Procter & Gamble is redoubling efforts to tap into the emotions of consumers and the inventiveness of entrepreneurs as CEO Bob McDonald declares that he has brought the company through a rough patch and sees a brighter future.

The company has just launched a new front door for its vaunted open-innovation program, Connect + Develop. The new website aims to speed up and simplify external connections by linking would be innovators directly to top company needs, and P&G business leaders directly to external innovation submissions.

Connect + Develop, which the company describes as, "at the heart of how P&G innovates," has been responsible for a wide variety of game-changing innovations introduced by P&G over the last decade, ranging from Swiffer Dusters to Crest Whitestrips. The aim of the new site is to make the sorts of connections that lead to such innovations "easier and more effective," Laura Becker, general manager of Connect + Develop and of global business development for P&G, said in a press release. Continue reading...

Depending where you were, you may have celebrated Halloween on Oct. 31st. At Procter & Gamble, they've been celebrating the company's 175th anniversary.

That's right: P&G – mother of such consumer packaged goods icons as Tide, Pampers, and Comet, among others – is now 175 years old, but a look back at the company's history reveals that the whole endeavor might not have started if an errant flame and a rapscallion hadn’t done their dirty work all those years ago — or if an opinionated father and father-in-law hadn't intervened.

Or put another way, Mr. Procter's failures in England led to P&G's global success today — and Procter took a Gamble that paid off.Continue reading...

It was embattled Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald's turn today to describe what he sees taking place at the CPG behemoth now and in the future, as he assured shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in Cincinnati that "we're confident we're doing what's right and necessary to achieve [our] objectives, now and for the long-term health of our business."

McDonald pledged that P&G is focusing on the company's 40 largest businesses, 20 top innovations and 10 most important developing markets as well as its $10-billion productivity program to drive future growth. "Our plan," he stated in a press release after the meeting, "is decisive, simple and focused. Grow our core and win with innovation fueled by productivity."

The CPG executive has been taking more heat than any other recent P&G CEO because the company lately has stumbled in meeting its growth objectives, has been shown up by competitors, and seems to have fallen off in innovation compared with a few years ago, when an emphasis on new products, new features, line extensions and new brands was propelling Procter & Gamble to record growth.Continue reading...

If the path Procter & Gamble is pursuing in turning hard toward digital marketing is reminiscent of another recent, major strategic shift for the CPG giant, that's because company executives are deliberately borrowing from that model. More than a decade ago, P&G shook up the corporate world by opening up to outsiders for ideas for innovations in the products and features that make up its brands, in an initiative that came to be called Connect + Develop.

And now P&G is doing something similar for its digital-marketing push. "We want to leverage the knowledge and power of everyone we can" in accelerating investments in digital communications and marketing, Alex Tosolini, P&G's vice president of e-business, told brandchannel. Indeed, if members of the marketing and advertising community have "wonderful ideas" for digital plays, he said, "Please come to us and we'll be open to co-innovating with you."Continue reading...

The Old Spice Guy isn't quite dead and buried yet. He made a new appearance today, of sorts — at the annual meeting of Procter & Gamble, where he was praised by company executives for helping boost fiscal-year growth.

The Old Spice Guy campaign, starring ex-footballer and rising actor Isaiah Mustafa, was cited by P&G in video vignettes (including the one above) that were played at the meeting in Cincinnati as a marketing coup that boosted interest in the brand, and sales, that contributed to organic growth of 4 percent and core profits of 8 percent for P&G during its fiscal year ended June 30.

"It's good but not yet great," P&G CEO Bob McDonald said about the company's financial results overall, according to the Business Courier Serving Greater Cincinnati. "We don't settle for 'good' in this company." Indeed. P&G didn't get to become the world's presiding CPG giant by settling for anything.Continue reading...

Amazon.com tests "more airy" website redesign, as delivery locker test with 7-Eleven looms.

Apple designer Jonathan Ive enters a new era, as iPhone 5 speculation mounts and brand announces first store in Hong Kong.

Baidu taps Dell for mobile push.

Bank of America shares decline (despite Warren Buffett's $5 billion injection) in tandem with global banks.

BMW tests 1,000 times brighter laser headlights.

Cantor Fitzgerald's post-9/11 recovery is in the spotlight this week.

Carlyle Group files for IPO.

Coca-Cola will invest $4 billion with Chinese bottling partners to spur China sales.Continue reading...

Fortune magazine's annual ranking of the world's most admired companies is also a shorthand for most admired brands.

Its just-released 14th annual ranking, a collaboration between the Time Inc.-owned business title with research conducted by the Hay Group, is worth checking out to see who's up, who's down, and why.

As ever, this year's list is based on a survey of business executives and the criteria includes quality of management, social responsibility (community and environment), quality of products and services, allocation of corporate resources, recruitment and retention of talent.

This year's top ten:Continue reading...

Procter & Gamble, arguably the world's most adept branding organization, is simply not content with the status quo.

As we've reported, P&G has lofty ambitions to grow its business internationally, beyond its traditionally strong roots in the U.S.and Europe. In fact, P&G is eying developing countries such as Brazil and China for future sales revenue.

Add brand acquisitions to P&G's wish list. "I'd love to buy more global brands," P&G CEO Bob McDonald tells Bloomberg. "The climate for acquisitions is good, the climate for mergers is good," McDonald said.Continue reading...