The Best Insights Are the Ones Consumers Can't Tell You
Inside the P&G Marketing Factory
About this episode
In this episode of Marketing Factories, a podcast by Effie Europe and REBORRN, Dafni Prosalika (Partner at REBORRN) sits down with Federica Pompei (Europe Chief Brand Officer, Procter & Gamble and Senior Vice-President Baby Care Europe) for her first interview as Europe Chief Brand Officer at Procter & Gamble.
Fede joined P&G 27 years ago as a chemist in R&D, watching how people cleaned their homes. Today she wears two hats: she leads Baby Care Europe, home to Pampers, and as Europe Chief Brand Officer she is responsible for developing the more than 5,000 brand builders across the region. P&G brought the two roles together on purpose: in a moment of transformation, someone who lives brand building inside a business every day can take an idea and make it run fast across the whole organisation. She explains why P&G deliberately talks about brand building rather than marketing ("marketing is one ingredient"), why its "who, what, how" framework has barely changed, and why the strongest brand builders are ambidextrous: deep in the craft, broad in the business.
The conversation goes inside the factory: how P&G grows its people, from learning on the job to Brand College; how a company of this size changes its mindset as brands move from a monologue to a conversation with creators and communities; why AI should be a better-work game rather than a productivity game; and why the best insights are the ones consumers are not able to tell you. Along the way: Pampers nappies built for premature babies, Fairy Skip the Soak, Old Spice at Tomorrowland and the unplanned conversation behind #LikeAGirl. As ever, the episode closes with the 58:hours challenge.
Key themes
- 01
Brand, not marketing
P&G deliberately calls the function brand building: “marketing is one ingredient”. The brand builder owns the whole experience: product, packaging, store and business model.
- 02
Two roles, one accelerator
Leading Baby Care Europe while developing Europe's brand builders lets ideas move from one business to the whole organisation fast, at a moment of transformation.
- 03
How P&G builds its brand builders
Roughly 70/30 learning on the job, managers who are expected to teach, assignment planning, Brand College, and newcomers who own the brand from day one.
- 04
AI: better work, not more work
The time AI gives back should go to thinking and curiosity, not more assets, and it never replaces sitting in a consumer's home.
- 05
The insight engine
A consumer-understanding plan for every category, every year, mixing open observation with brief-led research, because “we get off track when we only go with a brief in mind”.
Links, books & references mentioned
Transcript
Fede
We get off track when we only go with a brief in mind. We feel we miss out on some natural insights. The name on the bottle that is sold in millions of units comes from a consumer insight. We feel marketing is one ingredient. Consumers expect a conversation, not a monologue. Chief Brand Officer for Europe. My mission is to develop the best brand builders in Europe.
Dafni
What are some of the things that really train you to be this P&G consumer-obsessed marketer?
Fede
I believe that the strongest brand builders are what I would call ambidextrous. They go deep, but they're able to go wide. We want them to own the brand. We don't want them to own a little piece.
Dafni
When I think of AI...
A look inside the P&G factory
Related links
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