• Brandweek, Tuesday, May 16, 2006 11:30 AM

Procter & Gamble without Ivory soap? Say it ain't so! Well, it might be, if company CEO A.G. Lafley keeps eliminating brands as part of a new strategy to focus on essential categories. "We are going to sort through our smaller brands," Lafley told investors last week. "We are going to divest the ones that don't have a strategic role or cannot deliver strategic growth or financial performance." Analysts say Ivory soap, which traces its P&G roots back to 1879, is among the prime product candidates to be cut. "There are no sentimental attachments to any of the brands at P&G," said management consultant Brian Hankin, adding that the consumer products giant has already jettisoned famous mainstays such as Jif, Prell and Comet. Ivory, which has bar soaps, detergents and dishwashing liquids, is being outperformed by its sister P&G brands such as Dial, the top-selling bar soap, Tide detergent, a billion-dollar seller, and sibling Dawn dishwashing-liquid, a category leader. "Either you are a mega-brand or you show you can get there," said Kevin O'Donnell, a partner at Prophet, San Francisco, a branding consultancy firm. "If you can't, [P&G] isn't likely to keep you around." In 2005, P&G spent only $2 million on media to support Ivory soap, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus, and barely $100,000 on Ivory dishwashing liquid. By comparison, it spent more than $54 million on media for Dawn in each of the last two years.

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