P&G Spreads Out

  • by July 7, 2000
Procter & Gamble Inc., a major television advertiser for decades, is turning to direct mail, the Internet and other marketing alternatives to reach their audience.

P&G spokeswoman Gretchen Briscoe told the Associated Press yesterday that television will remain a significant part of P&G's advertising budget, but the company is researching a variety of ways to "reach consumers where they live, work and play."

P&G's new Physique hair-care line as an example of the new approach. The company introduced the line, aimed at women in their late teens to early 30s - earlier this year by promoting the brand's logo of a male and female silhouette on coasters and glasses in bars near college campuses, and mailing out 500,000 samples. P&G also created a website that offered a free bottle of the shampoo to consumers who emailed the link to 10 friends.

P&G says the approach may not work for all company brands, which include Tide detergent, Crest toothpaste and a host of others, but it's not so much the dollar amounts involved, but the way the company is "approaching the market."

As one analyst said, P&G's "micro-marketing" approach of focusing on subgroups within the market is the wave of the future. "They have understood that you can't walk away from broadcast, but relying on it solely means that you miss a huge audience."

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