Last month, we reported that multinational company Proctor & Gamble had decided to rework its marketing department, deeming that division of the company its new "branding" department. The focus, the business said, was to place a special emphasis on the brand itself, accentuating its products directly over other marketing methods.
What does this mean exactly? P&G said quite openly that it wants to break ties with traditional advertising vehicles, suggesting that by doing so, its brands would be more connectible with consumers who may find them otherwise unapproachable.
But in the days since, some in the marketing space have questioned whether or not P&G's move was even necessary. In the age of internet marketing solutions, there are doubts that a specific focus on branding is needed.
According to CMO Magazine, several executives in ecosystem remarked that the P&G decision isn't necessarily a good or bad thing, but that it highlights the role of brand awareness in a digitized age.
"No one else in the business can be responsible for the brand asset metric. Whereas digital, product development, pricing, portfolio management are often times shared with other parts of the business," Australian Marketing Institute board member Tara Lordsmith told the publication. "However, marketing is about shaping the future, not recording the past. So with that as a guiding light, marketers should be driving the health of the brands and the business."
Ultimately, only time will tell if P&G made the right choice. Given the long-term scale of internet marketing services, there's no doubt that both positive and negative impacts will be felt by any company that makes a decisive shift to their strategies.