CINCINNATI: Brands must be "purpose-driven", and have a clear sense of the role they play in the lives of consumers, according to Melanie L. Healey, group president of Procter & Gamble's global feminine and healthcare operations.

AG Lafley, P&G's chairman, has long emphasised the importance of understanding that the "consumer is boss," while Jim Stengel, the company's former cmo, similarly argued that a "rich relationship" is key to successful advertising.

Speaking at the recent Magazine Innovation Summit in New York, Healey said "you need to be purpose-driven. You need to know what it is that you really want to do for the consumer."

"Having a purpose for the brand and going after it in several different ways is really important," both in terms of fostering creativity, and improving popular perceptions of the product in question, she added.

By way of an example, the goal of P&G's feminine care unit is to "create life-improving experiences that women live every day, everywhere."

This overarching mission statement "inspires everything we do. If something doesn't serve that purpose, we don't do it," Healey continued.

A stress on fostering "really meaningful" interactions with current and potential customers has been one of the major motivations behind much of P&G's recent activity, such as its moves to develop a range of different online communities.

These have included Being Girl, a web platform targeted specifically at teenage girls, which is said to have proved more impactful with this audience than more traditional forms of advertising.

Similarly, the Protecting Futures initiative, linked to the Cincinnati-based firm's Tampax and Always ranges, provides education and support to girls of this age in developing markets.

Two essentials in driving these sorts of schemes, Healey continued, are leadership and organisational models which facilitate innovation.

"You need leaders that inspire and encourage the organisation to go after creative solutions that add value for the consumer, but you need structure as well, because otherwise, you end up going after everything," she said.

More specifically, P&G's approach to innovation can be disruptive, such as entering new categories or markets, seek to sustain and develop its existing brands, or use consumer insight to drive growth without altering its products, she added.

With regard to the first of these trends, Healey said that "learning and failing and learning again quickly" is vital.

Furthermore, "designing small, nimble organisations that can really nail the opportunity and design around that opportunity" means it is possible to "fail cheaply", rather than losing millions of dollars, she said.

The FMCG giant has established a specialist unit, FutureWorks, with the self-defined aim of creating "adjacencies and new business models for P&G brands in high-growth categories that are on-equity, strategic and service-based."

The owner of Gillette and Duracell also holds regular meetings of board members who assess ideas from within the company, rewarding employees that come up with strong suggestions, and runs regular "hot houses" on specific topics.

One area where the world's biggest advertiser has previously committed to substantially increasin

Data sourced from MediaPost/BrandWeek; additional content by Warc staff