What's the News For Proctor & Gamble?

What's the News For Proctor  & Gamble?

AdAge’s take: According to an article in "Advertising Age," P&G might be losing their edge.

They have been experiencing market share loss from raised prices due to higher commodity costs.

They have also been experiencing decreased ad effectiveness despite having the popular Old Spice ads last year and despite spending most media dollars in TV and print.

            They have had decreased retailer ratings over the past four years in the WPP’s Kantar surveys.

            They are having “go-to-market” issues consisting of problems with full delivery of product launches. The release of Tide Pods was delayed six months and supply issues plagued both Fusion ProGlide razors and Old Spice body wash.

            P&G’s beauty and grooming products aren’t quite matching up in the last two quarters against rivals L’Oreal and Unilever despite acquiring Clairol and Wella for $80 billion in the last decade.

So what are they doing?

Going digital of course!

However there are a few problems with that-

1.     It is unproven and therefore experimental.

2.    Most of these items are low-involvement, low-risk, routine purchases. Digital lends for interaction. How many people are really going to go online and research their mouthwash, deodorant, shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc?

3.    This still doesn’t give an edge if competitors such as Unilever, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder and others are also building their digital presence specifically with Google and Facebook

What do you think? Is P&G going downhill? Are they safe? What changes do they have to make if any to stay competitive?