Study on Procter & Gamble Company's MarketingCommunications MixExecutive SummaryThis article mainly discusses Procter & Gamble Company's (P & G) marketing communications mix strategy. This paper first analyzes P & G's high-quality, high price product positioning and its advertising strategies which P & G formulates according to the USB theory to meet customers’ rational appeals. Then it figures that, in order to achieve the purpose of promoting its high-quality products and satisfy customers’ rational a ppeals, P & G takes advantages of the marketing communications mix strategy, such as television advertising, Internet marketing and PR (Public Relations) activities. Finally, it makes a conclusion that, P & G's marketing communications mix strategy help it with achieving its product positioning strategy and meeting customer rational appeals, but P & G's adoption of marketing communications mix strategy has also increased advertising investment, causing increased costs.Key words: Procter & Gamble Company's (P & G); positioning strategy; rational appeals; marketing communications mixChapter I IntroductionNondurable consumer goods belong to an important industry of fast moving consumer goods, for the world market which has billions of people, its consumption potentiality grows sostenuto, which will result in the fierce competition in daily chemical products for a long time, however, it also provides a broad stage for marketing in this area. With the development of modern mediatechnology and network technology development, it can be predicted that advertising will be a new bright spot that the marketing of international manufacturers of daily use chemicals compete for.Procter & Gamble (P & G) is the world's largest company which produces nondurable consumer goods. It was founded in 1837 in the United States. From 2001 to 2008 fiscal year, the company’s sales was 86.5 billion U.S. dollars. Among the latest world's 500 largest industrial and service enterprises which were named by the ‘Fortune’ magazine, P & G has ranked No. 93 in the word and the nation's No. 35, it was also elected as the industry's most well-thought-of company. Having been founded for more than 150 years, it has scored brilliant achievements, relying on its high-quality products, its right advertising strategy which has been formulated through targeting its products, markets and consumers is also an important factor which can not be overlooked. P & G used a long study to determine the most effective advertising strategy, in determining the correctness of this strategy, it never changes this successful strategy. Much strategies of its products has experienced several decades without changes. This study will analyze and evaluate the company's advertising communication mix strategy.Chapter II Body2.1 P & G's positioning strategy and product appeals2.1.1 Positioning strategyThe decision-making of product positioning strategy is one of the core links, whether product positioning is reasonable is directly related to the final results of the advertising campaign, while the content of the product positioning determines the ad's focus of appeals (Boulding & Staelin, 1994). The Procter & Gamble Company, which has always pursued the purpose of producing and providing world-class products and services as well as beautifying consumers' life always advocates the principles of customer focus, paying attention to talented people, a people-oriented guidance and continuous innovation. This is also P & G's long-lasting foundation for 150 years.Their products can always guarantee quality to consumers, so that people are satisfied with the products in the process of using and produce a pleasant mood, thereby being ready to buy again (Huston & Sakkab, 2006). Good products produce a good base for advertising, which also provides a wide space for advertising. P & G's products are always known with its high price and high quality. P & G’s a senior adviser once said that P & G would never be willing to be the second, its goal is to strive for the first.2.1.2 Product appealsTo achieve this purpose, it has widely used Unique Selling Proposition (The USP Theories). USP strategy was put forward by Reeves and Rosser (1961), this theory is starting from products and emphasizes on products’ specific effects and interests,what it has brought forward can not be provided by its competitors, showing a strong sales force. It starts from the product itself to develop a functional appeal point and as the connection point with consumers, so that consumers feel the benefits of products really. P & G as a follower of USP strategy has long-term adherence and effective implementation of this strategy. Rejoice specializes in maintain hair, Head & Shoulders aims at getting rid of dandruff, Pantene's the nursing specialist of hair, Sassoon is known as a professional hairdressing product and Safeguard has the effect of sterilization, they have all promised cons umers an important point of interest and gained consumers’ recognition at the same time.Many people think that, with the improvement of production technology as well as the increasing homogenization of products, the USP theory gradually declines, however, in the days when brands of daily necessaries become more complex, why P & G which still uses the USP theory is able to continue its success is first inseparable with P & G's brand positioning. P & G's positioning is high-quality and high price, which gives customers a trusted feeling, followed. Second, it is related to P & G's products, as household detergent products, what consumers are most concerned about is the effect of the product, using USP strategy is able to promise consumers tangible benefits, which is in line with the psychology of consumers (YSakkab, 2002).2.2P & G's communications mixThrough reviewing relevant literature and reports, it has found that P & G's marketing communications mix includes television advertising, Internet marketing and public relations activities.2.2.1. Television advertising2.2.1 .1 The dissemination principles of P & G's taking television ads as the most important mediaLeaving aside the two factors that TV has formed strong position in advertising and online advertising has not yet matured, P & G pays much attention to TV ads, which is closely related to its characteristics of the product itself, the dissemination characteristics of brand image and the dissemination characteristics of TV. Daily necessaries are different from real estate, automobiles, household appliances, cameras and other durables consumable. In general, they are not suitable for print media advertising. First of all, it usually lacks the stunning and unexpected appearance, the products are consumed faster, what people have valued is the efficacy and the experience in the process of using the products, and the packaging and is disposable, so to advertise these products through the print media will not eye-catching. Second, the difference between the functions and brands of daily chemical products can hardly be displayed, nor can it be written through a few simple words clearly and convincing, and it usually requires a combination of description of continuous pictures (detail), and plot, more language (including text) to express it clearly. Third, the differences between daily chemicals products and brand images of different products are often difficult to be felt from the product itself, while it needs people’s clear expression and a vivid image in a specific scenario to let it form a deep feeling of and awareness easily. In contrast with print media, television can resolve such problems in the information dissemination of daily chemical supplies and brand image, in terms of the current status quo of means of communication, through TV advertising to convey its brand image is the best choice for daily chemical products (Tang Ying, 2007).2.2.1.2 Advantages of television advertisingAs far as the current situation is concerned, in many sub-area of the field of business communication, TV is an important technical means to promote the communication development of this, so far as today, it still the most important technical means. As mentioned above, daily chemical products should through advertising to display products efficacy, define brand positioning and show brand personality, it needs more details and a certain length for the plot, which is difficult for the print ads to do this in general, while TV ads can. For one reason, the contents of the symbol and language system which television dissemination contains is very rich, television advertising can take full advantage of a variety of languages to disseminate information; for the second, TV ads can make full use of lenses shooting techniques, all kinds of sound playback skills, a variety of screen editing techniques and a variety of sound and picture combination of techniques, which make it rich in scenes and emotional expressiveness; for the third reason, television advertisements have certain amount of time depth, which is relatively easy to create a complete plot. Taking Safeguard’s Loving Mother for example. The entire advertising is around the Love Mother and bath and sterilization can protect the family as the theme, which has vividly demonstrated its excellent brand positioning and brand personality, P & G’s brand culture atmosphere is also implied in that, namely, customers first, constant innovation and providing high-quality products. This overall effect is generally difficult to be completed by print ads.2.2.2 The Internet2.2.2.1 The important significance the Internet for dissemination of brand imageA.G. Lafley, who is the CEO of P & G has a deep understanding for the significance of the Internet for the spread of brand. He said that P & G has realized the potential role of the Internet for a brand a long time ago. Internet not only exists as an alternative channel of marketing industry, but also builds a more powerful tool for P & G to dialogue with consumers. Through this dialogue, it can better understand customers’ needs and provide more convenient solutions for their daily lives. In fact, the effect is not only a potential, it has already become a living reality. In 1998, the investigation report of the U.S. Cyber Dialogue, Online Branding: The Impact of The Internet onBrand Building has shown that, web is affecting people's initial impression of the brand. Survey found that 36% of Internet users have changed their view for one or more one kinds of products in using the Internet, survey has also found that the users who has been impressed by brands may purchase online or offline, the investigation also shows that the Internet can increase store sales (Meyerson & Scarborough, 2007).In the Internet Age, any enterprise which would like to extend their brands should consider how to make use of the Internet to spread brand image. How to use the Internet to enhance their brands has become an important topic for the top companies, P & G has also attached a great importance to its web site building. As early as the middle 20th century, P & G began the exploration of building its brand web sites, since then, its determination of continuing to increase web site building has never wavered. At present, P & G has established a global total of 72 web sites, the 72 web sites have covered almost more than 300 P & G's brands.2.2.2.2 The basic characteristics of P & G’s web site building and the dissemination theory of brand imageThe basic characteristic of P & G’s web site building is that, when it makes use of the web site to transmit its brand image, it make full use of the ‘3I’ theory.1) InformationP & G's web site has rich information which has a practical feature, it can provide as much information as possible about the brand to fully display its distinct brand positioning, personality and rich culture.2) InteractionP & G's web site attaches great importance to the interaction with consumers. In order to achieve the purpose of fully interacting with consumers, when designs web pages, P & G is really in every possible way to think about what consumers may concern. In this way, by mobilizing the enthusiasm of the visitor's interaction, P & G’s brand image has been deepened, through meticulous advice and services, it also enhances the visitors’ good impression for the brand. Ininteraction, visitors have been unknowingly involved in the building P & G’s brand.3) InstinctP & G's web site has its very special characteristics, which has clearly differ it from web sites of other similar brands.2.2.3 Public relations activitiesThe importance of public relations and its relationship with the dissemination of brand imageIn real life, public relations has been everywhere. Public relations has become a powerful tool, which can complete a number of business-critical work in today's global competitive business environment. For enterprises, public relations is a kind of dissemination activities which is through integrating an enterprise’s internal and external information resources, relations resources, image resources and dissemination resources to achieve a good public image and build its brand, thereby enhancing an enterprise’s intangible assets ( Wang Nan, 2007).An enterprise’s brand image dissemination sh ould be the core content of such dissemination activities. In enterprises in the 21st century, public relations is more important than advertising, through such dissemination activities as public relations, enterprises can be more comprehensive, more durable and more effective to disseminate its own brand image.Through a variety of public relations activities, P & G has established different ways of relations with government departments, social organizations, research institutions, schools, the medias, the general public or certain target groups, etc. These public relations activities reflect P & G’s sophisticated strategies and superb skill of brand image dissemination. In May 1999, the Fleishman-Hillard Company was commissioned by P & G to early to plan activities of news release conference for its new product- ‘Whisper’, a breathable winged sanitary napkin. The event attracted extensive media coverage and made a sensational effect. Through these activities, P & G not only allowed many participants of the activities, especially those journalists acquire an in-depth understanding of P & G’s products, but also achieved widespread media coverage. It has expanded the company's influence through the form of news reports, which has also successfullyspread its brand image - fashion, leading the trend and advocating a healthy idea, thereby spreading P & G's brand image.2.3 Costs for P & G’s marketing communications mixP & G's advertising is conducted perennially without interruption. The advertising for its products can be found on television almost every day, which is different from other brands, such as Unilever. Other brands commonly use advertising by leaps and bounds or conduct advertising campaign in market introduction stage or when busy season comes. P & G's advertising strategy without interruption is connected with its products. As a household detergent products which are consumables used by common families’ in daily lives and belong to goods which consumers buy frequently. Such as soap, washing powder, shampoo, etc, consumers often purchase every certain periods. Long-term advertising first enables consumers recognize P & G's brands, long-term advertising also gives rise to the desire of consumers’ trying to purchase, combined with products of high quality which makes consumers accept the brands and gradually become P & G's fixed consumer group, P & G's market share has also been further enhanced.When a new product is in launched, P & G’s advertising will become rich, its costs for advertising has also been significantly increased. In the early stages of new products’ entering into the market, P & G invests a lot for advertising in order to achieve a high advertising coverage. P& G is the world's largest advertiser, its annual expenditure for it is no less than 10% of its sales revenue (Larry Huston, Nabil Sakkab ,2006), the cost for it is considerable. Most of its advertising costs are used in television advertising, the costs for television advertising are mainly used for the purchase of the period of time for broadcasting television advertising, which is too expensive, the prime-time price is even astronomical, which is tens of millions or even hundreds of millions. Followed by are the costs for shooting advertising, including costs for staff related to advertising and costs for advertisement originality.When consumer know and accept the new brand, P & G then turns its strong advertising campaign into a combination of advertising and other promotional methods to continue to make consistently effort in order to enable consumers form a buying habit and improve brand loyalty. Networkingmarketing and public relation activities are the methods that it frequently uses: building web sites, online advertising, public relations activities and direct-mail advertising are also methods that it commonly uses. The advantages of promotion through the Internet lie in its new, potential characteristics, its costs include the costs of establishing and maintaining web sites, as well as advertising expenses through the Internet. The costs for network marketing are far less than for television advertising. The costs for public relation activities are mainly embodied in the cost of hired public relations firms, site costs and expenses for gifts and so on. These costs are also less than the costs for television advertising. The costs for public relation activities are mainly embodied in the cost of hired public relations firms, site costs and expenses for gifts and so on. These costs are also less than the costs for television advertising. Adoption of such publicity can be said the characteristics of P & G's advertising. When introducing new products or before the advent of busy season, to send merchandises directly to consumers and allow them use to have some evaluation of whether to buy, the forms of the two methods are also relatively cost-effective.Chapter III ConclusionP & G's advertising has always had a commitment of the important interests to consumers, that is, an USP, its ad is close around this USP to develop. The USP is often proceeds from the function of the products, emphasizing the special effects of a product. For example, Safeguard soap emphasizes its sterilization and prolonged suppression of bacteria. The means of P & G's appeal emphasizes on the rational appeal. Rational appeals refers to advertising targets at audience's intellectual motivation, through true, accurate, reasoning and other thinking processes to make a rational decision. P & G's ad is in this way to tell consumers if they purchase P & G’s products, what kinds of interest they would acquire, so as to achieve the purpose of persuading consumers to buy. Because of its unique advantages in the dissemination of brand image, TV advertising becomes the first choice of method for P & G’s advertising to satisfy customers’ rational appeals. And as network coverage can provide customers with large volumes of information and interact with consumers, as well as it has a unique personality, which enables it become the other methodthat P& G adopts to meet customers rational appeals. Public relations’ advantag es in establishing brand image and enhancing consumer experience also make it become and important method of advertising that P & G choose to meet customers’ rational appeals.P& G’s making a wide use of rational appeals which target at the functions of it s products has certain relation with its multi-brand strategy. The various brands of P & G’s products have been carried out independent accounting fees to encourage competition among brands, in management, it also implements independent brand management, using different brand positioning for each brand, thereby creating the own brand personality of each product’s. When implements its advertising promotion, it focuses on this brand personality-USP in advertising. For example, Head & Shoulders shampoo takes to get rid of dandruff as its brand personality, P & G's other brands are also through this means to build their own brand personality, respectively and effectively, thereby achieving a certain degree of market position. At the same time, the competition among a number of brands on the market does not affect the sales volume of P & G products, on the contrary, it helps to improve the company's overall market share and reduces the risk of a single brand.Looking at P & G’s advertising for products, it is almost a process, it seems that there are different products which come from the same production line. Its performance of advertising is even more identical, each product firmly grasps a same USP to conduct its advertising. P & G's advertisement originality is not recognized by the advertisement industry, because there is really nothing special, they almost all state the products' features directly to consumers. However, it can not deny that it is admit that it is relying on this kind of advertising strategy that makes P & G achieve such great success in the United States, China and the world. It can be said that such advertising strategy reflects P & G's wisdom and stubbornness.Multiple brands and a large number of advertising have caused great advertising investment, P & G has always been spared no expense on advertising. The long-term advertising and sales promotion for every product are not a small sum of expenditure. What’s more, its investment for the introduction of new products is unm atched by other companies’. In addition, the competition between its multi-brand strategy of multiple brands also result in a large advertising investment.References[1] Boulding W, Lee E, Staelin R. (1994). Mastering The Mix: Do Advertising, Promotion, And Sales Force Activities Lead to Differentiation .Journal of Marketing Research, 31(2):159-172.[2] Larry Huston, Nabil Sakkab. (2006). Connect and Develop: Inside Procter & Gamble‘s New Model for Innovation. Harvard Business Review, (3): 58-66 .[3] Mitch Meyerson, Mary Eule Scarborough. (2007). 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