So I wasn't surprised to see a company like P&G talking about the importance of the in-store experience. I would guess that they've seen some impact because of store brands and this is one way to fight back. In my personal experience, one key difference between name and store brands is the package. When you start to look at how well Target has done redesigning their packaging and you can see the challenge a brand like P&G faces.
The article talks at length about design thinking and several ways P&G is using design:
- CREATING NEW FRANCHISES AMONG BRANDS
- TO EXPAND BRANDS AND BUSINESS MODELS
- TO TURN AROUND BRANDS
- TO SOLVE BUSINESS PROBLEMS
One thing that I thought was a key takeaway is that P&G is using design to drive business objectives. It's not just about making the package prettier on the shelves, this change is helping them drive business.
As I said on my 2010 predictions: Given how crowded the retail world is today, and given the number of brands reaching out to consumers, the ability to touch and engage consumers in a place where you control the entire message has incredible value. Instead of viewing your retail presence as a necessary evil, you should be using it to create a better connection with your audience.
As in-store marketing grows in importance and marketers focus more at winning over consumers at the shelf, one discipline is seeing its star rise: design.No less a giant than Procter & Gamble Co. has incorporated design into its comprehensive brand-building function under the group headed by Global Brand-Building Officer Marc Pritchard. After initially carving design shops out of its new "Brand Agency Leader" model for managing and paying marketing-services shops, P&G now increasingly includes them in the system, in which lead creative agencies essentially function as general contractors over other marketing services shops.
The growing importance of the store has been central to Mr. Pritchard's "store back" concept, in which all marketing ideas need to prove their mettle by whether they work at the shelf. And bringing design into the brand-building organization is a key part of implementing that strategy.
A study last year by Nielsen Co.'s Bases unit found in-store marketing clearly beats TV as the leading medium creating awareness of new package goods in the U.S. and five other key developed markets. About half of consumers in Bases' survey cited in-store as their source of awareness of new products, vs. only a third citing TV. Peel the onion further, and it turns out of that half of consumers who became aware of products for the first time in store, 71% became aware simply by seeing them on the shelf. And what drives that shelf awareness is the package. (Emphasis mine)
Branding: P&G Pushes Design in Brand-Building Strategy - Advertising Age - News.