P&G says 'smart audience segments' boosting effectiveness, innovation
Procter & Gamble chief executive David Taylor says the company’s shift from generic demographic targeting to hundreds of 'smart' segments is boosting marketing efficiency and innovation (Marketing Week).
Key points
- Company moving away from generic targeting, e.g. female 18-35, to some 350 ‘smart’ categories based on its 1bn customer IDs, e.g. first time washing machine owners
- “That is only going to get more powerful … and we will get more accomplished at performance marketing to serve people messages that meet their needs” – CEO David Taylor
- Using the categories to target new customers but also test new products, thereby driving innovation pipeline
P&G is leveraging a billion customer IDs to make hundreds of ‘smart’ audience categories, using them to test new products as well as shift more of its existing lines.
The strategy seems to be paying off. P&G recorded organic sales gains of 7 per cent in the fourth quarter – and bar shaving, where it wrote down $8bn of value related to Gillette – its main categories are firing, helping to drive operating profit margins towards 20 per cent and P&G's share price up 40 per cent in the last 12 months.
If P&G can continue to blend brand building with smarter performance marketing, while reducing development and innovation costs by properly harnessing its customer data, that’s some case study.
