Internet Market Research: P&G

Procter and Gamble (P&G) and Colgate-Palmolive have been competitors for decades. Before it used to take 5 years to launch a product after the concept was developed. Companies used to send out product photos and descriptions to potential consumers to ask them their opinions about the product and whether they would buy it or not. If the comments were negative, the products would be ameliorated and the previous process would be conducted again. Once consumers found the products satisfactory, they would be given some samples to try out with some questionnaires to fill out. When the customers' feedback was positive enough, the the company would start conducting mass advertisement on T.V.


However, when P&G started using the Internet to do its market research, its research time was reduced to 3 years and a half. This was the case for the Whitestrips, the teeth whitening product. It was very fast for P&G to get the sales of the Whitestrips to reach $200 million a year. This happened a lot faster than for other products.


P&G achieved this because in September 2000, thew out the old marketing research method and decided to launch the Whitestrips on the Internet on its P&G website. The company spent a few months analyzing the website's traffic and looking at the responses collected from questionnaires.This was a lot faster than the old mail-out method. The data collected from the Internet, revealed that teenage girls, brides-to-be, and young Hispanic Americans were vey interested in the Whitestrips. Consequently, the company decided to target these segments. The Internet created a brand awareness of 35% even before the product was available in stores. The buzz online created a large demand before the product hit shelves. The Internet changed the way that market research and market segmentation is done.

Turban, Efraim, and David King.Introduction to e-commerce. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2003. Print.