"During the past year, much attention has been focused on me from several angles, which has been a distraction that is not in our best interests. When we get to a point where too much attention becomes a distraction, it's time to change that dynamic."

That statement to Procter & Gamble employees (as reported by Ad Age) by Bob McDonald was cited as the primary reason he's stepping down from the world's largetst consumer packaged goods company after 33 years and making room for his old boss, A.G. Lafley, to retake the reins.

Here's a look back at the past year for McDonald and P&G, as reported on brandchannel:Continue reading...

Procter & Gamble's board is hoping that A.G. Lafley can pull a Steve Jobs and return to the helm of the CPG giant to make vast improvements, quickly.

Lafley is abruptly coming back to the CEO post from which he retired in 2010 after 33 years, this time to replace the soon-to-depart Bob McDonald, according to a P&G press release. Yet there will be enormous pressure on Lafley from the start to demonstrate that such a move—uncharacteristic of the conservative culture at P&G—was justified.

The changing of the guard, which will see McDonald formally exit on June 30 while Lafley returns as Chairman, President and CEO "effective immediately," surprised most P&G investors and employees, especially as the bombshell dropped before the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the U.S. But perhaps it became inevitable when McDonald, after improving the company's financial and market performance for a while last fiscal year, stumbled in late April by reporting weak sales growth, following on a tumultuous year for the company and its embattled leader.

During his four years at the top, P&G had lost a step to rivals such as Unilever in terms of market share and profitability. Despite the fact that McDonald had launched the popular Tide Pods product line, a $10-billion cost-cutting program and had managed to improve P&G's position a bit during the second half of 2012, he couldn't do enough, quickly enough.Continue reading...

It turns out that Americans haven't given up on soup afterall. Proof is in this week's quarterly snapshot by Campbell Soup, whose CEO deemed the company's US soup trade stabilized after a sales increase of 14 percent. From innovations in products such as Go Soup and a new CMO to new programs using digital marketing, this success bears the hallmarks of a number of recent turnaround efforts by the brand.

In fact, the increase was the fourth straight quarterly gain and the segment's largest increase in nearly five years. "We are confident that we can now drop the world 'stabilize' from our strategy," Campbell CEO Denise Morrison told analysts in a conference call, according to the Wall Street Journal. Morrison actually raised the company's outlook for the year.

Campbell's soup business had been down for two straight years. Morrison set to work as its new CEO last year to come up with more new products and to make some of the brand's existing soups taste better, while still trimming overall advertising. In this week's report, she said that each part of the soup business—condensed, ready-to-eat, and broths—notched double-digit sales gains during the period. Colder weather than a year ago also helped.Continue reading...

Procter & Gamble remains far from out of the woods in its closely watched effort to goose sales in traditional western markets, bolster its biggest brands, rebuild its innovation mojo—and do all of that at a less expensive level. The company's newest such effort is to overhaul how it measures the impact of its $5 billion-plus annual marketing outlay, especially its digital aspects, in a major new review.

America's largest advertising spender just adopted a new system two years ago for measuring ROI on marketing spending because investors—led by activist shareholder Bill Ackman—had begun pressuring new P&G CEO Bob McDonald to get more efficient in that area. Of course, Ackman and like thinkers began putting pressure on McDonald all over the map in an effort to get him to move more aggressively on a strategy to put P&G's financial returns back to historical peaks and more in line with those of competitors such as Colgate and Reckitt Benckiser.Continue reading...

Having conquered the internet, video and now launched into music, Google is moving into shopping through YouTube's new "channel gadget."

"To shorten the path to purchase and translate video views to sales, today we’re introducing a new channel gadget on YouTube that will enable consumer goods brands to connect consumers directly with retailers throughout the entire YouTube experience," Google wrote in a blog post. "This new channel gadget will enable shoppers to seamlessly move from browsing how-to videos and featured products to finding which retailers carry them, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase, all with fewer clicks than today." 

Google's first client is Unilever’s Tresemmé, which already has a robust YouTube channel in place featuring celebrities and style setters. Now users can click on the products in demo videos for purchase information, a perk that will only appear on brand channel pages.Continue reading...

Hellmann’s mayonnaise turns 100 this year and its owner, Unilever, is celebrating with the brand’s biggest marketing campaign ever.

"It's part of the culinary heritage of America," said Brian Orlando, Hellmann's senior marketing director, the Associated Press reports. "After 100 years, we decided it was worth going out and revisiting this brand and what it is today."

Unilever is shelling out for TV, print and digital ads for its “Bringing the Best Together” campaign as well as a Facebook page and YouTube videos “featuring chef Mario Batali cooking up Hellmann's recipes, a Smartphone app and a September event that will include the world's largest picnic table,” according to AP. 
Batali has been asked to create 30 recipes that incorporate Hellmann's to be shared via Facebook and the app. The TV ads, however, will focus on founder Richard Hellmann’s New York deli where the brand was first sold.Continue reading...

Continuing its full-on assault to gain share in the US retail market, Kraft Foods’ Gevalia coffee is counting on spokesman “Johan” to open the java-gates as the brand tries its best to convince consumers to pick up its coffee over Starbucks.

The brand has launched a new web series, "Cup of Knowledge," as another outlet to help the brand market the results of an independent taste test commissioned by the brand, which reportedly showed that 59.7 percent of coffee drinkers preferred the taste of Gevalia's House Blend over Starbucks Breakfast Blend. This isn't the first time the brands have battled on the taste test front.

Back in February, the U.S. National Advertising Division ordered Kraft Foods to discontinue its marketing claims that Gevalia tastes like Starbucks, with marketing copy like, "New! If you like Starbucks Breakfast Blend, try this!"Continue reading...

Because it's such a huge part of the US and global economies, it's difficult for Procter & Gamble to untether itself from general trends even when that would be expedient. So when consumers worldwide are feeling up, down or iffy—with tentative growth in the US, slowing growth in China and negative "growth" in Europe—P&G executives are bound to feel the same way.

Thus P&G CEO Bob McDonald is having to explain the company's latest quarterly report as a glass half-full, with top-line growth a bit higher than expected, and bottom-line growth a bit lower. The company's huge brand stables in developed economies were mostly a drag, while developing markets give P&G some reasons for near-term optimism—such as Brazil, where it's about to begin shipping Ariel Pods in an effort to turn that country's laundry-detergent market upside down the way Tide Pods have in the United States.

"The market itself is rather choppy," McDonald told investors this week on a conference call. "We're in the midst of a recovery. The market's heading in one direction, but it's choppy."Continue reading...