PROCTOR AND GAMBLE COMPANY
DECISION SHEET
The LDL market segmentation for Procter & Gamble is based on three main product attributes. Performance describes the product’s primary cleaning benefit, mildness describes the gentleness on hands, and price provides the benefit of low cost. P&G positioned its three LDL brands very differently. Ivory is positioned to appeal to females, primarily middle-class mothers, who enjoy the benefit of younger looking hands. Advertisements depict a mother/daughter comparison to illustrate this youthful appeal. Its creamy-white color and light scent relates this LDL to the Ivory bar soap, which consumers recognize for its mildness. Dawn is positioned purely as a performance LDL for those who seek superior grease-cutting abilities. By allocating most of the marketing budget towards coupons, this brand seeks early-adoption by new customers in hopes of promoting brand loyalty among households. Joy is the original LDL manufactured by P&G, and is positioned as a reliable and recognizable option due to its unique yellow color and fresh lemon scent.
Procter & Gamble should implement product improvements on an existing brand. As a successful, established performance brand primarily recognized for its grease-cutting abilities, Dawn is the preferred brand for performance improvements. The improvement of an existing brand will require roughly $20 million in capital costs, similar to those required to introduce a new brand. However, while a new brand would need more than $60 million in marketing expenditures, a product improvement needs only $10 million. Additionally, a new brand introduction would require two years, plus another year in a test market, while a product improvement requires at most two years. Though this is longer than the time required to gain approval for increased marketing expenditures, it will likely