This paper describes a research project born of a business need at Procter & Gamble. Management had the vision that adoption of our new innovations could be accelerated if we could identify those consumers with the highest likelihood of being Early Adopters. We would ask them to try initiatives long before market introduction and reap the benefits of their feedback; find what social norms reinforce or suppress product acceptance and how to optimize communication benefits. The biggest reward will be turning many of the Early Adopters into credible advocates for our innovations and thereby creating a tipping point and virtuous cycle. Identification of the Early Adopters, therefore, became a top priority for P&G's Consumer & Market (CMK) Department and Europanel, partner agency in the project. The paper discusses the powerful learnings generated from this research and how these have become enablers for P&G to apply diffusionistic marketing ideas at all phases of an initiative - before launch, at launch and on an on-going basis - to help commercialize innovation faster, cheaper and more effectively.
This paper argues that a holistic assessment of the conceptual appeal and the persuasive power of a piece of copy is best made by the ultimate consumer rather than an inward looking "expert opinion as sometimes suggested by people in the advertising business. The author further makes the point that appropriately used research gives the copywriter a competitive edge.
To get us started on this workshop I propose to ask six basic questions to which I also propose some answers. I do not expect that all of you will necessarily agree with the suggestions and proposals I will be making, but that should certainly ensure a lot of good discussions. I would like to acknowledge that some of the material that I am going to be sharing with you is from a paper given by Mr. Tom Neumann, Manager Media and Programming Development, Europe, P&G GmbH, called "What Advertisers Expect from TV Audience Research and What They Actually Get." I cannot claim to have the same level of expertise or the depth of knowledge on the subject that Mr. Neumann would have provided had he been here, but I do know something about the region and the research measurements being used here and I expect that if I go wrong many of you will pitch in with the correct answer. Inciddntally, even through my questions are on TV, they apply equally well to the other media.
Ariel High Suds Detergent in Egypt enjoys very high awareness, a continually growing user base and an excellent image. In fact, three years after launch, the brand has become the leader in its category. However, the brand did not have a smooth start. Introduced on the Egyptian market in January 1989 Ariel hugely underperformed its volume objective and overshot its budget several folds in its first year. Analysis of the situation indicated four areas which we needed to work on to get the brand out of its quagmire First, improve the price/value equation to the consumer. Our initial price was more than double that of competition because state-produced products are subsidized. The second task was to penetrate the thousands of small grocery outlets. We needed new tools to do that. We also had to show these small stores that consumers are asking for the brand. Third, we needed to understand better the consumer and come up with consumer insight based copy. Finally we had to come up with breakthrough ideas to effectively expand the Ariel franchise into rural areas--an almost foreign territory for us given that our other brands in Egypt are mainly targeted at the urban middle/upper class. This paper chronicals the research that Procter & Gamble conducted prior to and following the Ariel launch. It also describes the action taken based on the research findings and the marketing plan that our Company in Egypt undertook to put Ariel on track to achieve market leadership.