For this Cinci brand blog, we have chosen to spotlight one of the largest consumer goods corporations in the world: P&G. This giant company employs over 90,000 people and produces millions of different types of cleaning products, food items, beverages, and so much more to fill up grocery store shelves globally.

In the early days of America, William Procter and James Gamble emigrated from the United Kingdom to begin their businesses in Cincinnati. Not long after in 1837, they met when they had married their spouses who were sisters, and their father-in-law convinced them to go into business together to increase their chances of success. The candlemaker and soapmaker soon would employ over 80 people, and reach sales of $1 million nearly 20 years later due to a contract with Union Army to supply soldiers with the proper care that they required. Fast forward 30 years and P&G has now invented a soap that floats in water called ivory. They also began to grow at such a fast pace that they decided to start building other factories since the Cincinnati location could no longer hold as much product needed to expand. 

With this boom of business, P&G has now started to take business to the international level, adding many new products such as Tide laundry detergent, Crest toothpaste, and Charmin toilet paper. The acquisitions of these popular brands continue to build their monster brand until 2005 when they purchased Gilette, P&G became the largest consumer goods corporation. However, with all of this fantastic business, comes some downfalls. P&G made the tough decision to begin selling off sections of their company in order to focus more on the parts of their business that were more successful. Some of the products sold off are IAMs, the dog food brand, Pringles, the food corporation, and much of their prescription drug brands. Clearly, their tactic has worked considering the massive amount of success that the corporation is still seeing to this day, over 180 years later.

With all of the loyal consumers P&G has, how did they reach this level of brand triumph? More recently, the company has had many different campaigns that take on controversial, relatable topics. One of the more well-known campaigns was the, “Like a Girl” campaign that featured the Always brand who produces feminine care products. The commercial showed young girls that would talk about how being a girl does not mean that you are weak, rather that you are strong and powerful. This campaign and its hashtag became wildly popular and began to shed more light on the topic of female equality in the workplace.

Another notable campaign from P&G was the #ThankYouMom campaign during the Olympic games of 2016. The commercials started with many moms taking their child to their sports practices, and followed the pair throughout the years, up to the point of the Olympics where the athlete would then thank their mom. One of the reasons why this campaign was incredibly successful was due to the fact that everyone was able to relate to it. Products that featured the banner from the campaign increased sales to record highs and created an image for P&G that they are a brand that cares about family. Overall, this Cincinnati brand has not only created so many helpful products that we use in our daily lives but have also helped shape our communities with the amount of thought put into their campaigns.