Procter and Gamble chairman and CEO A.G. Lafley was just named "Grand Marketer of the Year" by trade mag Brandweek. I dig Brandweek's take on the industry, and I dig Lafley more. He took moribund old-school behemoth and turned it into a cutting-edge innovation breeding ground. This from the magazine:
Lafley credited P&G's post-2000 turnaround to marketing methods that he called "pleasant surprises."
For example, putting mirrored ads in women's bathrooms asking, "Is your lipstick still on?" and running targeted five-second TV spots with the same theme helped P&G increase its sales of its Cover Girl Outlast lipstick by 25%.
Hit consumers where they don't expect it and offer a positive solution, he advised:
"It's not about being at all the touchpoints, it's about being at the right touchpoints when the consumer is open to it."
It's one thing when little ol' me champions the power of Surprise; it's another thing when a guy like Lafley does, and espouses it in a keynote speech.
Not that there have been too many challenges to this theme so far, but I'm putting Lafley's quote into a "Vindication File" if the need to call up heavy artillery ever arises.