- il y a 5 semaines
Brands as Force for Growth and Good
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00:00He's a fantastic friend, a very demanding client, you know, being a friend doesn't mean that he's accepting anything that
00:11he doesn't like, but he says it in a way which is more acceptable.
00:17And it's so great to work with you, Marc. You are always asking us to go to an extra mile
00:25to do more, to invent, to create and to innovate.
00:30And I am sure that for the audience, this conversation with Michael will be exceptional. Thank you.
00:37Thank you, sir.
00:37And please have a seat.
00:47Thank you, Marc, for joining. And as I said earlier, for me and for you, not the first visit to
00:55VivaTech, but I think our last visit here was pre-pandemic.
01:01It was pre-pandemic.
01:02Yeah, we did this together in 2019.
01:05And here we are in 2022, three years later. Quite a few changes.
01:12But, you know, Marc, our conversation today is going to be focused on growth and good.
01:19And I noticed that growth and good came together.
01:24I'd love to understand from your perspective how those two words come together.
01:30I think there's a story there.
01:33Sure, sure.
01:34Well, and I think it's important to know that we see brands and business as being a force for growth
01:41and a force for good.
01:43The order matters.
01:45Because first and foremost, we're in business.
01:48And our jobs, our company, which makes daily use cleaning, health, and hygiene products like Pampers and Always and Olay
01:56and Ariel and Tide and Gillette and Crest and Oral-B, and I could go on.
02:03And that was just my morning.
02:05Exactly.
02:07Our job, first and foremost, is to innovate on those brands, to make sure they deliver superior performance to the
02:15people that we serve.
02:16And that, in turn, we're rewarded with sales and profit, which drives growth.
02:22Growth is good.
02:25Growth drives economic good.
02:28Growth enables you to make sure that you have employees who have jobs.
02:33You have partners who you work with.
02:36You have retailers that you work with.
02:38And then what that also enables you to do, when you have growth and value creation, it then enables you
02:44to do more good for society and for the planet.
02:47So force for growth that leads to being a force for good is important.
02:52And then on the good part, you need to make sure that good leads to growth.
02:57So it's a virtuous circle.
03:00It's interesting, Mark.
03:01When people talk about marketing, we've always had this distinction between B2B and B2C.
03:07And I've always taken exception to that because corporations are not inanimate objects.
03:13They're people, too.
03:14They have personalities.
03:15They have...
03:16So I've lived my personal life, and I know you have, under an old adage, which is if you have
03:23the good fortune to do well, you have the obligation to do good.
03:28That's really what you're saying.
03:30First, you have to have the growth to be able to fuel the good and that virtuous circle.
03:37I'm curious, Mark, if you think that there is a circumstance, and many times when we identify challenges, problems, and
03:44opportunities, the human condition sometimes has an overcorrection.
03:48We say, oh, my goodness, we must do that, and because we haven't done it, we have to do more
03:53of it.
03:53Do you think that some companies have gone too far on that purpose, you know, forgetting what the primary obligation
04:03is?
04:03Well, I think what has been important is that the marketing community has stepped up to focus on community impact,
04:13which was big time during COVID.
04:16Everybody around the world rallied to help, has stepped up on equality and inclusion, much to do, and stepping up
04:23now on sustainability.
04:24Those are three very important areas that we focus on.
04:28What I think has happened in the industry in general is that it's just gone a little bit too far
04:34into the good, but potentially not paying enough attention to growth.
04:40And so that's why we flipped it around to focus on growth that leads to good.
04:46And it's about balance. You better be balanced. Balance matters.
04:51And when you think about this again, if you can drive growth with your core business, which is what every
04:58business, in my view, should be thinking about.
05:00So what do we do? And then what can we do to drive growth that makes the lives of the
05:06consumers we serve better?
05:08How can that grow the market? And then when that grows the market, now what else can we do?
05:12I'll give you a good example of this is Ariel. Okay.
05:16Ariel is the leading laundry detergent.
05:18Ariel cleans clothes better than any other laundry detergent.
05:22What Ariel has done is formulated so they can clean clothes in cold water.
05:28You turn to 30 degrees Celsius.
05:29When you clean water, sorry, you clean in cold water, it reduces energy, which reduces emissions, which actually saves money.
05:40So the point is you can actually help the environment.
05:43You can tick all the boxes.
05:44Exactly. Clean clothes, help the environment, save money.
05:47And all that comes around to, it actually saves money to the point where it pays for the wash.
05:52So that is a great example of growth for good.
05:56And what's happening with Ariel is that it's not just it's growing itself, the market is growing.
06:01And when the market grows, all boats rise.
06:04A rising tide.
06:04That's really what it's about.
06:06You know, it's interesting, and I'm going to make a real life example as well.
06:11I've always thought that one of the great lessons of raising children is teaching them balance.
06:17As we, as Ronnie and I said, my wife and I said to our children as they were growing up,
06:23you're going to do certain things, just don't do too much of it.
06:26Demonstrate balance.
06:28Understand judgment and balance.
06:29But balance is such a key word, and it goes to that overcorrection, number one.
06:34Number two, the example you've given is a perfect one because it's back to that virtuous circle of you've actually
06:41done well.
06:42You've actually done good.
06:43You've driven that flywheel in an interesting way.
06:47And that's what, and Michael, that's what really, you know, the encouragement that I would provide to any brand is
06:56to think about what do you do best?
06:58Fundamentally, what's your core?
07:00And then what can you do to make that even better?
07:03How can that grow the market, which is going to be good for economic growth?
07:07And then from there, what else can you do that's good?
07:10Which is how that example really laid that out.
07:14And Mark, as we look at it, and you know, things don't happen in silos.
07:20Things happen as a connected world.
07:23We're here talking about technology.
07:25The world's connected.
07:26The internet of things, we haven't said that in quite some time.
07:30The IoT was a conversation that we seem to be having, and metaverse has certainly taken over IoT.
07:39Maurice shared a story with you and I about his idea for the metaverse, which I thought was so interesting.
07:44I don't want to steal his thunder, but talking about the horror that's going on in the Ukraine, and imagine
07:50if that could have been done on the metaverse.
07:53Just thinking of the possibilities.
07:54Well, I think, you know, I know there's a lot of discussion on the metaverse, and that's important.
07:58And I think what's critical for us to be thinking about is then, what is the job to be done
08:05for the people we serve that the metaverse or whatever technology associated with that can make better?
08:13And so, because I've been in this rodeo for a long time as well, and around when search started, then
08:21when YouTube started, then Facebook, then Instagram, then TikTok, then Snap, then all those, and IoT, the whole nine yards.
08:31And where they start to make a difference is when brands and companies start thinking about, what does my consumer
08:40need, whoever I'm serving, what is the problem that needs to get solved, and how can it solve it?
08:45I'll give you a small example.
08:47We did this at another tech conference, CES, which is we created a metaverse to basically replicate what we normally
08:57do in person.
08:58And we had more visitors that literally came in and were able to look at every one of our technologies
09:04and go deep into the technology to understand how it works.
09:08So, Oral-B-IO, which is one of our best products.
09:12I mean, this is an incredible power toothbrush that has position detection.
09:17It has a Wi-Fi connection.
09:20I'm a happy user.
09:21And I can tell because your teeth are fantastic.
09:24But what it does is it gives such an extraordinary clean because of the technology that is embedded in that.
09:32But what the metaverse allowed us to do is for people to come in and go deep into the inner
09:37workings that you wouldn't be able to do.
09:39And so I view that as at least one way in which it can work.
09:44I was here at Viva Tech three, four years ago, and I saw augmented reality.
09:48And I thought, that's an application for people to learn about our products.
09:53That's something we do.
09:55Pampers, for example, has snap stories that allow you to tell your baby a story through augmented reality that surrounds
10:04you.
10:04That's extraordinary.
10:06See, but I just need to interrupt that.
10:09Because as a grandparent, that's where I draw the lines.
10:12I don't have to change diapers.
10:14That's the fun part.
10:15Oh, now you're just going to tell snap stories on AR?
10:17Okay, that's a good move.
10:19But you should change diapers, too.
10:21Exactly.
10:21But the bottom line is, with all the technology, there's still some fundamental universal laws of marketing.
10:35What does your consumer need?
10:38What product are you offering?
10:40And how can you make it superior?
10:42How can you make sure it's in a superior package?
10:44How do you make sure you have a superior communication so they know where it is?
10:48Superior retail execution as well as value.
10:51All those things stay the same.
10:53What technology is enabling us to do is to connect all of them.
10:57So, for example, what's happening now?
11:00E-commerce.
11:00E-commerce.
11:01Digital commerce.
11:02Not now.
11:03E-commerce has been around.
11:04But digital commerce is now connected.
11:06So, we're spending a lot of time working with retailers on how to connect more closely to purchase.
11:13So, we've got a lot of experiments going on in terms of our data, their data.
11:22They don't mix in any way.
11:27And we find ways to be able to figure out.
11:29You find clean rooms.
11:29We find a clean room that allows us then to go reach our consumers in a more effective way.
11:35Build the market basket.
11:37That's the new world.
11:39And that's a close connection to the actual purchase.
11:43It's a tactical question, Mark, but you've mentioned it.
11:47You know, the new player on the field in earnest is the retail media networks.
11:52It's not that you haven't spent, you know, billions of dollars in store and shopper marketing.
11:59But this is a new avenue now and that clean room but utilization of the data and the first-party
12:07data that is available now through those networks.
12:11Sure.
12:11Well, retailers are incredibly smart.
12:14They have deep connections with their customers and their shoppers.
12:18They increasingly have the ability to be able to know, get first-party data so they can connect with those
12:24customers more effectively and help them.
12:26They're creating new, omni approaches to where they provide direct-to-consumer.
12:32You can come to the store and pick it up.
12:35You can go to the curb and have it delivered.
12:38So what they're doing is giving their customers a lot of options.
12:42And then what we come in is focus on, we understand media behavior, lifestyle behavior, habits and practices.
12:50So when we connect in a clean room, it allows us to be able to create a better experience for
12:56the consumers.
12:57And, you know, that's, I think, a major part of the future here in terms of where the world is
13:03going to go from a commerce standpoint.
13:04So, Mark, I want to share something with you.
13:08I stumbled on a few words over the last several months that I've put together and I now refer to
13:14them.
13:15There's ten words.
13:18And interestingly enough, five of them begin with the letter T, five of them begin with the letter C.
13:24So I now refer to them as MediaLink's T's and C's and I don't mean terms and conditions.
13:29The T words, and I just want to play a little word association.
13:33The T words are trust, transparency, talent, technology and transformation.
13:42I don't know any companies that I've met recently that aren't on some sort of a transformational journey.
13:47I don't know anybody in the ecosystem that's not dealing with talent, whether it's the dearth of talent, the need
13:54for more diversity in talent, the great resignations, all the things we've talked about over the last several months.
14:01Technology, I said, and you've been such an important voice in the industry against the backdrop of trust and transparency.
14:09So those are the T's. Let me flip to the C's now.
14:13Content, commerce, culture, creativity and community.
14:19So there's the T's and C's.
14:22What I would suggest is in our world at the sort of intersection of marketing, media, advertising, entertainment and technology,
14:30which is where I feel MediaLink lives.
14:32And I think you do as well.
14:35Those words seem to be good conversation starters.
14:38How do you react to that?
14:40Just thinking of those words.
14:41What I how I react to them is I would think about them all as being is is enduring.
14:48And I would remind us to keep going back to what is enduring.
14:52What is enduring is is the strategy of ensuring you know what your consumer needs.
14:57You make sure you give them a superior experience.
14:59But then there's a very important other another one, which is we call it constructive disruption.
15:05Constructive disruption means looking at what you need to do to win today, but then always seeing around corners with
15:13what's coming next.
15:14That's where your transformation point comes in.
15:17Constructive disruption is driven by technology in many cases.
15:21But what's our job, the talent in our industry to be able to connect that to ensure that is going
15:28to deliver on what consumers needs, what the consumer needs are.
15:31Media is huge opportunity for media media.
15:35But media still has an enormous opportunity just based on data and analytics to be able to drive mass reach,
15:43reaching as many people as you can, but with greater precision and no waste.
15:47So before we even get to the metaverse, there's still huge opportunity in front of us in terms of how
15:54we're operating.
15:55And it's interesting, Mark, because as I stumbled on these words, the two that really started that conversation for me
16:02were the trust and transparency.
16:03I added the others.
16:05And then on the other side, I haven't heard a sentence that doesn't have content and commerce in it.
16:11And that was part of the motivation, candidly, as to why MediaLink joined forces in December with United Talent Agency
16:19and kind of reimagined our positioning.
16:22And I would say it because of the connectivity to the creative community, to the creators, to the content creators.
16:31And, you know, that's really where it happens because that commerce is still the key.
16:37And are we surrounding it with content?
16:40Creativity is still the engine of this industry.
16:45And, of course, that leads to content and increasingly that's leading more to connected to commerce.
16:51So I think, you know, one of the things I would just keep reminding us to do is to keep
16:55focusing on what matters.
16:58What matters is creativity.
17:01What matters is innovation.
17:02What matters is serving your consumers in a more effective way.
17:05It's just the technology is bringing it all together in a more effective way.
17:11So, Mark, it would be remiss if in this moment we didn't switch gears because it does impact growth.
17:20So I guess we're not really switching gears to talk about the macroeconomic circumstance we currently find ourselves in on
17:29a global basis.
17:30Whatever the cause is not for us to decide, but the result and the reaction is what we do need
17:37to decide, you as a marketer and myself as an advisor to marketers and others.
17:43How do you look at it through the lens of P&G, tough economic times apparently on the horizon?
17:50As you said, looking around the corner.
17:52If you look around the corner now, it's hard to be excited about the economic, you know, circumstances.
17:57How does that impact you as a marketer?
18:00Just double down.
18:03Now more than ever, double down on making sure that you have superiority from a product standpoint.
18:12Double down on media.
18:14Now more than ever.
18:15We need to make sure that we have 52 weeks of media.
18:19It's constant.
18:20But you also have to double down on being more productive.
18:24And that's where I come back with the technology point of finding the data and the analytics and ensuring that
18:31what we are doing is being far more productive so we reach as many people as possible.
18:36It's not about spending.
18:37It's as many people as possible with precision without waste.
18:41Let's go back to Pampers again.
18:42Pampers is one of our best brands.
18:44Pampers has a one-to-one connection with consumers.
18:49Absolutely.
18:49As soon as mom and dad find out they're pregnant, they go online, Google search, when is my baby going
18:56to be due?
18:57Due date calculator comes up, they find out when the baby's due.
19:01Then we serve them some additional content, eventually with permission, ask them, would you like to join our rewards program?
19:09Then we create a relationship.
19:11So this mechanism of just a relationship enables us to be able to then take that data, seed it, find
19:21that seed, and then go reach 95% of diapering households with incredible precision.
19:28We've saved massive amounts of money and increased reach at the same time.
19:33So the thing is, is the temptation will be cut media, dial back on the number of weeks, dilute formulas.
19:41Wrong answer.
19:43The answer now is innovate more than ever.
19:46Because if we innovate and reach consumers, then the market will grow.
19:52When the market grows, economic good will happen and that will give us the ability to do even more good.
19:57Well, Mark, it's a fine point to kind of draw to a close.
20:02Unfortunately, we have a limited period of time because as we heard earlier from Maurice, there's a lot of content
20:08packed into today at VivaTech.
20:11But I think it's a great place to say thank you.
20:17As always, Mark, and I've said this to you for so long.
20:28You are blessed and we are blessed.
20:31You are blessed in that you have a great platform to be able to share your knowledge and experience, which
20:39is so important and valuable.
20:41And the responsibility that comes with that position, and you and I have talked about this, when you make a
20:46statement, it carries more weight.
20:48And I want to thank you as we continue to address the challenges in our marketing and all the things
20:55we've talked about for being that voice and that leader in our industry.
20:59I appreciate that, Michael.
21:00I will say I am one voice among 100,000 P&G people who get up every day, put their
21:10feet on the floor, and go out and do the right thing for the people that we serve.
21:14And that's really what makes the difference.
21:16At the end of the day, I'm privileged enough to be able to communicate what they do.
21:22And it would be the last thing I would leave with people, is think about that.
21:26Think about how you can be useful to others, and it will make a big difference.
21:29And you can truly be, then, a force for growth and a force for good.
21:32Mark Pritchard, thank you so much.
21:34Thank you.
21:34Thank you.
21:35Thank you.
21:35Thank you.
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