This is a link to an article from a 'Cool News of The Day' daily email newsletter I subscribe to from reveries.com
It is pretty clear about describing how P&G are succeeding in marketing to households by inspiring rather than telling.
Amongst many interesting comments from Jim Stengel, P&G's CMO, are these;
“Businesses and brands that are breaking records are those that inspire trust and affection and loyalty by being authentic, by not being arrogant, and by being empathetic to those they serve.” He says the key for P&G was moving away from its traditional focus on “functional benefits” and concentrating instead on being “inspirational.”
The article refers to a fuller interview with Jim Stengel in Fortune Magazine.
I think there's lots to learn here. It's notable that such a big influence on the current conventional wisdom in marketing has found that authenticity and trust play a powerful role in the present and future of fmcg marketing.
This is significant news for all fmcg marketers, and a big encouragement to all who have faith in leadership, innovation and inspiration as drivers to success in marketing fmcg or any brands.
What it also does, is signpost a real change in things - this could be a tipping point in the way many choose to market in fmcg and beyond from now on - we may see a growing wave of adoption of newer, more inspiration led ways. Consumers often play back to us how boring and cliched most advertising is, we know we are in the attraction, engagement and 'generate talkability' game, we know too that 'interactive friction' (as leading exponents in cultural phenomenon creation Crispin, Porter and Bogusky put it), is a great route to deep cultural contact and greater share of consumer everything (voice, mind, word of mouth, word of mouse), but perhaps it takes the likes of a P&G to proactively shift their step, for the world to see this as a significant threshold event.
Unilever, with Dove and Lynx are successful players in the cultural phenonemon creation business, with less emphasis on functionality for either of these brands for a some time now (can you remember when Lynx had a pseudo-science bit? or Dove? no neither can I). It will be interesting to see which brands see this shift and respond, and I wonder which ones will stay stuck in the conventions of product-centric marketing. The risk of being swept into the less interesting for consumers margins as being outmoded and out of touch with a world that looks to brands to be things to be inspired by, believe in and trust, is getting arguably larger.
How we react to this for the brands we work for is a big issue. It's an exciting issue too. How do we link test for inspiration? How do we promote and quantify authenticity and imagination? What metrics do we put in place to measure, "the extent to which I will interact with this and resonate brand love to everyone I know in my social network"?
More on this I'm sure to come soon. It seems that a desire to give inspiration and build trust makes for greater brand loyalty, and what has previously been considered to be a lower priority, emotional nice to have for long term brand equity, has proven to be, for P&G at least, a must do winning strategy.
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