About the case

As of 2009, Proctor & Gamble delivered products under 300 brands to nearly five billion
consumers in more than 180 countries around the world. P&G employed about 130,000
employees in approximately 80 countries worldwide. P&G is the number one U.S. maker of
household products, with nearly 300 brands in five main categories:
Baby,
Feminine & family care,
Fabric & home care,
Beauty care,
Health care and food & beverage.
Overtime P&G has proven to be an innovator in creating brands and understanding consumers by
making extensive use of marketing research. Building brands has been a cornerstone of P&Gs
success. P&G always thinks about the consumer and why a particular product is relevant to
him/her. P&G always asks What is in this for the consumer? This strategy has served the
company well. A focus group talking about a product is simply not enough; the marketers at
P&G dig deeper to try to really understand consumers behaviors.

P&Gs basic marketing principles have not changed, but its methods of targeting and identifying
consumers have changed to meet the increasingly complicated consumer base. In the early days,
P&G would mass market through television and other sources, because this was the most
effective strategy at the time. P&G has changed its key strategy from mass marketing to
consumer targeting. The better a company understands its market the better its marketing will be.
One of the areas that P&G constantly researches is the consumers in-store experience, viewing it
as another way of connecting with consumers and making their experience better.
P&G realizes that it is no longer possible to shout at consumers. It has to talk to them when they
want to listen, and it is the consumers who choose the time and the place for this communication.
That time and place, today, is increasingly becoming the Internet. An excellent example is
Pampers Web site. P&G has discovered that Internet research offers a more representative feel
for consumer reactions.

P&G is always conducting marketing research to discover new ways to reach out to consumers,
sometimes by developing new products and introducing new product categories. P&G invented

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disposable diapers, home dry-cleaning, and the very popular cleaning tool the Swiffer, which was
designed after extensive marketing research. P&Gs marketing has been innovative over the
years, and one would expect the same from it in the future.

P&G (Procter & Gamble) - At a Glance

Origin: William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, immigrated from
England and Ireland respectively. They settled in Cincinnati initially and met when they married
sisters, Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, called a meeting in
which he persuaded his new sons-in-law to become business partners. On October 31, 1837, as a
result of the suggestion, Procter & Gamble was born.

Logo:

Procter & Gamble (P&G) is a Fortune 500 American MNC headquartered in downtown
Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods. Focused on providing
branded customer goods, its goal is to provide products of superior quality & improve the lives
of the worlds consumer. Its products are sold in more than 180 countries primarily through
merchandisers, grocery stores, membership club stores, drug stores and high frequency stores. It
also focuses on the expansion of department stores, perfumeries, pharmacies, saloons &
ecommerce. In March 2009, it increased its goals to reflect our progress and to demonstrate our
ongoing commitment to sustainable, responsible growth.

Strategies followed by P&G are:

PSOE rmo p o c e dp i ra ul ao l c ty R ti eos e en s ssp o n s i b i l i t y

S t a k e h o ld e r s
P&G Products

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Q7: Discuss the role of qualitative research in helping P&G to
increase its share of the Toothpaste market.

Answer to the Question Number 7

Role of qualitative research to increase market share:

Market share can be increased by the following way-

Attractive advertisement.
Promotion and campaign.
Appropriate segmentation of market.
Customized product solution.
Focusing on consumers interest and preference on product.
Increasing breadth & depth of the product in the market.
Understanding consumers need and developing product to satisfy that need in the best possible
way.
Attractive & affordable packaging.
Linking cultural background with the product.
Making product available to consumer with great efficiency but not increasing the price.
Continuous research of consumers need and continuous development of product according to
the need.
Surveillance on competitors activities on the market and taking appropriate action.
Providing consumers value added service related to use and consumption of product.
Now lets consider the role of qualitative research to increase the market share of P & G in
Toothpaste market. Qualitative research is used to gain qualitative understanding of the values
lying reasons and motivations.
There are several reasons to use qualitative research. It is not always possible or desirable, to use
fully structured or formal methods to obtain information from respondents. People may be
unwilling or unable to answer certain questions. People are unwilling to give thoughtful answers
to the questions that invade their privacy, embarrass them or have a negative impact on their ego
or status. Second, people may be unable to provide accurate answer to questions that tap their

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subconscious mind. The value, emotional drives and emotional drives at the subconscious level
disguised from the outer world by rationalization and other ego defense. To overcome this
problem qualitative research is more effective to find accurate information. Qualitative research
will help P & G to identify the customs preference customs need cultural combination of
toothpaste and them segmenting the market with appropriate base.
For example marketing executives can identify some of the following qualitative variable to
identify consumer preference on tooth paste market:
1. Cavity & Gum protection
2. Whiteness of teeth.
3. Taste
4. Fresh breath
5. Price
Based on this variable he/she will design product with minimum appeal to consume. Then he
will develop advertising strategy by conducting research on the following qualitative variable
Preference of color &contrast on add.
Preference of advertising medium (TV/ News paper)
Preference of cultural elements.
Preference of quality, quantity, fragrance, or other variable.
Focus of consumer attention.
By developing appropriate advertising strategy, he will be able to communicate the presence of
the product on the market place. Then if these efforts are integrated with other marketing
program, toothpaste market share is likely to increase.

Q8: P & G has developed new toothpaste that provide tooth and
gum protection from 24 hours after each brushing. It would like to
determine consumers response to this new toothpaste before
introducing it in the market place. If a survey is to be conducted to

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determine consumers preferences, which survey method should be
used and why?

Answer to the Question Number 8

For determining consumers preference to new toothpaste, it is better to use personal

interviewing method.
Personal interviewing:
In case of personal interviewing, it is more effective to use in Home personal interview. Personal
interviewing
1. In Home
2. Mall intercept
3. Computer assisted

Why: In personal in Home interviews, respondents are interviewed face to face in their home.
The interviewers task is to contract the responder. Ask the questions and record the responses.
By personal interviewing consumers preferences on different variable like color, fragrance etc.
can be determined. It is also important to specify how they prefer tooth and gum protection in
their consideration.

Q9. What role can causal research play in helping P&G increase its
market share?
Answer to the Question Number 9

Causal research is a type of conclusive research where the major objective is to obtain the
evidence regarding the cause and effect relationships. The causal research is basically used to
predict what would be the effect on a particular cause.

Establish causality, develop if-then statements: To increase market share, P&G can find the
cause behind using of their toothpaste and teste the market the concept that, if they use such

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marketing effort then what will happen. By this they can find way to establish marketing effort to
establish their brand.

Manipulation of one or more independent variables: By using causal research, P&G could
test one or more variables that influence market share. Uses of more variables help them to
reduce cost and find the best effort needed.

Pre-planned and structured design: As causal research is pre planned and use structured
questioner that help P&G to find out some answer which cant be find through unstructured way.
They will able to find out the steps that help them to extend market share by including more
customers.

Experiments: P&G can test their idea through causal research in Laboratory, Field, Test
marketing which are very useful way to find out cause that relates to their market expansion. The
result will be Conclusive.

For example: Decrease in price would result in increase in sales and market share. In this way
causal research in helpful in increasing the market share.

Q10. Illustrate the use of the primary type of scales in measuring

consumer preferences for toothpaste brands.

Answer to the Question Number 10

Measurement scales

The various types of scales used in marketing research fall into two broad categories:

1. Comparative and

2. Non comparative.

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In comparative scaling, the respondent is asked to compare one brand or product against another.
With non-comparative scaling respondents need only evaluate a single product or brand. Their
evaluation is independent of the other product and/or brands which the marketing researcher is
studying.

Non-comparative scaling is frequently referred to as monadic scaling and this is the more widely
used type of scale in commercial marketing research studies.

Comparative scales

Paired comparison: It is sometimes the case that marketing researchers wish to find out which
are the most important factors in determining the demand for a product. Conversely they may
wish to know which the most important factors are acting to prevent the widespread adoption of
a product. Here respondents are asked to choose one toothpaste brand than other. Thus marketer
can get the information about the toothpaste preference features.

Dollar Metric Comparisons: This type of scale is an extension of the paired comparison
method in that it requires respondents to indicate both their preference and how much they are
willing to pay for their preference. This scaling technique gives the marketing researcher an
interval - scaled measurement. Here respondents are asked not to choose a brand but also the
price that they are willing to buy the toothpaste.

The Unity-sum-gain technique: A common problem with launching new products is one of
reaching a decision as to what options, and how many options one offer. While a company may
be anxious to meet the needs of as many market segments as possible, it has to ensure that the
segment is large enough to enable him to make a profit. It is always easier to add products to the
product line but much more difficult to decide which models should be deleted. One technique
for evaluating the options which are likely to prove successful is the unity-sum-gain approach.
Generally this approach is not right for toothpaste brand because customers like to prefer on the
toothpaste brand that reach them successfully.

Non comparative scales

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Continuous rating scales: The respondents are asked to give a rating by placing a mark at the
appropriate position on a continuous line. The scale can be written on card and shown to the
respondent during the interview. This process shows respondent a numerical scale to point out
where their toothpaste brand exists. It indicates from unfavorable to favorable condition of the
product.

Line marking scale: The line marked scale is typically used to measure perceived similarity
differences between products, brands or other objects. Technically, such a scale is a form of what
is termed a semantic differential scale since each end of the scale is labeled with a word/phrase
(or semantic) that is opposite in meaning to the other.

Itemized rating scales: With an itemized scale, respondents are provided with a scale having
numbers and/or brief descriptions associated with each category and are asked to select one of
the limited numbers of categories, ordered in terms of scale position that best describes the
product, brand, company or product attribute being studied. Here marketers not only identify the
respondents given points but also the description about the brand performance.

Semantic scales: This type of scale makes extensive use of words rather than numbers.
Respondents describe their feelings about the products or brands on scales with semantic labels.
When bipolar adjectives are used at the end points of the scales, these are termed semantic
differential scales. Here brands are described on the basis of feeling about using the toothpaste
they use. Then marketer tries to identify the core feature to include or redesign.

Likert scales: A Likert scale is what is termed a summated instrument scale. This means that the
items making up a Liken scale are summed to produce a total score. In fact, a Likert scale is a
composite of itemized scales. Typically, each scale item will have 5 categories, with scale values
ranging from -2 to +2 with 0 as neutral responses. When we consider the preference of
toothpaste brand we must think about customer reachness and their willingness. So we may
focus on the easy and fruitful way to successfully conduct a research on toothpaste brand
preference.

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Q11. If marketing research to determine consumer preferences for
toothpaste brands were to be conducted in Latin America, how
would the research process be different?

Answer to the Question Number 11

Consumer preference is a marketing term meaning a consumer likes one thing over another.
Consumer preference is a general term applied to all facets of marketing products & services.
Preference for brand also change as 20-29 group age people relate themselves with brands like
Colgate and Pepsodent while other people relate themselves with brands like Meshwak etc. With
increase in age the preference for the point of purchase also change. According to occupation the
frequency at which they change the toothpaste also change while student do not experiments
much because of lower disposal.

Primary Research objective: To determine the consumer preference while buying toothpaste in
the age group 20-29.

Secondary Research: To determine the various factor affecting the purchase of toothpaste. To
determine the brand preference for toothpaste in the age group, to determine the type of
toothpaste preferred by consumer in the age group.

Data collection method: An exploratory research was conducted for which the following
technique was used.

Close-ended questionnaire: The questions were used to know what are the different attributes
which a student looks for while selecting toothpaste?.

Focus group discussion: A discussion among a group of students was arranged to bring out the
attributes that are evaluated by the students while selecting toothpaste.

Brands commonly used were: Colgate, Pepsodent & Close up.

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Other brand which people were able to recall were: Cibaca, Babool, Meshwak, Signal, Vicco
vajradanti, Dabour, Glister, Emofoam, Neem, Amway.

Some of the reasons given by the respondents for choosing their preferred brand of
toothpaste were: Good cleaning power, habit, brand loyalty, calcium content, flavors, liking
forgel based toothpaste, taste, cavity protection, prevention of bad breath, medicinal value and
utility viewpoint.

Some additional features that the respondents said they might want in their toothpaste
were: Lower price, change of color, new flavors, mouth, refreshing breath, anti bacterial
protection.

The factors that respondents thought were influential in buying toothpaste in general were:
Advertisement, family influence, packaging personal experience, protection, cleanliness,
whitening, freshness, taste dentist recommendations, pricing, availability and peer suggestion.

Q12. Discuss the ethical issues involved in researching consumer

preferences for toothpaste brands.

Answer to the Question Number 12

A basic role for marketing research is that of intermediary bet researcher and the producer of a
product and the marketplace. The marketing research facilities the flow of information from the
market or customer to the producer of a particular good or service.

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While many models of ethical decision making in marketing research have been presented for
the toothpaste brands, no recent attempts have been made to explicitly account for ethical
decision making from a marketing research. researcher have to present an ethical framework for
marketing research on toothpaste brands, the various philosophies of ethics and a few enduring
marketing ethical decision making models, thus laying the foundation for a descriptive model for
ethics in marketing research. researcher have to develop an integrated model of ethical decision
making that incorporates the perspectives of all parties involved in the process of making ethical
marketing research decisions, the various philosophies and external variables for the toothpaste
brands.

Researcher has to practice international code of marketing and social research practice.
Researcher also follows code of professional ethics and public opinion for the toothpaste brands.
In addition to those, researcher must follow code of standards and ethics of survey research for
toothpaste brands, recommended best business practices for opinion and marketing research. As
consumer preference is the prime focus of the research, researcher must develop these ethical
issues that best matches the customer needs. For this, researcher develops ethical issues.

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