Branding Aspect of Proctor and Gamble’s Pantene vs. its Competitors

Abstract

Brands play a critical role in a firm's international marketing strategy. A coherent international brand analysis is a key component of the firm's overall international marketing strategy as it provides a framework to leverage strong brands into other markets, assimilate acquired brands, and rationalize the firm's international branding strategy. This research looks at the various components of brand analysis found among P&G’s Pantene and a sample of large international competitors of Pantene. Proctor and Gamble enjoys a healthy image in the market. Unlike companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, who believe in promoting the products with the company’s name, Proctor and Gamble believes in creating strong brand names and a unique image for each product. As a product, Pantene Pro-V is a blockbuster-the planet's best-selling shampoo, with annual sales topping one billion dollars. Pantene Pro-V is the world's number one shampoo. Well over one and a half million people purchase a Pantene product every day. Pantene Pro-V is also one of the most important brands for consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. Pantene Pro-V is one of P&G's top three brands and a consistent contributor to the company's growth. Pantene has an efficient market intermediation setup. Pantene’s strong distribution network is one of its competitive strengths. Pantene’s marketing program is also greatly affected by certain internal forces. There is a plethora of companies on the market hammering out shampoos for different segments everyday. Pantene alone has six sub brands catering to different needs of the customers. Product choice is vast and customer switching cost is low; consumers are frequently seen changing their shampoos and experimenting with different brands. Shampoos of P&G have high market share in their product categories and are consider being market leaders.