Recently, a piece of news was shared by many people, saying that Procter & Gamble (P&G) was "delisted." But in fact, the term "delisting" is not precise, because P&G only withdrew from the Euronext Paris stock exchange, while more than 99.9% of its securities trading volume is concentrated on the New York Stock Exchange. Moreover, if investors are unwilling to sell their P&G shares held on Euronext Paris, they can automatically transfer to the NYSE to continue trading. No matter how you look at it, it was just a technical operation with no substantive impact. However, over the years, voices about P&G's decline have emerged one after another. From the past decade, it is a fact that P&G has faced difficulties. Ten years ago, in 2008, P&G's sales were $83.5 billion, which seemed to be a peak, and then it entered a path of decline. In 2013, P&G's global sales were $73.9 billion, and by 2017 they had fallen to $65.1 billion, with a slight recovery to $66.832 billion in 2018. Moreover, the decline in sales might be explained by the sale of some brand lines, but the decline in net profit is also an indisputable fact. In the first nine months of fiscal 2018, net profit fell by 40%. P&G: Behind the Success of Diversified Brands As early as more than thirty years ago, Philip Kotler put forward his classic marketing assertion: how a brand can carry out differentiated marketing with clear market segmentation to meet different consumer groups. P&G is the pioneer of the multi-brand strategy and has been the most successful. At its peak, P&G had more than 200 different brands, spanning multiple FMCG industries, and in the daily chemical and personal care field, P&G is undoubtedly the leader. Philip Kotler said that developing multi-brand marketing often means pursuing multiple market segments. A successful brand portfolio requires establishing multiple brands that maximize market coverage and minimize brand overlap. That is to say, doing market segmentation and differentiated marketing well is an important condition for the success of a multi-brand strategy. Each brand should have a differentiated "brand core value proposition" to attract a sufficiently large market segment. These segments are staggered and do not affect each other, forming a pattern where the brand portfolio covers all directions and levels. So, even in the shampoo field alone, P&G's best-selling brands in China, "Rejoice," "Head & Shoulders," and "Pantene," are all very successful. "Rejoice" has always taken softness and smoothness as its primary mission. Whether from the advertising slogan "2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner, making hair飘逸柔顺" or its product formula, it emphasizes that the product can bring a head of smooth long hair to women who love beauty. "Head & Shoulders" is advertised with the "functional appeal" of dandruff removal, boasting to bring consumers better dandruff removal effects and a more pleasant experience. "Pantene" focuses on hair repair. P&G claims that "Pantene" has more than half a century of repair technology, and the advertising slogan "Practice hair energy, the more you wash, the stronger" also reflects the value positioning of "Pantene." Okay, with a clear brand value positioning, plus accurate advertising copy, the brand is already half successful. The other half of the key is how to communicate. Ten years ago, the discourse hegemony of communication channels was concentrated in two major camps: the first was television, and the second was print media, including newspapers and fashion magazines. At that time, the way for FMCG companies like P&G to open the market was very simple: clear positioning plus overwhelming TV advertising. Direct and clear brand appeals, paired with a beautiful and fashionable TV commercial, and heavy investment in major TV stations, immediately opened up the market. P&G did it. At that time, many local marketing communication companies saw through P&G's methods and followed suit. The most successful was Ye Maozhong Marketing Planning Agency. Ye Maozhong's basic routine was the same: clear positioning, awesome advertising slogans, and then overwhelming TV advertising, from Shengxiang Floor, Dahongying to 361 Degrees, from Yake Candy to Kungfu, without exception. However, what is admirable is Ye Maozhong's deep insight into brands and categories, his precise advertising planning and creativity for these brands, and accurate positioning, which are the prerequisites for success. How to Keep Brand Image Fresh? How to Innovate Channel Terminals? Globally, P&G has a history of more than 300 years, from a small candle-making workshop to one of the world's largest daily consumer goods companies. But why, precisely in the past decade or so, has P&G felt powerless and shown a declining trend? From the 1970s to today, we can divide the success rules of the business world into two major stages. The first stage can be called the traditional marketing era. At that time, there was no internet, and it was necessary to do well in the three basic skills: product, brand, and channel layout. The second stage can be called the internet marketing era, from 2000 to the present. The internet marketing era has put forward higher requirements. First, it is necessary to do everything well in the traditional marketing era, but these are only the foundation. In addition, it is necessary to learn to use internet tools and master the communication methods of internet marketing. In the traditional marketing era, P&G was undoubtedly successful. Its products were good, and its brand positioning and sales channels related to products were also excellent. These basic items were great, but when entering the internet era, having only the foundation is not enough. Many people say that most of P&G's products are very suitable for mothers' household needs, and many post-80s and post-90s consumers feel that P&G is a brand favored by the mother generation. Some post-80s and post-90s even say they buy it for their mothers and never use it themselves. When the internet rose, it brought not only technological innovation but, more importantly, changes in communication methods and consumer culture. Young people prefer to find value resonance on the internet, and the communication between brands and consumers has gradually formed a more equal, two-way, and participatory relationship. Internet brands make young people feel familiar and can trigger strong value resonance, which is very lacking for traditional brands. Traditional marketing methods, after finding the right positioning and advertising copy, invest crazily in advertising, falling into one-way communication of "talking to oneself," telling their own stories, and unable to give consumers more opportunities to participate. One-sided, self-talk brand communication has faced serious challenges in the internet era. This is a common crisis faced by all traditional brands, including P&G. Therefore, P&G's backwardness in communication methods, including its communication channels and brand expression, has not immersed itself in the internet world. P&G's previously effective brand-building methods have lost their effect, and young people's perception and recognition of its brand core value have greatly decreased. Let's look at the successful internet brands that have risen rapidly in China in recent years. Their communication with consumers has basically completely abandoned the routines that P&G used in the past. For example, Xiaomi phones. Perhaps Lei Jun (founder) is its biggest image spokesperson, and Xiaomi hardly does TV advertising. Another example is Huawei. Ren Zhengfei, or the sentiment of "national products should be self-reliant" and the spirit of unyielding struggle created by Huawei, has become its most important image spokesperson. However, in terms of gathering customer traffic and gaining recognition, the rising stars represented by Xiaomi are unique and have achieved great success. Every time Lei Jun appears on the stage of a new product launch, whether he talks about "life and death are indifferent, if you don't accept it, just do it" or "who is Xiaomi and why does it struggle," such communication methods, whether praised or ridiculed by the public in the internet world, have made the brand full of vitality. Comparing the differences in marketing communication strategies between P&G and Xiaomi, it is not difficult to understand why P&G has declined in the past decade. In addition, P&G is also lacking in terminal channels. For a long time, P&G's sales methods have relied heavily on large supermarkets and department stores, such as its long-term cooperation with Walmart. So as long as Walmart expands and increases its market scale, it is conceivable that P&G's business will rise accordingly. However, in the era of the rise of e-commerce, large supermarkets like Walmart have seen global shrinkage in recent years, and physical retail has continued to be cold. P&G's main sales channel advantages are not as good as before, which naturally affects P&G's performance. When the internet becomes the largest platform (channel terminal) and the largest communication tool (internet culture), ignoring the internet culture and the changes in consumption methods brought by the internet is very tragic and terrible. What Did Coca-Cola Do Right? When mentioning P&G, one cannot help but think of Coca-Cola. Its history is not as long as P&G's, but why has it never been perceived as old, and why has no one thought of Coca-Cola as a "mother's brand"? Coca-Cola is also a marketing expert, but comparing the marketing methods of Coca-Cola and P&G, we can find that Coca-Cola is still a notch above P&G. First, Coca-Cola's marketing methods are more diverse. Coca-Cola's way of opening the market is different from P&G's routine. It is not just the model of "beautiful advertising films + overwhelming TV advertising" that P&G uses. Coca-Cola almost every year carries out more interactive marketing activities online and offline to increase brand stickiness and participation. For example, before the Spring Festival in 2011, Coca-Cola, together with Sina Weibo, launched the "New Year Wishes, Happy Chinese New Year" activity, where fans could enter a blessing message and generate a personalized "New Year Wish Bottle." In 2018, Coca-Cola launched the "Modern City Bottle," with patterns on the bottle corresponding to the representative landscapes of the destination, and it was only sold in specific regions. The modern can was also considered a quite creative move. Second, Coca-Cola has always positioned itself for young people. Every time, its brand image spokesperson is the one with the strongest perceived value among young people in that era. From Yao Ming to Wang Leehom, from Nicholas Tse to Lu Han, with high-frequency changes, whoever young people like, they use. Through these star symbols with strong substitution and perceived value, Coca-Cola always remains fresh and in sync with young people. Third, Coca-Cola pays more attention to the integration and growth of the brand in the internet ecosystem. In 2006, Coca-Cola and Tencent jointly created a 3D interactive online activity. Offline, they used Q coin cards, outer packaging, posters, and outdoor advertising. Online, they mainly used 3D shows, as well as QQ emoticons and Qzone. From this marketing integration, we can see that in 2006, QQ was a dominant network product, and Q coins, emoticons, and Qzone had a very high usage rate among young people. Coca-Cola strongly integrated online, using the hottest internet traffic products at the time to bring traffic to its brand and enhance its discourse market share in the internet world. During the Spring Festival of 2009, Coca-Cola insightfully noticed that at that time, ordinary people were at the emotional junction of the extraordinary 2008 to 2009, seized the subtle mentality of the audience, advocated Coca-Cola's positive and optimistic brand concept, and launched the activity "The first bottle of Coca-Cola in the New Year, who do you want to share it with?" encouraging people to cross over the past and creating warmth at the beginning of 2009. Analyzing Coca-Cola's many wonderful marketing cases, it is not difficult to find that it is not limited to rushing to sell "products," but is committed to building "brands"! Coca-Cola understands that for the brand image it sets, emotional bonds, and identity symbols, it should carry out marketing methods from these three dimensions to continuously strengthen and enrich them. Therefore, Coca-Cola is committed to letting more target groups participate. Whether or not they buy Coca-Cola products is not important. The most important thing is to make everyone feel that the brand is cute, fun, young, and energetic, and to keep consumers interested in the brand. In the internet era, the focus of online marketing is not to win customers, but to consider how to "activate" current and potential customers and maintain the stickiness of the customer group to the brand. Coca-Cola has long realized that the internet is the most attractive field for young people, and the attractiveness of traditional media is declining. Therefore, in its online marketing strategy, it defines Coca-Cola as explaining brand culture, not just focusing on the product itself: a beverage. Making the brand have great inclusiveness, strong expansion desire, and vigorous vitality is the secret of Coca-Cola's brand strategy success to this day, and it is also the gene that enables Coca-Cola to always maintain vitality, youth, and freshness. Conclusion: Internet thinking is abstract, but it is important to speak in the internet way The internet era is absolutely a disruptive era. First, the internet has brought a technological revolution. These technologies have changed the original business models, products, and services. Second, the internet has brought new cultural characteristics, such as fast consumption culture, entertainment culture, participation culture, and nonsense culture. The way consumers speak, the way they receive information, their preferences, and the standards for judging good and bad have all changed. If the decline of brands like Nokia and Motorola is due to inferior technology, and new era products replaced old era products, then for FMCG companies like P&G or Coca-Cola, their products do not have much technical content. If some of them decline and others remain prosperous, it must be a problem at the marketing and brand level. A few years ago, many people talked about internet thinking. Indeed, internet thinking is very powerful, such as social thinking, platform thinking, sharing thinking, free thinking, extreme thinking, etc. Under these thinking modes, many new internet products and tools were born, such as WeChat, Didi Chuxing, Meituan, and shared bikes. However, for traditional enterprises, especially old traditional enterprises like P&G or Coca-Cola, it is difficult for them to make disruptive creations in business models and products. Therefore, for them, the significance of internet thinking is not very great. What they need most is to use and control the internet from another angle, that is, to learn to enter the "internet context" and master "internet-style communication methods." Mastering internet communication methods has three basic strategies: First, the spirit of entertainment. The world on the internet is always happy, and happiness is the biggest characteristic of young people. Therefore, traditional brands should learn to integrate into the internet world and make young people like them. First, they must be happy and have the spirit of entertainment. Whether in visual design, marketing activities, or expression, they should not be serious but relaxed and cute. Second, the spirit of interaction and participation. Let consumers speak, let potential users participate, and let enterprises and customers jointly become builders of the brand image. Brands and customers communicate on an equal footing, do one thing together, tell a story, and create a brand. Third, emotional bonds. Find value resonance emotionally. Never aim solely at selling products, but at how to shorten the distance between the brand and the target group. When the brand and the target group find common topics and form common emotional bonds, fans will become spontaneous word-of-mouth, and the snowball will roll bigger and bigger. Completely different from traditional marketing thinking, internet-style communication is no longer self-talk, no longer chattering around products and various marketing strategy combinations, but around happiness, participation, and emotion. In this new era, old brands are being disrupted, old methods are becoming ineffective, new brands are growing, and new methods are showing strength! The core foundation of business, "product, brand, channel," is still key, but the new models, new methods, and new tools for creating products, building brands, and developing channels must keep pace with the times, abandon the old, and promote the new! Source: Chief Business Review (ID: CHReview) -END-