JIM Stengel is Procter & Gamble's (P&G) recently retired global marketing officer and has been with the world's biggest advertiser for 25 years.
Stengel, 53, is said to have reinvigorated P&G's marketing function and strengthened it as one of the world's leading brand builders.
In his farewell letter to friends and colleagues Stengel, who has held the global marketing officer role for seven years, said he felt he had achieved his aim to make "Procter & Gamble the best brand-building company in the world".
Here are excerpts from a question-and-answer session with Stengel:
Question: P&G chairman and chief executive AG Lafley has said that you were responsible for reinvigorating P&G's marketing function and strengthening its capability as one of the world's leading brand builders, as well as changing the way P&G markets its brands by challenging traditional marketing models and setting new standards for P&G marketing rooted in deep consumer understanding.
Can you comment on those accolades and how you went about achieving them?
Stengel: I would highlight four things that I did with my team that were foundational to the turnaround. First, we absolutely put the consumer first in all we did. We reinvigorated our consumer driven culture. How we spent our time changed, how we measured our success changed; we really dialed up our culture of serving consumers. Second, we codified the way we think about marketing. We developed a framework. It enabled us to teach and transfer knowledge about brand building across the world, across categories. It became a competitive advantage for us. Third, we simply became more innovative in all we do. Our definition of innovation expanded into not just product innovation, but also marketing innovation and we even innovated in how we innovate! Fourth, we chose very specifically where we wanted to achieve competitive advantage, and we resourced it, and we measured it.
Q: Why have you said P&G is the best brand-building company in the world?
Stengel: I have said that P&G is the best brand-building company in the world because of our results. P&G has 24 brands that are over US$1 billion (RM3.6 billion) in sales, and it has 18 brands that are between US$500 million and US$1 billion (RM1.8 billion and RM3.6 billion). P&G is also highly innovative in all areas of marketing and has been a leader in most changes in marketing across the past few decades.
Q: What are the attributes of the P&G brands, which have made them such a success?
Stengel: P&G brands are successful because they stand for something highly important and relevant in the consumer's mind. Successful brands are superior brands in areas that matter to the customer, and they engender great trust from their customers. They also aspire to improve life in some way, which uplifts their employees as well as the consumers. P&G brands that are successful also set the innovation agenda in their categories.
Q: How important is advertising to brand building? How important is it in the marketing mix?
Stengel: In many categories, advertising is important to brand building. Depending on the category and the country, how important advertising is will vary. To me the most significant thing about advertising is it does help define what the brand stands for, what is its enduring equity, what is its positioning. Advertising that is successful over time is very clear in what the brand stands for and provides a reason for consumers to be attracted to the brand.
Q: What are your criteria when evaluating the success of a brand?
Stengel: My criteria for evaluating the success of a brand are very simple. I look for market share, which is the ultimate measure of preference from your consumers. I look at how committed consumers are to the brand, because committed consumers are the core of every successful franchise. I also look for a brand that is prepared for success into the future, and has a positioning and innovation pipeline that is relevant going forward. And of course, all of this needs to provide an attractive return for those who invest in the brand, individual investors or shareholders.
Q: Most brand managers seem to focus on meeting their sales targets rather than nurturing the brand. Is there something wrong with the business model or is there something missing in the equation?
Stengel: The issue here is that too many brand managers are only measured for short-term results. Marketing leaders need to measure their people on both the short-term business results, the key measures of brand health that drive preference, and their ability to create a world-class organisation internally and externally. Award systems and measurement are very important and are too often than not given the attention they deserve.
Stengel will be speaking at the Global Brand Forum 2008 Malaysia. Presented by Media Prima , the Global Brand Forum will be held in Kuala Lumpur from 4 to 5 December at Palace of the Golden Horses. For more information and registration, log on to www.globalbrandforum.org
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