Mary Kay Blakely (20th century, U.S. journalist) once said,
In an ideal
society, mothers and fathers would produce potty-trained, civilized,
responsible new citizens while government and corporate leaders would
provide a safe, healthy, economically just community.
Make it so.
For those corporate leaders who work in the media relations departments at
Proctor & Gamble or Kimberly-Clark, making diapers smell good in the
media is an interesting challenge with opportunities to boost marketing efforts
and build customer loyalty from parents and kids. Soooo, Mary Kay Blakely - what if corporate leaders could help
produce the potty-training that citizens of a safe, healthy,
economically just community require? After all, inadequate
potty-training never plays well in the boardrooms of America. No matter
where the prestigious MBA on the resume came from, just a couple of
poop-related incidents in the wrong setting can seriously kill a career.
Jean, you know we had you on the fast track to CFO, but we just can't shake that image from the last three executive briefings. Did your parents put you in Huggies or Pampers as a baby?
Mr. Darwin? Paging Mr. Charles Darwin.
Huggies promises to be shaped for your unique
baby. Finally, after sending men to the moon and inventing the smoothie machine, someone had time to design a diaper to fit a baby. Unique? The last time we looked, most babies had all of their pretty standard parts in the same pretty standard arrangement as far as baby bodies go.
Pampers offers to meet your baby's changing needs
. Yes, babies need changing. But P&G is also appealing to that good parenting gene in us as if what's in a diaper and where it comes from may have undergone some evolutionary change since 1970 which requires better parenting through better diapers.
Kandoo brand? Made for kid's little hands and fingers. As a matter of
containment, wouldn't it make more sense if they were made to fit on
their bottoms?
Before I Sat on the Board, I Sat on Pampers.
Pampers or Huggies? Proctor & Gamble or Kimberly-Clark? Unstoppable baby
or one who doesn't want their fun interrupted? Respective advertising
copy aside, it is difficult to find fault with either company's brand PR
concepts. Diaper technology is better than ever, disposable diapers are being sold around the globe and the world population keeps producing babies that need them. Unstoppable baby might raise a
stink at times and be a real handful to travel with, but a baby who
doesn't want their fun interrupted can't always be a blast for the
innocent bystanders either. Choose those diapers wisely. That kid could
be (gasp!) a corporate leader
one day.
Win the Battles, Win the War
The financial news suggests that Huggies sales are increasing faster than
their competitors' sales, but Pampers is kicking butt (no pun intended) in the PR battle with millions more positive impressions each month. Perhaps
Proctor & Gamble's eye toward evolution and making a product for little hands and
fingers is the correct strategy after all. Or maybe Kimberly-Clark has
a Huggies brand PR campaign coming up that will boost their positively rated coverage in support of their marketing team's efforts to win parents' hearts and wallets.
