An article in the new issue of Business 2.0 profiles Procter & Gamble’s CEO A.G. Lafley, who has led the company to some terrific marketing successes over the past few years after some some suggested that the company’s best days were behind them.
And what did he do?
One word: Innovation.
He extended some sleepy brands and energized them. Crest moved into whitening products. Mr. Clean moved into car-washing products. A Pringles variety was emblazoned with trivia questions on each chip.
The effect: P&G’s fiscal 2004 revenue surged 19 percent, and its earnings jumped 25 percent. For a company of its size, that kind of increase is jaw-dropping.
A lesson for those of us in Radio, where innovation is so easy in theory and so rare in practice. As big as your stakes are, I can assure you that P&G’s are bigger.