Sunday, October 24, 2010

Marketing Tide the P&G way!

My favorite marketing case study:

Problem:
You work in marketing at Procter & Gamble, and your job is to sell 10 per cent more Tide detergent this year.

You have all the tools of marketing at your disposal (the four Ps: product, place, price, promotion), and can do anything you want in order to sell 10 per cent more - but you shouldn't break the bank to do it.

What do you do?

Solution:
See the bottom of this blog post.

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I pull out this case study at the beginning of every new advertising class or seminar I teach.

I love it because it's so simple, and - even better - it's true! This was my former boss's cross to bear when he worked as vice-president of Procter & Gamble (that was before he fell on hard times and had to work with me!).

It also underscores the point made my Bill Hicks in this classic stand-up comedy bit: marketers never met a dollar they didn't like, and are so focused on their quest to make more and more, they're not necessarily concerned with what you or I have to say about it:



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What P&G did

My former boss was successful in his bid to sell 10 per cent more Tide that year, and quite possibly not a single consumer was aware that he did it.

What he did was simplicity at its finest: he increased the size of the scoop in the box by 10 per cent.

Genius or "Satan's little helper?" You decide!

6 comments:

  1. You say "Satan's little helper" like it's a bad thing.

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  2. I never heard this story. But, when you explained the problem, I knew it had to be something very simple and excellent. I laughed heartily when I read what they did, because it's so genius. And evil. But mostly genius.

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  3. Sorry to rain on everyone's parade, but ... As the person who pays for the laundry detergent in our household, I don't find it funny.

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  4. GENIUS! I love this marketing example!

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  5. Love it! So simple, but if all consumers knew this, they'd probably sabotage Tide. What they don't know won't hurt them, and in return puts more money in P&G's pocket. Genius!

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