How P&G's immersion research method builds world-class brands

Executive overview

Most brands compete on product features and lose share to rivals doing the same. The lesson from decades of P&G brand building is that consumers don't want better products — they want brands that understand and align with their values.

Immersion research — spending time in consumers' lives rather than surveying their preferences — is the core discipline that separates durable brands from commodities.

The same principle applies today: strategy stays constant, tactics shift to wherever consumers are spending their attention.

Three case studies in immersion research

• Jif Peanut Butter: Instead of competing on peanut butter features, the team asked parents what mattered in their lives — the answer was education. Formed alliances with PTA organisations, tied sales to school funding, and revived "Choosy mothers choose Jif." Result: record share, record sales, record profit.
• Pampers: Huggies was gaining share in Europe and globally. The team reframed the brand from "keeps babies dry" to advocate for baby's physical, social, and psychological development. Launched Pampers Phases (size-by-development-stage). Over 12 years, tripled revenue and made Pampers P&G's biggest brand.
• Downy in Latin America: Spent time in low-income households where families carried water long distances to do laundry. R&D developed a low-suds formula that worked in a single load of water. A reformulated product became a major global hit — discovered only because the team was in people's homes, not behind a desk.

Data and immersion are not alternatives

• Stengel's early nickname at P&G was "Jeff of Dataman" — he analysed market data obsessively.
• Immersion and data must be used together; each alone produces blind spots.
• Insights emerge when you use both sides of your brain — quantitative signals and direct human observation.
• P&G's top management team did immersion before every quarterly meeting: spent time with people unlike themselves before reviewing numbers.

What it means to build a brand around values

• Brands that win long-term stand for something that aligns with what customers care about — not just what they want in a product.
• JIF aligned with parenting and education. Pampers aligned with child development. Downy aligned with making daily life easier for low-income families.
• Purpose needs to be consistent with company heritage, customer values, and the product's genuine strengths — not bolted on.
• When the fit is real, loyalty and awareness compound. When it's performative, it backfires.

Navigating politics and social issues

• Brands that take political or social positions without consulting employees deeply tend to make bad calls.
• Stay close to customers: understand what they value and what they don't want brands to weigh in on.
• Consistency matters more than the position itself — Nike's Kaepernick partnership caused a short-term stock dip but rebounded because it was authentic and Nike didn't wobble.
• Long-term commitment works: Pampers' UNICEF tetanus-elimination partnership ran 20 years and was "fabulous for the brand and fabulous for the world."
• Younger consumers punish brands that don't deliver on what they say — not necessarily brands that are politically neutral.

How the strategy shifts in a social media era

• The underlying strategy is unchanged: go where your consumers are, understand who influences them, and act on it.
• What changes is tactics: mass TV spend no longer buys 90% awareness. Attention must now be earned, not purchased.
• Brands winning today (e.g. Kraft Heinz, Viori) follow the consumer to where they are and "unleash" their organisations to create entertaining, engaging work.
• Influencer marketing is the modern form of the same old strategy — find a credible expert or advocate who genuinely believes in the product and let them speak in their circles. The platform is new; the logic is not.
• Influencer relevance is volatile. Brands must stay continuously in touch to know who matters to their audience right now.

Liquid Death and the value of genuine differentiation

• Liquid Death succeeded not just through entertainment and provocative branding, but through real product differentiation: canned water (anti-plastic), targeting health-conscious consumers who wanted an alternative to sugary drinks.
• The skull-and-metal-lettering aesthetic made it a "purple cow" — too strange to ignore on a shelf.
• High Noon took a simpler route: great product, clear insight (light daytime canned drink), strong distribution, solid fundamentals. Also became a category leader.
• Both cases show that entertainment and aesthetics amplify a real point of difference — they don't substitute for one.

How small brands break through

• Start with a precise answer to: who specifically is this for? "People 18+" is not an answer.
• Find the group who will get the most benefit from your product and focus entirely on them first.
• A thousand genuine fans can be a force multiplier — they advocate, spread, and build awareness faster than paid reach.
• Early P&G strategy for Febreze: started with cigarette smokers (high-odour problem), then expanded to smelly teenagers, then broader segments. Each expansion was deliberate and evidence-based.
• Once a core group becomes advocates, treat them as force multipliers and expand from there.