P&G’s Product Life Cycle (PLC): Weaknesses
An overview of the firm’s PLC will point to the fact that the company is currently in its maturity stage. With a powerful introduction occurring in 1947 and the following gradual growth occurring primarily in the 2000s, the firm has already established most of its brands in the global market. Although the decline stage is yet to be expected, a closer look at the current PLC of P&G will show that it has several problems.
On the one hand, the focus on the R&D aspect of the company’s function can be viewed as a positive phenomenon. However, the lack of enthusiasm for the design and introduction of new brands is a problem. On the one hand, the entrepreneurship no longer needs active promotion as it has already established a strong presence in the target environment. On the other hand, the lack of focus on the design of new products may cause the entrepreneurship to be surpassed by other companies that have enough potential to become dominant in the target environment (P&G names top suppliers, 2008).
Another obvious weakness in the current design of the company’s PLC will show that it allows for other entrants to become successful in the target market, therefore, losing its recent position in the global economy as the leading organization. Finally, the fact that entrepreneurship does not make any attempts at revamping some of its old brands or introduce a new product that could take the market by storm and, therefore, help it maintain its maturity stage for a bit longer needs to be mentioned.
Product Design
The brand product that is bound to bring the company the popularity that it used to enjoy should be created based on the idea of environmentalism and sustainability. Given the significance of environmentalist ideas nowadays, target customers are bound to pay close attention to the new product and the features that it includes. Therefore, P&G should market its environmental awareness and the benefits that natural elements-based products can offer to buyers.
Strategies
To make the position of the entrepreneurship in the target market stronger, the company leaders should consider putting a stronger emphasis on the R&D process. Thus, new products that will take the customers by storm again can be designed. Another idea that should be viewed as essential in the global economy, the emphasis on the advertising and a strong promotion campaign may be viewed as an option. Finally, it could be suggested that the firm should apply the concept of sustainability and lean management to minimize waste and save a sufficient amount of money on expanding into the global economy.
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
At first glance, the SCM strategy adopted by P&G has no basic differences from the ones used by other organizations. It contains the foundational elements that every company needs to succeed in the global economy realm (i.e., suppliers (Cly-Del Manufacturing, Co. (P&G names top suppliers, 2008)), the manufacturing, the distribution, the retail, and the customer (i.e., middle-class citizens of all ages)).
A second look at the framework, however, will show that the company’s approach is much more sophisticated. Specifically, the discovery of the phenomenon known as the bullwhip effect and implying that “orders to the supplier tend to have a larger variance than sales to the buyer (i.e. demand distortion), and the distortion propagates upstream in an amplified form (i.e. variance amplification)” (Skaksen, 2011, p. 3) must be mentioned as by far one of the greatest accomplishments of the company marketers in the field of customer behavior and the supply chain functioning.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
To improve P&G’s performance, one should consider the application of a TQM framework. Particularly, the customer focus will have to be considered as the primary aspect that P&G should pay attention to. Although the current customer communication issues cannot be viewed as detrimental to the firm’s success, a better understanding of the new clients’ needs should be promoted as the tool for increasing the profit margins of the entrepreneurship.
Customer Focus
A more detailed analysis of the target customers will have to be carried out. For instance, an elaborate customer segmentation should be viewed as an option. Apart from focusing on gender and age, it will be necessary to target people of different cultures. Moreover, people of different incomes will have to be considered. To be more exact, the line of luxurious products should be introduced to the market along with its cheaper substitutes and the “golden mean” for people of an average income.
Planning
The planning process, in its turn, will have to include a more efficient time management approach. Also, customer-focused values will have to be adopted to plan the company’s further course of action.
Process Management
The production process, as well as the rest of the actions carried out in the environment of the company, will have to be supervised carefully, with regular reports concerning the efficacy of the participants. As a result, a rapid increase in quality can be expected.
Process Improvement
The improvement of the process will occur once P&G renews its inventory. The acquisition of the latest technological advances to enhance the production process and reduce the number of defects is imperative. The firm will survive the expenses once the principle of Lean Manufacturing is used to reduce waste and sustainably use the resources.
Process Participation
As it has been stressed above, it will be necessary to make sure that all company members are involved in the process. The enthusiasm rates will have to be increased with the help of financial incentives and public recognition of the staff’s success.
TQM Tool
As it has been stressed above, it is imperative to focus on the quality of P&G’s products at present. For this purpose, a cause and effect diagram should be used (Amasaka, 2014). Since entrepreneurship is affected by a variety of factors and needs to learn to navigate in the complex environment of the global economy, it must be able to identify the effects which each of the factors has on it.
Just-in-Time Framework (JIT)
Advantages
The JIT framework will help P&G reduce the inventory costs (Hansen & Mowen, 2014), which is crucial for the firm as it will have to consider a sustainable use of resources. Also, the production process is split into short stages, therefore, providing the managers with an opportunity to track down every single problem that may emerge in the process. Finally, the approach helps reduce the producer surplus rates, therefore, also contributing to the promotion of lean economy as the basis for the company’s functioning.
Impact on Quality
JIT will also affect quality significantly. For instance, as it as been stressed above, JIT contributes to waste reduction. In other words, the number of defective items is bound to drop. Moreover, the JIT strategy helps reduce the waiting time between different stages of project completion. Finally, JIT serves as a means of reducing expenses, thus, allowing for a larger budget and, therefore, an opportunity to improve the company’s quality rates (Kaynak, 2013).
Forecasting
Qualitative Tool
Defining the appropriate qualitative method of forecasting, one must give credit to the market research. The above method of forecasting has been used for quite long by a countless number of organizations and, therefore, can be deemed as a time-tested method.
Table 1. Operation Characteristics.
Marketing research is a powerful tool for collecting data concerning the opportunities that a company is most likely to enjoy in the designated environment. The chances for conducting in-depth analysis and identifying a variety of details that could, later on, be used to attract the target audience successfully should be brought up.
Unfortunately, market research also has its problems, the time and financial resources to be used on it are the primary sources of concern. Also, it will be impossible to embrace every single factor and identify all possible customers. Therefore, the outcomes of the forecast are bound to be rather approximate.
Quantitative Tool
The Time Series approach, in its turn, can be considered a good tool for identifying the patterns in P&G’s performance so that a forecast could be drawn later on.
Table 2. Operations Characteristics.
The Time Series framework, in its turn, allows for a detailed analysis of the tendencies in the company’s performance. It serves as the means of locating the possible outcomes of the marketing campaign with high precision rates. Also, there is a possibility that the data may be corrupted, yet the chances for checking it are going to be very low. Finally, the overall uncertainty of the statistical information retrieved as a result of the analysis should be noted among the primary problems with the Time Series approach.
Choosing the right track for the further development is a challenging task of P&G given the PLC stage that it is currently in; however, the incorporation of the TQM approach and the principles of lean manufacturing into its framework will help it create a viable marketing approach and design the brand product that will make it popular again. While the above strategies cannot be considered an end in itself, they, nevertheless, serve as a strong foundation that P&G can stand on to regain its position in the target market.
Reference List
Amasaka, K. (2014). New JIT, new management technology principle. New York, NY: CRC Press.
Djokov, G. (2014). The economics of competition: The race to monopoly. New York, NY: Routledge.
Hansen, D. R., & Mowen, M. M. (2014). Cornerstones of cost management. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Kaynak, H. (2013). Total Quality Management and Just-in-Time purchasing: Their effects on the performance of firms operating in the U.S. New York, NY: Routledge.
P&G names top suppliers. (2008). Web.
Skaksen, L. (2011). Bullwhip – Forrester effect: The causes of bullwhip – Forrester effect. Berlin: GRIN Verlag.