While many senior executives continue to talk about the "voice of the customer," few demonstrate their commitment to this concept by spending time with customers. Many continue to use their intuition or `golden gut' in their attempt to provide superior customer value. Unfortunately, `senior executive intuition' is rarely attuned to the needs of their customers. While the competitive environment continues to intensify, executives have cut back on the time devoted to customers just when it should be increasing. This article discusses the need for senior executives to spend time with customers and provides examples of the benefits that this approach will provide.

The objective of this study is two fold. The first part of the study deals with the evolution of Brand Management, while the second part considers Procter and Gamble (P&G) as the focal firm and tries to determine the various stages through which brand management systems evolved in P&G. The study examines the evolution of P&G strategies from the 1930s till the beginning of the present century. It discusses in detail the company's effort to constantly evolve its brand management model in response to the changes in the external environment, customer needs, and preferences. The paper also examines P&G's major brand management systems, such as the concept of `brand manager', the category management model, the `glocal' branding strategy and the `cohort' management strategy. It also explains the rationale for a major restructuring exercise initiated by the company, called `Organisation 2005', a six year long program; and the distribution of the brand portfolio associated with it. The study analyzes the brand management system of P&G, the rationale for its changes with time, the evolution of the new system, and the strategies resorted to; and collates the inferences which could be of use for other organizations.

The above statement bears the significance that no brand management system is universal and has to keep changing from time to time to remain successful. Even if we look into the history of Brand Management we will find that the system has passed through distinct phases from having a common manager for a group of categories, to managers for specific brands and has reverted to category or cohort managers. Low and Fullerton (1994) have divided the history of the brand management system into four distinct categories.

Branding ushered in a new revolution in marketing. But there was resistance to this new field. There was resistance from three different fronts. The customers resisted from shifting from their age-old buying behaviour to a new one. The retailers resisted because of the fear of losing sales of their in-house products. Lastly, there was opposition from inside the company such as in P&G where Harley Procter² restrained from vigorously advertising the Ivory Soap. However, in spite of all resistance the manufacturer brands made steady progress in the period from 1910 to 1914.

Brand Management and P&G: Analysis and Learnings, IUP Journal of Brand Management, Saptarshi Purkayastha, evolution of Brand Management, Procter and Gamble (P&G) , P&G strategies.