How brand ideals transformed Pampers (1)

The only thing Pampers can improve on is continuing to keep diapers dry. In 1997, I was tasked with revitalizing Pampers' European business and establishing a good relationship with Pampers' North American division. Pampers was P&G's flagship business and its largest source of revenue, but it was in deep trouble at the time. One of the problems it faces is that its business divisions in more than 80 countries or regions around the world are fighting independently. On the one hand, they compete with many brands, especially Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies and Growth Pants. On the other hand, there are actually conflicts between the divisions. A civil war broke out. In order to solve the problem, P&G had to take action on its two largest business units: Pampers European Business Unit and North American Business Unit. At that time, the head of the former was an Austrian, and I was going to take over his position. The North American business department has always been run by an American. Pampers' urgent problems in R&D, design, production and marketing required the cooperation of various business departments around the world. However, the infighting and lack of coordination between the two executives made the entire company difficult. At the time, I had not yet developed a deep understanding of the importance of brand ideals. However, I have countless examples that illustrate that without the support of a lofty ideal, no company can truly dominate. At the same time, a large number of examples tell me that in order to judge whether ideals can guide a company to success, we must reflect on the corporate culture of the company. So I set out to find out what was the secret to Pampers' success in turning things around. Behind the stagnation of business there are often mediocre ideals. I led the team to analyze the reasons why Pampers' development was hindered and explore its recovery potential. First, we focus on the baby’s mother (no matter which market, when choosing diapers, the baby’s father always follows his wife’s decision). We began to trace the origins of the Pampers brand and see its current strengths and weaknesses. When the brand became more and more famous and copycat diapers appeared, Pampers vigorously promoted the advantages of disposable diapers to the first generation of consumers who had just started to try diapers: compared with traditional cloth diapers, one disposable diaper Sex diapers have better absorbency and can keep babies drier and more comfortable. After that, the market gradually matured, but due to excessive emphasis on dryness, Pampers gradually misled consumers into thinking that Pampers only had the advantage of keeping dry. In fact, this is just the first condition for entering this market. During the same period, Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies diapers have also reached a sufficient level of dryness, and they also need to be more fitting, beautiful, high-quality and affordable. Kimberly-Clark is not content with being just a follower. In 1989, Kimberly-Clark launched growth pants with the words "I'm a big kid" printed on the body. This product sold very well after its launch. Since the price and profit margin of growing pants are much higher than ordinary diapers, Kimberly-Clark quickly occupied 90% of the market share and made considerable profits. At the same time, Kimberly-Clark has also received increasing support from large retailers such as Kroger and Wal-Mart due to its good sales and high profits. In contrast, Pampers took five years to launch its growth pants product. The name was actually called "training pants", which was unimaginative. The sales of the product were extremely poor, and after two years of hard work, production was discontinued in 1996. At the same time, Pampers still emphasizes its stay-dry characteristics in research and development, design, production and marketing. Pampers is a vanity fair in which many factions have spawned, competing with each other to protect their respective turfs. Larger representative offices in the host country have their own advertising teams and marketing partners, so product design, marketing strategies and packaging formats are different. On the other hand, companies simply cannot have a unified voice when promoting products and communicating with consumers. Pampers has multiple functional areas but no single appointed head of brand or marketing. What Pampers lacks is precisely a brand artist who can make everyone pursue the same core brand ideals and brand strategy. Although Pampers' functional department heads and regional presidents both believe that the excellent drying experience is Pampers' big selling point, the lack of cooperation between them prevents the advantages from being reflected. Regarding how to publicize, everyone has a mentality of rejecting other people's opinions and believes that only their own is the best solution. The production department, R&D department and marketing department are at odds with each other.

It’s worth every penny spent to achieve them. These changes unite everyone in the company to work hard to bring joy to mothers and babies, and to work with mothers as their babies grow and develop. Recruitment decisions reflect changes in corporate culture from one aspect. Deb, Jane, and the entire Baby Care Products management began recruiting applicants who loved children. To join Pampers, they didn't have to have children, and many of them didn't. Among the new employees were parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and even a pediatric nurse. What binds them together is the brand's ideals and their desire to improve the lives of mothers and babies. In a very short period of time, Pampers' organizational structure has undergone tremendous changes. In the past, even when Pampers diapers were at their peak, the company's entire organizational structure was rigid, chaotic, and loose, with serious divisions between departments. However, with the new brand ideal, Pampers immediately became a energetic, cohesive and happy team, and became a holy place in the minds of the elite talents of P&G. But the work at the organizational level of the company never ends when it comes to turning brand ideals into practical work. Within Pampers, the legacy of the corporate culture of "the machine is the boss" and "if it's not an invention of my department, don't use it" still remains. Whenever and wherever traces of outdated corporate culture show up, company leadership must decisively eliminate them. At the same time, further development of the business value embedded in Pampers' lofty brand ideals required substantial adjustments and sometimes widespread changes. Pampers has made real improvements in company organization. From this, Pampers and the rest of P&G saw how effective the brand ideal was, and how quickly it worked. Corporate employees accepted a new brand ideal and worked enthusiastically to develop products and services that would help realize the brand ideal. In this way, the entire company was reborn and was bound to change the world for the second time. Jim Stengel served as Procter & Gamble's global chief marketing officer from 2001 to 2008, leading P&G's various brands to re-establish high-level brand ideals. This article is excerpted from his book "Growth Power", published by Machinery Industry Press.