The reality is that for a long time, though, P&G did not really see consumers as active participants in innovation.
Their role was essentially passive: responding to stimuli in experiment after experiment to provide "quantitative research data." P&G was talking to a lot of people, but not listening to them. The company also tended to narrow in on only one aspect of the consumer - for example, her mouth for oral-care products, her hair for shampoo, her loads of dirty clothes for laundry detergents (most P&G consumers are women). P&G had essentially extracted the consumer (and at times a particular body part as well!) from her own life and focused on what was most important to the company - the product or the technology.
We can link again that change with AG Lafley strategic decision to put innovation at the center of the business model and then also improve P&G consumer needs understanding
Recognizing that it needed to look at consumers more broadly, P&G has moved away from traditional behind-the-mirror focus groups to more immersive research techniques, increasing its spending on such research more than fivefold since 2000.
How does it do this? Among other things, thousands of infants and toddlers crawl through the Baby Discovery Center every year as P&G researchers watch how infants interact with their mothers, how they move, how their diapers work.
Recognizing that it needed to look at consumers more broadly, P&G has moved away from traditional behind-the-mirror focus groups to more immersive research techniques, increasing its spending on such research more than fivefold since 2000.
How does it do this? Among other things, thousands of infants and toddlers crawl through the Baby Discovery Center every year as P&G researchers watch how infants interact with their mothers, how they move, how their diapers work.
There are also specially designed innovation labs. One looks like a grocery store, another a drugstore, and another the different rooms in a typical middle-class American home. Consumers might be asked to come in and be given $100 to spend. By watching how they navigate the aisles and what catches their eye, the company is able to unlock deeper insights into their behavior. .
With the objective of better understanding consumers with low income, P&G also developed the Consumer closeness program :Starting in about 2001, P&G developed the "consumer closeness" program to create such experiences. "Living It" enables employees to live with lower-income consumers for several days in their homes, to eat meals with the family, and to go along on shopping trips. In a related program, "Working It," employees work behind the counter of a small shop. That gives them insight into why shoppers buy or do not buy a product, how the shopkeeper stacks the shelves, and what kind of business propositions are appealing. The idea behind Living It and Working It was to sit down with the bosses and to hear what they needed, even if they couldn't articulate it directly.
What I like in that example ? All the elements I described prove how far P&G went to integrate consumer into their business process . If you hear AG Lafley interview, P&G ultimate goal is to develop their future innovations in partnership with the potential target group. What I found really interesting is that they took the strategic decision to put consumer at the center of the model but they also made it happen by developing concrete processes and plans : Innovation labs, Baby Discovery Center, Consumer closeness program .
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