Direct Marketing Helps Packaged Goods Leader

I love it when traditional marketers finally see the light and embrace relationship marketing! See this Ad Age article about Procter and Gamble's commitment to one-to-one marketing: P&G Primes its Pinpoint Marketing.

Their goal is not small--they want to build relationships with 60 million consumers. They plan to use a segmentation strategy to help them with this task. How fun!

In addition to their plans to embrace relationship marketing, P&G understands that they need to change their mass media mindset. The article references brand/product groups within the organization that are having a hard time embracing the direct concept. They "assume these companies can't do one-to-one because direct programs just don't scale, and scale is everything at a company the size of P&G. The margins on a tube of toothpaste just aren't big enough to support a piece of mail aimed at every target."

But, despite the large task of changing a culture, P&G is definitely committed to its evolution "from a "consummate push marketer," into a company that better serves its customers through information, communications and resources that are relevant. Relationships, after all, are built not on hard sells but on give and take."

My take on this--if P&G can make relationship marketing pay off, any marketer can.

Have a great weekend!