The company held an analysts meeting late last year giving details on its future growth strategies, including plans for its Beauty and Grooming business category.
According to Ed Shirley, vice chairman for the category, the company aims to lead the sector, which includes brands such as Pantene, Olay and the Gillette razor and shaving products business, by 2015.
“We already lead with men and we will lead with women as well. We have what we need to win and we are confident that our renewed consumer led strategy and go to market capabilities will enable us to win,” he said during the meeting.
Geographical expansion
The strategy for market dominance rests on making the brands available to more consumers in more markets, which includes increasing their geographical reach.
For P&G, the key is to use the strength of a brand in one region to benefit another brand in the same region.
“We are not going to market category by category, with each brand going it alone as we enter new markets,” Shirley said.
“We already have Pantene in distribution in 150 countries; we are going to start to leverage that starting with skincare. We are going to take the winning Olay portfolio every where we have Pantene,” he said.
Similarly, the men’s category will also use the strategy, with brands such as Old Spice piggy backing on the market presence of Gilette, which is also present in all markets, Shirley explained.
In addition to extending the geographical reach of the brands, the company has also said it will be expanding its product offerings to take in more consumers at different price points.
“We are serving more Asian consumers by expanding our Pantene portfolio with single use shampoo sachets all the way up to our highest performing Pantene Clinicare range, including offering upscale market accretive hair care treatments,” Shirley explained.
Streamlining operations
At the analysts meeting the company also discussed its efforts to streamline the business and cut costs.
It aims to shed weaker brands that do not contribute significantly to company sales, as well as reducing the number of manufacturing platforms and improving logistics.