia).
• P&G should build up a new segmentation skim to capture
variety of markets all over the world, and to be competitive will
have to offer products affordable and attractive to these set of
consumers.
• They can target specific markets and offer products to them
suitable in every aspect.
25. Recommendations:
Product innovation for competitiveness
• Innovation is critical to P&G's business since it needs to constantly update
existing brands (new and improved) while launching the occasional game-
changing product (e.g., Febreze, Swiffer) to stay ahead of rivals. "Innovation
has always been, and continues to be, P&G's lifeblood."
• The company has struggled in this area recently. Sure, products like Pampers
Swaddlers diapers, Gillette Fusion razors, and Tide Pods detergent are doing
well.
• P&G hasn't introduced a new hit brand worth over $1 billion in annual sales in
more than a decade.
• By contrast, Johnson & Johnson is on an innovative roll lately. The healthcare
titan got one-quarter of its sales last year from products that it introduced in
just the past five years, which is a testament to an innovation strategy that's
backed by $9 billion of annual spending on research and development up 10%
since 2013.
• Procter & Gamble's R&D commitment that has held steady at $2 billion in each
of the last three years, that’s not overwhelming.
26. Recommendations
Online presence development
• Online marketing is the way to go lately. Online display, purchase
and delivery system is very easy and effective on recent times.
• But P&G is slightly lagging from its competitors in this regard.
• If they pronounce their online presence more louder then they can
surely be benefited.
• Their R&D team can come up with ideas to strengthen their E-
marketing mechanism. E-commerce operations will exploit online
market growth.
• They can include these services to lure more customers:
Online Display & Shopping option
Home Delivery
E-payment
A Decorative Website with More Product Info.
27. Recommendations
More Compact Pricing Setup
• To correct the slide in market share, the pricing issue is
something that P&G will have to fix in the long run.
• Considering that the company operates at margins well above
Unilever's, there is little reason why the company should
continue to lose out on customers just because of an
unwillingness to compete more on prices.
• Prices should not be set keeping only premium segment in
mind.
• Pricing should be neck to neck with competitors.
• Will have to offer products at numerous price points.
• Pricing must not discourage customers and result them in
changing their opinion.
28. Summary
Despite its profitable and strong market position, the Procter & Gamble
Company must develop measures to overcome its weaknesses and
address external threats. Competitive rivalry is the most significant of
these threats. On the other hand, limited online presence and limited
business diversification are the most significant weaknesses of Procter
& Gamble. Given these factors, the company must strengthen its
competitive advantage and business capabilities in the consumer goods
market to stay competitive. To achieve these goals, changing their
current marketing strategy is of utmost importance.