It’s Not About “Telling and Selling”.
Great article in Adage about Proctor and Gamble‘s Jim Stengel recent speech where he talks about a “major cultural shift” happening within P&G. He sees P&G moving to a marketer who starts conversations rather than a one way communicator. Finally!! Someone who represents a major marketer is starting to get it. It is not about who has the loudest bullhorn or who has the most money, but who is willing to engage with their customers and open a two way dialog.
The Adage article also speaks to at the end what might the agencies sitting in the audience be thinking as they listen to Stengel speak?
“What that means for the conference crowd here, many of whom are still obsessing over the finer points of distinctly tell-it-and-sell-it media.”
In simpler terms, “Holy crap, what are we going to do since we have only focused on creating TV commercials for the last 20 years?!?!?”
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One of the things I find interesting about “major cultural shifts” is how long they are staring folks in the face before they’re noticed. Something so obvious to some may be completely lost on others – especially those with old mindsets.
It’s kind of like waking up and having your dog staring at you, inches from your face. She knows that eventually you’ll wake up, and see that it’s time to get moving.
Tony,
You’re right, it has been staring at them in the face for years. From my pasty experiences with large companies, it is not that they do not recognize the changes, it is that they do not have the ability to change. I would use the Titantic as an analogy. When you have something that large, it is very hard if not near impossible to change on a dime. The differences are when you are working to change or just burying your head in the sand and pretend nothing is wrong.
Thanks as always for your thoughts, Tony.
Your analogy is apt -I know quite a few people who work on P&G accounts, and let’s just say that Jim’s newly-enlightened approach has yet to cascade to his marketing monkeys…
Stengel’s remark: “Market share is trust materialized,” really hit home with me.
I remember a mail marketing campaign for a liquid laundry detergent (I think it was a P&G product) more than twenty years ago.
They sent targeted households a free product sample that worked better than anything on the market, so we were psyched enough to buy the brand at the store.
Unfortunately, the stuff on the shelves wasn’t the same as the mail-sample, and was vastly inferior in cleaning power.
I always wondered how well such trust-destroying marketing could possibly work.
Were there really so many people who wouldn’t notice the subterfuge that the marketing campaign could be a sales success?
I’ve seen little evidence that free-market principles correct the behavior of corporations or the ad agencies they hire.
Jason – Hopefully the people under Jim will get the message or get out. Thanks for the comment.
Vince – Great comments, I could not agree more. I don’t think we have all the answers yet, but the ride will be interesting. Thanks.