Order Description

Developing New Products & Services; Managing Brands
Firms need to innovate to respond to changing customer needs, prevent declines in sales from market saturation, diversify their risk, and respond to short product life cycles due to lack of product differentiation. Introducing successful new products is difficult; new-product development is risky, and many new products fail. Every product passes through several life-cycle stages and each stage poses new challenges requiring different marketing strategies and tactics.

We will look at how companies develop and manage products and brands. The product is usually the first and most basic marketing consideration.

P & G’s Secret Deodorant: Finding Inspiration in Perspiration
Secret deodorant was the first deodorant brand marketed exclusively to women in 1956. For some 50 years, the brand held a prominent market position. However, Secret brand management believed the brand was losing its relevance with its target market. The challenge facing the brand’s management team was to modernize the brand by making it relevant to a new generation of consumers.

The video case describes the thought process and program execution behind the “purpose-driven marketing” initiative for P&G’s Secret deodorant. As such, the case provides a contemporary look at how social media can be used in brand building. Moreover, the case permits a discussion about the link between fundamental consumer behavior and brand management concepts.

This case provides a “behind-the-scenes” look at the award-winning social media campaign for Secret deodorant. Equally important, it encourages you to link such concepts as the hierarchy of needs and brand equity to the marketing of Secret. In this way, you should come to appreciate the underlying theory that guided the development of the Secret campaign even though the terminology does not appear in the written case or video.
Sources
How Secret Found Inspiration in Perspiration . (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2016, from Adage.com: https://adage.com/article/news/secret-secret-finding-inspiration-perspiration/231791/

The History of a Fearless Brand. (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2016, from Secret.com: https://www.secret.com/en-us/about/deodorant-history

Background on Secret:
• Read the video case in the textbook on pages 315-318. (ATTACHED)
• Watch the Secret video at Background on Secret:
https://www.viddler.com/embed/2cca4d39/?f=1&autoplay=0&player=full&disablebranding=0
Secret Campaigns
• Explore Proctor & Gamble’s Secret campaigns “Let Her Jump” and “Mean Stinks”.
o Let Her Jump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYrqfs6tAY
o Mean Stinks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYrqfs6tAY
o

Based on the information provided above as well as internet research, put yourself in the position of a marketing consultant brought in to Proctor and Gamble to formulate a set of well-developed and supported recommendations to revitalize its 50 year old brand, Secret. present your recommendations to the company’s senior leadership team. Your recommendations should be based on a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of its prior marketing strategies.