P&G is Ready to Co-Innovate on Digital

" Recent news that P&G plans to cut $1 billion from its annual marketing budget by 2016 quite understandably shook up the marketing world, especially because the company indicated it would be cutting back on its traditional strong advertising presence in pricey broadcast television. P&G's global brand building officer Marc Pritchard and CEO Bob McDonald have identified digital as an area where they would attempt to more than make up for marketing-budget cuts by being much more effective."

It will be interesting to see how this unfolds for P&G in the next few years, as traditionally Consumer packaged goods companies and digital media are not an easy mix. CPG companies tend to focus on reaching a mass audience whereas digital marketing focuses on finding niche target market to promote products. In addition, CPG companies have defined excellent ways of measuring marketing effectiveness and sales. However, it will be hard to measure the direct link between digital marketing and sale of goods as these products are commonly not bought online

However, I feel that it can be an opportunity for the company. Traditionally, CPG companies have broadcasted to their consumers and there was no easy for consumer to provide their insights and thoughts. The word of mouth about the products was traditionally limited to people’s friends and family circle. Digital marketing especially social media gives a way to the customers to engage in an ongoing dialogue and spread their thoughts and review beyond geographical boundaries. By using digital marketing strategy companies can listen to consumers and respond to their needs. Instead of finding another way of advertising companies can invest some resources to renew their digital marketing strategy and create new bonds with the consumer.

I strongly feel that this strategy of investing efforts in digital marketing will definitely result in cost savings and add to the competitive advantage of the company.

 

Read the P&G Article on  its push towards digital marketing by clicking on the link: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/PG-Digital-031612.aspx