CINCINNATI: Procter & Gamble, the FMCG giant, is aiming to provide "leadership levels of marketing support" for its brands, as it seeks to drive growth both during and after the downturn, according to its chief financial officer, Jon Moeller.

Speaking at an event organised by Morgan Stanley, Moeller said P&G is targeting "profitable market share growth" this year, having been forced to take "urgent" action following the onset of the recession.

"This starts with growing our core business, our top brands in our big markets where we already play," he continued. "We'll do this by leveraging our core company strengths including consumer understanding, innovation and branding."

More specifically, this process will involve developing its portfolio in different price tiers, entering more markets, and establishing a presence in new categories.

"It is through reaching more consumers and serving them more completely that we build market share, grow sales and grow profits," said Moeller.

While industry growth is set to remain below the recent average in 2009 and 2010, P&G still plans to make "significant incremental investments in marketing" during the second half of its fiscal year.

TNS reported that the company had reduced its advertising outlay by 20% between January and June in the US, to $1.2 billion (€801m; £722m), but Moeller said its "media impressions" will rise 10% over the full fiscal year.

"We'll continue to invest behind our brands with leadership levels of marketing support. This will allow us to better communicate the performance and value our brands provide for consumers and their families," he suggested.

The Cincinnati-based firm is also devoting more resources to marketing than price- or promotion-led strategies, so as to ensure that communications are delivering the right news to its target audience.

"We want to make sure consumers know that they are getting more cleaning ingredients in Tide, and know that Gillette Fusion can provide the best shave available for as little as a buck a week," said Moeller.

"Messages like these, and messages that drive trial and new innovations, will continue to be a prime focus in our communications with consumers."

Innovation is another field in which the owner of Bounty and Pringles is heightening its activity, and Moeller said its output in this area will increase in by 30% on an annual basis over the next year.

Recent product launches include the premium Ariel Excel Gel and Ariel Professional in Western Europe, as well as Tide Stain Release in the US, all of which have delivered market share gains.

In the feminine hygiene sector, new value and high-end versions of Always will also be added in the US and Western Europe, while a low-cost variant of Naturella is to set go on sale in China and India.

"We continue to seeing the top, the premium tier growing, as well as the bottom tier growing. What's not growing as much is the middle, and that's really explained by the consumers' search for value," said Moeller.

"For some consumers, price is a significant part of their value equation, and we need to have a value tier offering available for them. Other consumers define value more closely correlated to performance, and they want the best product we can deliver."

In terms of pricing, Moeller described the situation as "fluid", meaning P&G's policy would be subject to a broader range of factors than commodity costs.

The main driver of its approach is a proprietary "weight of purchase intent" tool, which measures the performance of its brands against the competition, be it branded or private label goods.

Looking even further forward, two main demographic shifts will be the ageing of the population in many developed markets, and the growth

Data sourced from Procter & Gamble; additional content by Warc staff