Introduction
Proctor and Gamble (P&G) needs to evaluate its marketing plan to prove whether the marketing plan has addressed all the market issues, matched the market standards, and its relevance to the market. Marketing plan has to possess sound information to allow for accurate evaluation and recommendation (Luther, 2001).
This paper will discuss Procter and Gamble’s mission, vision, goals, objectives, evaluate, and recommend P&G’s marketing plan. Evaluating P&G’s marketing plan will include analyzing its macro-environment, which is the economic, political, legal, social, cultural, and technological environment.
Vision
A vision is at times called the picture of a company in the future but it is so much more than a picture (Cravens, 2009). P&G’s vision statement serves as the company’s motivation, the structure for all the calculated planning. The vision testimonial may apply to a whole company or to a solitary division of the company.
Whether for the whole firm or a section of the company, the vision testimonial answers the problem of what the company wants to achieve in the short-run and long-run. When the P&G Company is structuring a vision testimonial, it is articulating its dreams and hopes for the business. A vision statement is a constant reminder of what the company is trying to build.
A vision statement does not explain to a company on how to reach its aims but it sets the direction for the business planning (Luther, 2001). The current P&G’s marketing plan vision states that “be, and be recognized as, the best consumer products and services in the world” (Proctor & Gamble, 2003, p. 6).
Mission
A company’s mission statement defines the company in terms of its existence and its reason(s) for being (Luther, 2001). The objective of the goal offered by the firm is the definition of the primary consumers of the firm and their identification and the illustration of the geographical position of the market.
P&G’s mission states that “we will continuously carry out innovation of our products and to produce products with the utmost care, to give nothing but quality to our communities, and to continue to grow so that we can dominate the market” (Proctor & Gamble, 2003, p. 6).
Goals
A company’s goal is the observable and measurable results with one or more set objectives to be achieved in a more or less fixed period. Goals makes a company strain its resources to meet a target so that if a company misses its target, then that is termed as a failure (Cravens, 2009).
P&G’s goal for this financial period is for the firm to be the market leader in the United States and globally through offering highly competitive products to its customers at an affordable price before the beginning of the 2013 financial year (Hooley, Piercy & Nicoulau, 2008).
Corporate Strategy
Corporate strategy defines the general scope and course of a company and the manner in which the company’s various production operations work jointly to achieve specific goals (Cravens, 2009). P&G’s corporate strategy is to strengthen its core values, improving productivity, and creating a cost saving culture through its upstream programs.
Through corporate strategy, the company is able to determine its unique characters of presenting its products to the customers. P&G’s corporate strategy involves the distribution strategy, promotion strategy, and the pricing strategy (Hooley, Piercy & Nicoulau, 2008).
Distribution Strategy
Distribution is the movement of merchandise from the producer using a distribution channel, down to the final consumer, and the transfer of the payments in the contrary direction up to the producer or supplier (Luther, 2001).
Through distribution channels, the company’s products get to reach the final consumer. P&G ensures that the time that a product takes to reach the targeted audience is minimised; that is increased ordering speed. In addition, P&G makes sure that there is delivery flexibility; it is easy to distribute their products in the market.
P&G uses three types of distribution that are intensive distribution, extensive distribution, and speciality distribution. P&G uses intensive distribution to distribute the convenience and necessity goods used by the customers.
In intensive distribution there is no customer brand loyalty. This has made P&G design a strong and proactive network of distribution to avoid any leakages before the products reach the target customers (Hooley, Piercy & Nicoulau, 2008).
Promotion Strategy
Promotion is the act of a company to enlightening the targeted customers on their products in order to increase the company’s sales (Cravens, 2009). For P&G to announce to their target customers on the existing products it insists on heavy advertising of their products, pull strategy advertising, creativity, and media pioneer advertising. These strategies enable P&G to effectively create awareness to the public on the existing products.
Pricing Strategy
This strategy is used by P&G in determining their targeted customer’s cost of acquiring a single unit of their product. This is one of the most crucial functions in a company; the set price determines whether the company will make profits or losses (Cravens, 2009).
Pricing strategies adopted by P&G include optional features, strategy product, line pricing cost pricing, competitive pricing and distribution pricing. Through these strategies, P&G is able to make profits in its sales activities.
References
Cravens, D. W. (2009). Marketing strategy. 9 edn. New York, NY: McGraw- Hill.
Hooley, G., Piercy, N. F. & Nicoulau, B. (2008). Marketing strategy and competitive positioning. 4 edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Luther, W. M. (2001). The marketing plan: how to prepare and implement. 3 edn. New York, NY: Amacom.
Proctor & Gamble. (2003). Our purpose, values and principles. P& G. Retrieved from: https://www.pg.com/translations/pvp_pdf/english_PVP.pdf