• Ad Age, Monday, March 26, 2012 10:26 AM

P&G is growing at 4% and meeting its earnings, but there are worrying indicators: when the company raised prices to recover commodity costs, it lost market share across more than half of its business globally last quarter. And while P&G's Old Spice ads drew creative raves in years past, the company's broader array of advertising, according to consumer surveys by Advertising Benchmark Index in January and February, ranked in the middle of the pack or below household and personal-care peers, especially in TV and print. And that's where the company spends most of its money.

There’s more: retailer ratings of P&G have slipped for four straight years in WPP's Kantar (formerly Cannondale Associates) surveys. The Hub magazine shows P&G slipping to fourth in ratings by agencies in shopper-marketing excellence, behind rivals Unilever and Kimberly-Clark Corp; product launch snafus like the six-month delay of Tide Pods and supply issues with Fusion ProGlide razors and Old Spice body wash are examples; P&G's beauty and grooming businesses are dragging on the company's top line. In the past two quarters, it has slipped behind rivals L'Oreal and Unilever in top-line sales growth in personal care and is even further behind luxury and prestige player Estee Lauder.

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