07.20.11
This week, Procter & Gamble will unveil a new facility in Cincinnati to aggregate demand planning using computer models. By relying on technology, rather than people, to develop predictive models, the world’s biggest consumer product company can run the business in real-time and enable all employees to get the same data at the same time.
The goal, of course, is to streamline decision-making, cut costs and create a better experience for P&G’s 4.2 billion customers. For example, rather than rely on 1-800 numbers on product labels to gather info, P&G brand managers can get info from every tweet, blog and email that mentions P&G products. That closeness helped the company reinvent the Old Spice brand via its “Smell like a man, man,” campaign.
“Advertising is very different today,” P&G CEO Bob McDonald told Fortune. “You don’t talk to somebody. You engage them in a discussion and you give them the freedom to participate in that discussion and actually to advertise for you.”