CINCINNATI – The marketing chief for Procter & Gamble Co., America’s leading advertiser, said it is critical to understand people’s daily lives and how products figure into them. At an advertising trade conference this year, Jim Stengel called for a “mind-set shift that will make us relevant to today’s consumers; a mind-set shift from ‘telling and selling’ to building relationships.”
Stengel focused on “immersion,” a technique in which marketers spend hours at a time visiting, shopping, and talking with people for the Cincinnati-based consumer products company that spends nearly $7 billion a year on global advertising.
“We need to think beyond consuming ... and to really directly understand the role and the meaning the brand has in their lives,” Stengel told the Associated Press in an interview. “If you’re always asking that question, ‘How can I be more relevant, how can I have a deeper meaning, how can I build this relationship between brand and consumer to a higher level’ your marketing gets better, you innovate.”
Other companies are also focusing on relating to real lives rather than advertising glitz. “Considering that women are getting thousands of media messages a day, it’s just smart marketing,” said Delia Passi, a consultant and author who specializes in marketing to women. “They’re thinking about a woman’s life.”
Passi told the Associated Press she sees results of that thinking in such consumer products as Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s Kleenex, which has been adding decorative boxes and such features as nose-soothing aloe vera. “Suddenly, the tissue is not just a tissue,” she said.
Stengel cites Tide as a brand that keeps responding to consumer interests, adding fragrances, fabric softener, and even offering energy savings and environmental appeal with a cold-water version and plans for a concentrated form in smaller containers.
“Marketers are rightfully very interested in engaging consumers and creating a dialogue,” said Edward Landry, a vice president at the management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which helped produce a book released this month on leading marketing executives.