The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) boasts dozens of billion-dollar brands for home, hair, and health. The world's largest maker of consumer packaged goods divides its business into two global units: Beauty and Grooming and Household Care. The company also makes pet food, water filters, and over-the-counter acid-reflux medication. About two dozen of P&G's brands are billion-dollar sellers, including Always, Braun, Crest, Fusion, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Mach3, Olay, Oral-B, Pantene, and Wella in the beauty and grooming segment, as well as Bounty, Charmin, Dawn, Downy, Duracell, Gain, Iams, Pampers, and Tide in the household care segment. P&G's hundreds of brands are available in more than 180 countries. P&G’s accomplishments over the past 173 years have come from successfully orchestrating the myriad factors that contribute to market leadership. The 3 major competitors are: Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Unilever.
Questions: 1- P&G’s impressive portfolio includes some of the strongest brand names in the world. What are some of the challenges and risks associated with being the market leader in so many categories?
Indeed P&G’s portfolio is one of the most powerful portfolios of trusted brands which includes Ariel, Febreze, Pampers & Pampers Kandoo, Gilette, Oral-B…The company is the leader in 15 of the 21 product categories in which it competes, has 23 billion-dollar global brands, spends more than $2 billion annually on R&D, and serves more than 4 billion people in 180 different countries. Its sustained market leadership rests on a number of capabilities and philosophies. However, being the market leader in so many categories present some challenges and risks. P&G has to be careful not to sell too many brands and has reduced its vast array of products, sizes, flavors, and varieties in recent years to assemble a stronger brand portfolio. In order to stay