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Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter & Gamble
This work features the history of brand innovation at Procter & Gamble, one of the most successful consumer goods companies in the world. A fascinating history of household brands from Ivory to Crest, and Pringles to Cascade, this book unlocks the secrets of longtime success of dozens of superstar brands that we've grown accustomed to choosing for decades. It offers practical advice. Case study sections offer lessons in: business reinvention, building new markets and capabilities, leadership transformation, brand excellence, and general management.
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
496 pages, Hardcover
First published May 27, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 19, 2015
A must read for any marketing professionals. The author summarized five overarching themes after studying the 165 years of history of Procte3r & Gamble.
They are:
1. A focus on branded consumer products
2. A broad approach to creating and building brands
3. A commitment to rigorous experimentation
4. Tenacity in execution
5. An ability to balance opposing pressures
My biggest take-away is the discipline P&G invested in their brands. From the R&D, products to brand names and marketing strategies, each step is validated through rigorous consumer research and experimentation.
Also, the book talks about P&G's expansion into other countries. In Japan, the company faced fierce competition from local companies. It finally made breakthrough when it decides to customize products for Japanese consumers. Another big foreign market is China. The overriding lesson in China remains deeply familiar: build for the long term. China is proving to be more than an enormous market and more than a series of low-cost factory sites. It's turning into a series of invaluable opportunities for new partnership, technology, and entrepreneurial energy for P&G as it navigates through the next century.
They are:
1. A focus on branded consumer products
2. A broad approach to creating and building brands
3. A commitment to rigorous experimentation
4. Tenacity in execution
5. An ability to balance opposing pressures
My biggest take-away is the discipline P&G invested in their brands. From the R&D, products to brand names and marketing strategies, each step is validated through rigorous consumer research and experimentation.
Also, the book talks about P&G's expansion into other countries. In Japan, the company faced fierce competition from local companies. It finally made breakthrough when it decides to customize products for Japanese consumers. Another big foreign market is China. The overriding lesson in China remains deeply familiar: build for the long term. China is proving to be more than an enormous market and more than a series of low-cost factory sites. It's turning into a series of invaluable opportunities for new partnership, technology, and entrepreneurial energy for P&G as it navigates through the next century.
August 3, 2020
I worked for P&G for 10 years and this book is a great primer on how to get inside how the company thinks and approaches business in general. A must read for maintaining positive sales momentum amidst stiff competition, this book will give you the foundational understanding of managing a brand effectively. Now that i have been outside the company for a few years, you can see why P&G is able to generate such good returns year over year. The 'secret sauce' is a combination of great talent and deep pockets. The latter being in very short supply for those outside the Fortune 50. P&G's 'achilles heel' is the fact that no one wants to spend a ton of money on premium staples, and they have been laying off, cost saving, and divesting to make earnings the last few years. P&G has not delivered truly 'disruptive' innovation to the market place in many years, but it has built sufficient market share to weather the storm. How long they can manage this is anyone's guess... but deep pockets ensure they can buy their way out of a lack of innovation.
February 4, 2013
Awfully exhaustive. More like a business school case study and/or a research document than a compelling, light read. Exhaustive (and I mean exhaustive) detail-- if that's what you are looking for, this is the book for you. I would have preferred something written a little more consumery/mass market. But man, the author has done his homework!
August 20, 2020
This book is a great history of Procter & Gamble. It does tend to be redundant and repetitive. If you ever worked for P&G, you might want a copy of this book. P&G's products are industry leaders in many categories, some of those categories were originally defined by P&G.
May 15, 2009
The best corporate history book I have ever read!
In 1837, English candle maker William Proctor and Irish soap maker James A. Gamble started this legendary enterprise under the advise of their father-in-law Alexander Norris and with a mere capital of $7,192.24.
As in any business, they were periods of ups and downs. In 1859, oil lamps started to replace candles in household and the brothers started to formulate new business strategies. By 1867, the brothers started to shift their business emphasis toward the soap-making section.
Time passed... second generation of Procters and Gamble grew up and took over. By 1878, James Norris Gamble, William Alexander Procter, and Harley Procter were the active members of the board. James Norris Gamble, a chemist, was the person behind the brainchild of Ivory - the 99 44-100 per cent pure white "floating" soap. A soap in its own league, the success of Ivory was unprecedented. This differentiation ignited P&G's passion to leap from commodities goods and branch into the more profitable consumer goods arena.
Tide was the other major wave of success. David Byerly, the maverick researcher, kept his covert "Product X" alive on the side when the R&D team abandoned the project years ago. His tenacity proved legendary and Tide was truly revolutionary. P&G advertised its ability to wash "cleaner than soap" with "oceans of suds". It became the "Washday Miracle" and product simply flew off the shelves.
An explosion of consumer products came into play after the success of Tide. Mr. Clean household cleaner, Folger's Coffee, Rely tampons (huge lesson for P&G), Teel dentifrice (terminated), Charmin paper products, Pamper diapers, Crest toothpaste, Pert Plus hair products, Pantene hair products, Vicks OTC products, Olay skincare line of products, and more... Some provides profits, some provides lessons; yet all of them are monumental parts of the P&G history.
Apart from its superior business savoir-faire, P&G was also a pioneer in combating racial biases. As Howard Morgens addressed in the end-of-year management meeting in 1971, "We must and we will continue to offer equal opportunity to blacks and to all other minority races... Furthermore, we must hire and train them up to the point where equal opportunity is meaningful. We must do this first of all because it is right to do and, secondly, because if we don't - this country will suffer greatly and we will all suffer along with it." A prophetic speech still rings true 38 years later.
A great book. Highly highly recommended.
In 1837, English candle maker William Proctor and Irish soap maker James A. Gamble started this legendary enterprise under the advise of their father-in-law Alexander Norris and with a mere capital of $7,192.24.
As in any business, they were periods of ups and downs. In 1859, oil lamps started to replace candles in household and the brothers started to formulate new business strategies. By 1867, the brothers started to shift their business emphasis toward the soap-making section.
Time passed... second generation of Procters and Gamble grew up and took over. By 1878, James Norris Gamble, William Alexander Procter, and Harley Procter were the active members of the board. James Norris Gamble, a chemist, was the person behind the brainchild of Ivory - the 99 44-100 per cent pure white "floating" soap. A soap in its own league, the success of Ivory was unprecedented. This differentiation ignited P&G's passion to leap from commodities goods and branch into the more profitable consumer goods arena.
Tide was the other major wave of success. David Byerly, the maverick researcher, kept his covert "Product X" alive on the side when the R&D team abandoned the project years ago. His tenacity proved legendary and Tide was truly revolutionary. P&G advertised its ability to wash "cleaner than soap" with "oceans of suds". It became the "Washday Miracle" and product simply flew off the shelves.
An explosion of consumer products came into play after the success of Tide. Mr. Clean household cleaner, Folger's Coffee, Rely tampons (huge lesson for P&G), Teel dentifrice (terminated), Charmin paper products, Pamper diapers, Crest toothpaste, Pert Plus hair products, Pantene hair products, Vicks OTC products, Olay skincare line of products, and more... Some provides profits, some provides lessons; yet all of them are monumental parts of the P&G history.
Apart from its superior business savoir-faire, P&G was also a pioneer in combating racial biases. As Howard Morgens addressed in the end-of-year management meeting in 1971, "We must and we will continue to offer equal opportunity to blacks and to all other minority races... Furthermore, we must hire and train them up to the point where equal opportunity is meaningful. We must do this first of all because it is right to do and, secondly, because if we don't - this country will suffer greatly and we will all suffer along with it." A prophetic speech still rings true 38 years later.
A great book. Highly highly recommended.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2011
Enjoyable read about the history and make-up of Procter & Gamble. I really enjoyed reading about the historical background of the company and how some of its well-known products were developed. Certain parts towards the end (launching products in China, health care business) were a bit dry, but overall a good read.
Highly recommended for P&G employees and others interested in business.
Highly recommended for P&G employees and others interested in business.
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August 17, 2011this book only talks about how good p&g is, i doubt that p&g wrote the book by themselves. the bias is obvious to me.
March 30, 2013
A must-read company profile for knowledge workers, managers, directors, C-levels, and entrepreneurs.
September 3, 2017
Un libro basico en la biblioteca de cualquier estudiante de Administracion que se respete!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews