P&G to Build Brands with Packaging and Design Focus

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April 13, 2010

CPG companies such as Procter & Gamble want to attract customers at the shelf and win sales over store brands and other competitors, and they plan to do it by strategically focusing on packaging and design.

Packaging and design is now a core function in brand building directed by Global Brand-Building Officer Marc Pritchard, whose “store back" strategy requires marketing ideas to prove themselves on the shelf to pass muster, according to an Ad Age report.

A focus on in-store marketing is supported by recent consumer research by Bases, a Nielsen company, which found in-store marketing beats television as the leading medium to build brand awareness for new products in the U.S. and five other important markets.

"We now are brand-building from the eyes of the consumer toward us," P&G Global Design Officer Phil Duncan told Ad Age. "We've always believed the consumer should be boss, but we had an organization that was a little function-specific. ... By coming together as a real multifunctional team, I think we're already seeing bigger and better ideas."

New designs and product initiatives undertaken by the new design and brand-building organization, in place for less than a year, have not appeared yet on store shelves, but will shortly.

The new Febreze Home Collection (see photo above) is an example of the type of designs and seamless marketing alignment the new team will produce, Duncan told Ad Age, adding that designers spent time with consumer in their homes and in stores to understand their needs. Since launching the line last year, P&G has gained two share points in the air freshener category, according to the report.

Design has become more critical to CPG companies because many influential retailers have instituted clean store policies restricting point-of-purchase advertising and displays, and are focused on eco-friendliness, meaning packages need to be smaller and use fewer materials. Duncan supports the clean-store initiative because "the pendulum had swung too far to everyone trying to break through, which meant nothing breaks through."

Design thinking and rethinking is now an important tool used at P&G to solve product problems, according to Duncan, who views design as a means to break new marketing ground and bolster efficiency.

Part of the plan is to reduce by 30 to 40 percent the number of color palettes used by P&G products and incorporate “electronic inks” and other “digital and packaging technologies.”

"You always have to be looking at frontiers of innovation for ideas," he said. "It's kind of like haute-couture fashion. It's eventually going to come in. You may not recognize it in the same form, but it's going to be there."

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