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Proctor & Gamble and Google swap employees
Written by: Ross FattoriArticle Overview: Temporary trading of employees in attempt to learn how other companies promote themselves
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Free Download - Are you a no show? By Ross Fattori |
Proctor & Gamble and Google swap employees
In an attempt to better understand consumer buying behaviours and bolster their bottom lines, Proctor & Gamble and Google have begun a pilot project of swapping employees. It’s a brilliant move on both sides.
As reported in "The Wall Street Journal," both companies hope the move will inspire creativity and foster new ideas about marketing and branding. P&G is looking to explore online marketing opportunities by appealing to an Internet-savvy generation of consumers.
For Google, which has seen slower growth from text messaging, it hopes to gain a larger slice of P&G’s ad budget by demonstrating how “interactive” marketing works.
An interesting part of this story involved a P&G product launch for a new line of Pampers. For the launch, nobody bothered to invite the “motherhood” bloggers. The mommy bloggers attract upwards of five million visitors to their sites, and they could have helped to spread word about the new Pampers.
To make amends, P&G invited the mommy bloggers to one of its facilities a few months later, where they were given a tour of the plant and got to meet company executives. (Memo to Marketing Departments everywhere: don’t ignore the bloggers).
To increase sales and market share, companies need to break out of their traditional patterns of thinking and learn to embrace new ideas. What the Proctor & Gamble / Google swap demonstrates is a willingness to explore a completely different business strategy, which will probably pay off for both companies in the long run.
I applaud P& G and Google for going this route, and I’m sure we’ll hear about other companies following suit.
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Article Tags: behaviours, bottom lines, brilliant move, business strategy, company executives, google, interactive marketing, market share, marketing departments, marketing opportunities, mommy, motherhood, pampers, pilot project, proctor gamble, product launch, text messaging, traditional patterns, wall street journal, willingness
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Related Forum Posts
Re: Do you have to have your own business in order to
- Hi FreshGoods,
Is your first and second product offering very different? Either way, you could always register a corporation and just market/sell both. For instance, just look at all the various things Proctor and Gamble sell to consumers.
Re: Social consciousness = more cost to consumers
- [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":65jjugri]
It's easy to say we want corporations to care for animals and the environment, but are we really willing to pay the price? Whether it’s extra money, smaller portion sizes or longer wait times?[/quote:65jjugri]
I see it as being much bigger than spending a bit more, what size portions or a wait time. If you stick to this decision in ALL aspects of life, its not practical just when you consider the time it would take to research all elements of the companies we support through our purchases. Just a few examples:
1 - what conditions are used to create the clothes you wear - materials, employees, their factory, their shipping and storage, where the profits go
2 - what conditions and practices are used for all the foods you eat
3 - what happens because of any practice of utility companies
4 - what does the company do that drills for the oil that is used to create the gas in our vehicles -- what about the refining company -- what about the retailer who sells that gas -- this also includes the company that makes the car - the companies who make the parts that are used to make the cars and on and on
Kevin's comment about Proctor and Gamble is a good point. Some companies are so big that they could be doing things we won't know about or producing things we use every day.
Chris
Re: Readers, Money or SEO? Which comes first?
- Hi Chris,
I like your passion on the subject; I would have to agree with you on this one. Our company is finding Google is starting to look at content more. Links & Link Value are far more important....but Google is giving link value to sites that have quality content.
I read a leaked report from Google a while back that explained how Google manually reviews sites. They have 1,000's of outsourced employees that go through sites one by one and rank them on many different levels.
Once a site like Mashable is ranked a certain way, that value sticks with them. That is why no matter what Mashable, techcrunch, Amazon, etc... put out they rank well for. Obviously they all have incredible links but Google has given them link value based on who they are.
Obviously the idea of quality content is nothing new, just seems like it has gotten lost in the SEO world.
Jeff
Women care about employees
- I think women entrepreneurs care more about their employees than men so it makes sense that they would consider how the new owner would impact the employees.
Keeping Employees Happy
- Here are three interesting ways from career coach Marty Nemko on how to keep employees happy:
1. Instead of hiring consultants to train employees, cater lunch once a month and rotate employees teaching co-workers what they know best.
2. Do the employees hate tough customers? Shunt them all to one volunteer employee who gets special recognition or combat pay. Matt Weinstein, CEO of PlayFair, tells of a bank manager who awards a magnum of wine to the teller who, that week, served the most difficult customer. As a result, instead of trying to avoid difficult customers, most tellers actually look forward to them.
3. Give employees a frequent chance to earn small rewards combined with public recognition: sports tickets, free meals, or on-the-spot cash. But Lynn Halpin, CEO of Detroit Edison, warns that this better be part of a comprehensive plan. "If you work for Attila the Hun, someone handing you $50 is like rubbing salt in a wound."
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