CINCINNATI (AP) - Jim Stengel wants to get to know you better.
The marketing chief for Procter & Gamble Co., the nation's leading advertiser, says it's crucial in today's marketing to understand people's daily lives and how products figure into them.
At an advertising trade conference this year, Stengel called for a 'mind-set shift that will make us relevant to today's consumers; a mind-set shift from 'telling and selling' to building relationships.'
Stengel has focused on increased consumer research, including 'immersion' in which marketers spend hours at a time visiting, shopping, and talking with people for the Cincinnati-based consumer products company that spends nearly $7 billion a year on global advertising.
'We need to think beyond consuming ... and to really directly understand the role and the meaning the brand has in their lives,' Stengel told The Associated Press in an interview. 'If you're always asking that question, 'How can I be more relevant, how can I have a deeper meaning, how can I build this relationship between brand and consumer to a higher level' your marketing gets better, you innovate.
'With the amount of information we have at our fingertips today, it makes it even more important to stay in touch, to get out there and talk to real people about real issues,' Stengel said.
In an era where consumers have so much information and so many entertainment choices, other companies are also focusing on relating to real lives over advertising glitz.
'Considering that women are getting thousands of media messages a day, it's just smart marketing,' said Delia Passi, a consultant and author who specializes in marketing to women. 'They're thinking about a woman's life.'
She sees results of that thinking in such consumer products as Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s Kleenex, which has been adding decorative boxes and such features as nose-soothing aloe vera.
'Suddenly, the tissue is not just a tissue,' Passi said.
Passi also points to the Tide 'to Go' stain-removal stick from P&G as a product appealing to women who can recall dropping a piece of pizza or other food on their clothes while dining out, or Swiffer dusters' line of products aimed at making house cleaning quicker and easier.
P&G also just launched Mr. Clean wipes that are easy to pull out one at a time, like tissues.
'Somebody watched women and said: 'Why aren't we just giving women what they want?'' Passi said.
Stengel cites Tide, the detergent dating to 1946, as a brand that keeps responding to consumer interests, adding fragrances, fabric softener, and even offering energy savings and environmental appeal with a cold-water version and plans for a concentrated form in smaller containers.
The resurgence of bunco, a centuries-old dice game, among American women has led to tie-ins with P&G's heartburn medicine Prilosec OTC that include sponsorship of a world championship in Las Vegas.
'None of us may have come to that conclusion sitting up here, but if you're talking with your consumers, you're asking them what they're interested in, where they go for information, what do they do for entertainment ... bunco popped up and gave them a way to be more relevant,' Stengel said.
P&G insights into marketing to men got a major boost from the 2005 acquisition of shaver-maker Gillette Co., he added.
P&G and other consumer companies have also been focusing on advertising with daily-life themes that offer advice and useful information aside from product promotion. The Home Depot Corp., for example, has a 'True Stories' campaign in which customers share sometimes-poignant tales recounting their home improvement projects.
The latest Swiffer promotion is about what consumers say are the signs of a clean home, with online cleaning and entertaining tips from author and cable TV host Jane Buckingham and a contest for funding home parties. Such interactive promotions, along with online forums, add to companies' consumer research.
'Marketers are rightfully very interested in engaging consumers and creating a dialogue,' said Edward Landry, a vice president at the management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which helped produce a book released this month on leading marketing executives, such as Stengel.
'In a lot of these practices, P&G seems to be a little ahead of the curve,' Landry said.
While many marketers talk about consumer relationships and the need to be 'consumer-centric,' P&G's leadership -- which makes 'the Consumer is Boss' its mantra -- clearly has it as top priority in research, training and measuring results, Landry said.
'There is a world of difference between knowing and doing,' Landry said. 'The company does what it talks.'
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