P&G’s Marc Pritchard on Serving All and Each to Drive Market Growth

The best way for a business to grow is to expand markets by serving all, and in turn make the market bigger, according to Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer at Procter & Gamble.

“Many of us grow up thinking that taking market share is the best way to grow, but what happens when you take market share from someone else? They’ll do anything to get it back, which takes value out of the market,” he said during a fireside chat with Beauty Inc editor in chief Jenny B. Fine. “But if you focus on creativity and innovation to bring more users in, to encourage them to use more, maybe even pay a premium price, then the market expands. Everyone grows and it then feeds this ability to create and innovate even more.”

Whenever Pritchard and his team go into any project, they use a framework based on four Rs: reach, representation, relevance and resonance.

One example of this is Olay’s new water-activated cleansing melts. Ten years in the making, the dissolving cleansing squares come in three ingredient varieties — hyaluronic acid, vitamin C and retinol — and retail for $9.99 for a 32-count pack.

This innovation came from Black consumers as P&G endeavored to understand why it wasn’t performing well among that group in cleansers. A key insights was that many cleansers dried Black consumers’ skin, which led to the creation of Olay melts. These, in turn, became popular among all consumer groups.

“100 percent of the market is our target consumer….but at the same time all of you have different types of hair and you have different needs. What that means is look at each unique need and think about what those unique needs are and meet those needs,” said Pritchard. “When you do that, then you have the potential to be able to meet people’s needs in a more effective way and that can drive growth.

“What we found in the United States in particular was that we were underdeveloped among African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Pacific Americans so we looked and said, ‘Why?’” he continued. “In many cases, we weren’t meeting the needs of unique consumers. The Olay melts were uniquely focused on how you could meet the needs of the African American consumer. It turns out that that need is applicable to all consumers.”

Another example Pritchard cited was Old Spice when in 2010 the brand set out to create a body wash market for men, only to find that it was not hitting the mark among Black and Latino men.

“When we started digging into it, getting some insights, most Black men and Black women said the humor we had was not really appealing to them,” said Pritchard, noting that the feedback was that the consumer was more sophisticated than the marketing campaign. “It was a great insight because we went out and hired Deon Cole, Gabrielle Dennis, a Black director and we created a new campaign called ‘Men have skin, too.’ The ads are a lot of fun but they’re also extremely effective and based on an insight.”

Indeed, the men’s body wash market became a billion-dollar business.

“In the beauty industry, your needs and wants have a lot to do with your gender, in many cases your race and ethnicity, sometimes your ability, your gender identity, your sexual orientation, your age,” said Pritchard. “All these demographic factors affect how you use products, how you need products, how you want products, what you prefer.”