With social media becoming increasingly important and fewer

people watching traditional commercials on television, what does

P&G need to do to maintain its strong brand images?
Brand image is the impression in the consumers' mind of a
brand's total personality. Brand image is developed over time
through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme, and is
authenticated through the consumers' direct experience.
Fewer people are watching televisions worldwide, which
translates to advertisements broadcasted on television having a
smaller reach of potential consumers. This signals danger for
Procter and Gamble as spends a huge proportion of its budget on
advertising on televisions and reduced reach of customers might
affect the development of P&Gs brand image. At the same time,
internet users has more than doubled over the past six years
(http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/04/19/world-internet-populationhas-doubled-in-the-last-5-years/). Various avenues of social media
websites have also amassed popularity among the general public.
A very good example is Facebook, with its number of users
increasing from a mere 1 million in 2004 to about 1.01 billion as
of 2012 (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/number-active-usersfacebook-over-years-214600186--finance.html). The opportunity
of capturing these group of online consumers to increase its
market share, coupled with the relatively lower costs of
advertising products online has caused the Chief Executive
Officer of P&G, Bob McDonald to consider moving their products
to the digital realm (http://www.mmm-online.com/pg-signalsplans-to-cut-ad-costs-by-shifting-to-digital-media/article/225878/).
The lower cost of advertising products online is due to videos
created being able to be shared on social networking sites for
free. This means that the only cost that has to be incurred would
be the cost of designing and developing the advertisement itself.
The importance of social media as a new platform of advertising
P&Gs products is undeniable. However, that does not mean it is
the end for television advertisements
(http://blogs.forrester.com/tracy_stokes/12-03-19pg_brand_building_goes_digital_but_this_is_not_the_end_of_tv_ad
vertising). People in certain countries like the United States are
still on the average, spending a significant amount of time
consuming traditional media
(http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-

movies/americans-spend-34-hours-week-watching-tv-nielsennumbers-article-1.1162285). This indicates worldwide decrease of

average time spent on watching television does not mean the
same for every single country. Hence, it would not be wise to
phase television advertisements out entirely. A better suggestion
would be to have advertisements on both traditional and social
media. More specifically, advertisements should be still used in
countries where the television viewership is still significant. In
countries where television viewership has reduced to a new low,
P&G can consider reducing the amounts spent on television
advertisements. P&G should also set aside money to develop
videos and posters that could be posted on social media websites
and make them viral by introducing innovative measures. These
advertisements should have the P&G logo so as to enable
consumers to be aware of P&Gs product portfolio. P&G can also
have contests like the implementation of a Facebook Like and
Share contest whereby participants can create their own P&G
poster, upload them on P&Gs facebook page and share them.
The poster with the greatest number of likes and scores by the
judges will receive a price. P&G also gains by having the poster
as part of its marketing campaign.
Another way for P&G to maintain its strong brand image would be
to conduct exhibitions to enable consumers to have a better
understanding of its history and current range of products.
Increasingly, consumers are more inclined to purchase products
that are produced through socially responsible methods and
leveraging on this fact, P&G can have a campaign on
environmental sustainability and research on more eco-friendly
ways of producing their packaging and containers for their
products so as to improve its brand image. For this, P&G can also
liaise with non-profit organisations to sponsor them with their
products in conducting the activities