Marketing

P&G, Unilever, Panasonic, The $2-A-Day Initiative

1) There are five methods for entering foreign markets. P&G and Unilever used the direct investment method to reach he $2-a-day consumer. Both companies have invested a large sum of money into teams to do lifestyle research in various developing markets. Specifically, P&G has invested $70 million in a regional research and development facility in Beijing in order to research, source, and develop products in the region, instead of at the company’s headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Unilever has invested in a division in India that developed Pureit, a $43 battery powered water purification system.

2) A global marketing mix is a blend of product, place, promotion, and pricing strategies designed to produce mutually satisfying exchanged worldwide. P&G uses standardization as their marketing mix. Standardization is the use of a single product for all markets. P&G drastically changed an existing product to innovate for the area it is selling to. For example, P&G came out with Tide Naturals, which is free of chemical irritants for those who have to do laundry by hand. They have also used product adaption by slightly altering existing products. P&G increased package size of Tide Naturals. In doing so, P&G kept the price the same for the bigger bottle. P&G have worked on their distribution by increasing the awareness of their disposable diapers to the population.

3) Many companies are using actual people to promote their products to the $2-a-day consumers. Because these areas are under developed, they do not have things like TV and computers, which makes marketing hard. To market Pureit, Unilever has primarily relied on a network of 45,000 women from rural villages. These women offer in-home product demonstrations and sell door-to-door. Moreover, P&G used actual demonstrators in India to inform the consumers.