In our P&G Dish Care business a new strategy was needed as competition was becoming fiercer. We were setting on a journey to explore how might we crystalise our value proposition to find new and emotive ways to capture the hearts (and wallets) of the world’s dish cleaning consumers. P&G Brands Tide, Fairy, Cascade, Jar and Joy.
The Mission
To create simplicity across 11 winning Dish cleaning brands by identifying foundational global elements of the brand building framework; prime prospect descriptions, common equity territories, brand purpose, category architecture and executional equities whilst still cherishing regional brand strengths.
Secondarily gain credibility for the newly formed global innovation team with the regions by demonstrating capability in brand building.
Thirdly energize the global category community behind a global vision for our brands.
All in 8 weeks.
The Results:
Created a single global brand purpose statement for all of our brands. To help drive more commonalities and subsequent scale, we created a category purpose - that would ensure that marketing efforts in all regions were inspired by the same fundamental purpose to prevent divergence.
Inspired and orientated the organization to the functional, emotional and social jobs to be done of the prime prospects. We created consumer stories, building empathy, producing immersive content packed with insights into each target and even put together real-life kitchens together to allow marketers to feel they were in the consumer’s home.
Consolidated 17 regional equity pyramids into a single global equity platform. To enable global initiative development, we analyzed the regional equities and identified common themes so that common equities could be defined.
Created a category architecture and common executional equities. We integrated the consumer segmentation and equity platform thinking into a single global category architecture that will allow us to arrange our brand and introduce new variants in a consistent way.
Deployed content to the multifunctional category leadership team and to regional General Managers. These strategies delivered higher equity scores and enabled our brands to be the fastest growing in the P&G portfolio for four years consecutively. It demonstrated to the business and company a new way of working - having a highly performing franchise team which was roled out to other categories subsequently.
The Approach:
There were five key factors that created the conditions for the team to deliver such a large amount of work in a short time.
Human centered. We kept our target profile consumers at the heart of all of our work so we could always relate to them. This proved an amazing tool to keep our north star focus.
A short deadline and a clear map of work to be done. Usually creating Who descriptions, an equity statement, a brand purpose and brand architecture would represent a year’s work (and subsequent budget!) By setting a crisis-style timeline we were forced to really concentrate the period of work, consultation and efficient use of funding. The team defined a series of goals and aimed to achieve one important goal per meeting.
Visualise over verbalise. We quickly created prototypes and offered suggestions on impact of strategy – this enabled easy testing with users and the organization so the decision maker was better informed.
People coming together to create, to do the work together in mini design sprints, rather than going away to do the work. The team meetings were all working sessions with each team member bringing their unique experience, skills and magic to the task at hand. There was almost no email exchange necessary between meetings as each task was completed during the meeting. Long (3-5 hours), face-to-face, offsite meetings every 10-14 days, in a common design space that was filled with our work so far.
Structured objectives but a fluid working process. Each meeting started with a review of where we stood in the process, our Kanban, and the objective for the meeting ahead, but there was no mandatory process to follow – the atmosphere was kept creative and fluid.
The Philosophy:
As the process unfolded, a distinct team philosophy emerged:
1. People are more efficient than technology (face to face sprints) – a discussion works better than long email chains.
2. Leverage experience, but don’t get hung up about who is ‘allowed’ to do what work. Functional boundaries blurred and the team worked on where their passion was.
3. Fast prototyping strategies helped us work ideas to be stronger: testing and iterating frequently.
4. Be open to external input, but don’t be a slave to it or wait around for it.
5. Treasure what you have, but dream of what can be accomplished - we intentionally respected the legacy yet sought an inspiring common ground.
6. Using a single Approver to make the decisions or help with road blocks.
Olivier Houpert, Vice-President R&D Home Care, P&G said; “The work on Brand Purpose was also foundational in many ways: Having this inspiring Purpose was like a rallying cry for the entire organisation who suddenly saw meaning beyond just the business metrics to come to work and make a meaningful difference to the world. It had been used internally to create the right culture, attract the best talents and create an innovation program that delivered on the emotional, social and functional jobs to be done.
The Dish consumer segmentation work proved extremely valuable to the R&D team. It helped identify and personify the WHO and design products and packages that would perfectly match the consumer profile. The best example of this is the Hand Dish "hand renewal" innovation: in just a couple of years, Hand Renewal grew to an estimated 300MM$ in sales globally.
All of this strategy work is still being used today and continues to set Dish Care apart from other organizations.”
