Early Proctor And Gamble Organization example essay topic

Proctor and Gamble MKT/421 This paper will describe the four elements of the marketing mix (product, place, price, promotion). In addition, it will describe how each element is implemented within a specific organization and how the four elements relate to that organizations marketing strategy. The company used in this example is both a product and service driven company and is in business for profit. The company chosen to demonstrate the marketing mix has been a leader in the industry for many years as well as an innovator in product advertising design. Starting out as a soap and candle manufacturer, more than earned their place in the market place. The company is Proctor and Gamble (P&R) and their earliest beginnings are rooted in strong family tradition and humility from the early 1800's.

The Proctor and Gamble of today is far different than the founding company operating in a global marketplace, in 140 countries, distributing their products and services to consumers two billion times a day. With such meager beginnings and at the time of inception, their product was needless to say, unpopular. Soap in the early part of the nineteenth century was not on the priority list for consumers to spend their monies on. P&G depended heavily on their candle making but as the light bulb became more popular they quickly realized that candles had become a thing of the past and quickly turned their attentions to the soap business. With a few governmental contracts and some investors, they began to invest in chemically enhancements to their mainstay product, soap. Approximately 1879, James N. Gamble, son of the founder was a trained chemist and with his abilities he had developed an inexpensive pure white, floating soap named ivory.

Proctor and Gamble had product and owned the market but they still had to sell it to make money. P&G implemented the four P's of marketing in 1882. they had developed a product that was at the time, untouchable. At the time P&G had no real competition and thrived on that. Proctor and Gamble now had to research the place. Where were they going to offer this product, and whether or not that it was a viable market place for profitable sales. Could P&G meet the logistics of their product distribution and maintain optimum levels of superior service.

Once these questions where answered and the information digested and applied the next step was to determine price of the product. Although difficult to find the selling price of a bar of Ivory soap in 1878 P&G performed their research as to how much consumers were willing to pay for a bar of floating soap and what was needed to cover their research and development and general margins. P&G was interested in providing their product outside their immediate area. They wanted to go national and to do so meant variations in cost due to labor and demographics of the region. Proctor and Gamble now had to promote their product in many differing markets. This meant that P&G had to communicate the benefits of choosing their product to use.

Proctor and Gamble chose to advertise in a national weekly newspaper that offered a larger broadcast than many local papers and a central location of management, while satisfying some of their logistics issues. This was the first time P&G used this method of advertising. Proctor and Gamble coined a catch phrase to assist in product identification. This slogan is still used today. 99-44/100% pure - it floats. Proctor and Gamble was also the first to use product branding.

During this time many similar products where used for various cleaning chores. But as time passed so did the nameless products. P&G imprinted their soaps with their company logo and on the wrappers. This early form of product branding virtually imbedded the name of their product in the minds of their customers.

For a short time Proctor and Gamble offered small metal coupons that offered a predetermined amount of money off the next purchase of Ivory soap. This marketing ploy did not last long due to cost but it did however aid in product loyalty. Proctor and Gamble used the marketing matrix effectively. P&G was able to establish a product that was not in high demand. Price it accordingly to each individual market place and offer it to the national community. P&G advertised in national syndication's to reach as many as possible in an expeditious manner and offered ways to build product loyalty.

Considering the time, basic market research was a daunting task for P&G but their strategy was obviously effective. This paper described the four elements of the marketing mix (product, place, price, promotion). In addition, it also described how each element was implemented within the early Proctor and Gamble organization and how the four elements related to this organizations marketing strategy successes. Reference: web we are / ivory history. j html.