- 2024-03-14
- 阅读量：5147
- 来源｜Cosmetic Business Online
- 作者｜Zhu Cong
Has created SK-II's most out-of-the-loop "She Ended Up in the Matchmaking Corner".
According to foreign media reports, Procter & Gamble's beauty division (P&G Beauty) current president of P&G's global skincare and personal care business, Markus Strobel (hereinafter: Shi Tuo Pei), will be in the group after 35 years of service in August this year to retire.
● Markus Strobel（石拓培）
There were two successors to the baton, with Freddy Bharucha, currently president of the personal care and beauty business in North America, named global president of P&G Personal Care, responsible for Old Spice and Secret.
● Freddy Bharucha（弗雷迪·巴鲁查）
Sue Kyung Lee (李秀卿), currently CEO of SK-II, has been named global president of P&G Skincare, with responsibility for Olay and SK-II.
● Sue Kyung Lee（李秀卿）
Both will report to Alex Keith, chief executive of P&G's beauty division, and take up their new positions on July 1st.
Keith said, "In addition to his previous contributions to brands such as SK-II, Braun and Pantene, Markus has been a highly effective leader of our Skin and Personal Care business for the past six years since he took office in 2017. His impact on our global skin and personal care business has been unique, helping brands like Olay, Old Spice, Secret and others continue to grow strongly."
The beauty division has been a bright spot for Procter & Gamble, with organic sales up 5% in the first quarter of fiscal 2024. Skin and personal care organic sales grew in the low single digits, while hair care organic sales grew in the high single digits.
It is reported that the two new managers can continue the business sector "digging deep into the human side of the brand, with feelings and consumers to establish a connection" marketing strategy has become the focus of attention in the industry.
01
Typical P&G guy，Joined P&G right out of college
Strobel began his career in home care and has had a huge impact on P&G's skin care business.
After graduating from the University of Applied Sciences in Pforzheim, Germany, in 1991, he joined Procter & Gamble as an assistant for a housecleaning brand, and never left his old home at P&G.
In his 35 years at P&G, Strobel has tried his hand at 10 positions spanning the fragrance, hair care, beauty and skin care tracks, including as marketing director for Pantene and Icarus in the millennium, and as brand global president for SK-II in 2012.
It wasn't until 2017, after contributing to SK-II's leap from years of declining sales to become Asia's No. 1 skincare brand, that he assumed the new role of president of P&G's global skincare and personal care business, where he began to take charge of the fastest-growing sub-business unit at P&G.
During his tenure, the Skin and Personal Care business led the rest of P&G with continued strong growth in SK-II and Olay skincare.
It's also a typical P&G career path, changing category tracks periodically to generate new ideas to develop big-picture thinking and integration skills.
He specializes in taking the communication approach consumers want to communicate and interact with them.
For example, SK-II's "She Ended Up at the Matchmaking Corner" focusing on the survival status of "leftover women" hit a social pain point; "Wash Your Hands and Eat" launched by Schweppes; Secret's full-page advertisement in The New York Times advocated gender equality in the work environment from the perspective of working women's "sweat"; Olay launched a campaign on "Fear of Age"; and so on. Secret launched a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, advocating gender equality in the work environment from the perspective of "sweat", and Olay launched the "Fearless Age" campaign.
In the industry's view, Strobel combines the pragmatic rigor of being German with the innovation tempered by business school, specializing in combining curiosity, experience and creativity to respond to the changing needs of beauty product consumers around the world.
02
Turned around SK-II's decline in China in one fell swoop
Strobel is also regarded by the industry as the most important contributor to the SK-II brand's successive increases in performance over the last decade.
In 1991, P&G bought SK-II from Max Factor.
At the end of the last century, P&G introduced SK-II to the Chinese market. According to media reports at the time, in the following years, this brand once became a leader in the field of high-end cosmetics in China, as of April 2005, in all major cities across the country to establish 78 SK-II brand products counter. Until the "ingredient fiasco" in 2006, SK-II pressed the pause button.
P&G 2007 and 2008 financial reports mentioned that SK-II's sales had been less than ideal, and in the next few years, while putting efforts into restoring old counters and channels, SK-II's focus was on expanding into new markets.
The turning point occurred in 2012.
In August of that year, SK-II officially entered Taobao Tmall, becoming China's first and only high-end skincare brand to cooperate with Tmall, and for the first time, SK-II became a brand with annual sales of $1 billion under P&G.
In the same year, Strobel became the hand of SK-II, thus starting a new cycle of high growth for the brand.
In Strobel's view, delivering brand values is as important as gaining brand sales. As a result, SK-II set out to bring emotion back to the brand and connect with consumers' humanity.
In 2016, SK-II launched a series of "Change Your Destiny" themed advertisements, represented by "She Ended Up in the Matchmaking Corner", which launched a "global movement to inspire and empower women to shape their own destinies". With millions of views in China and around the world, "She Ended Up in the Dating Corner" changed the brand's trajectory in the Chinese market.
At the time, SK-II had fewer than 200 department store counters in mainland China, and its growth in the country was on the climb.In February 2017, Strobel told the media that SK-II's nine-month sales jumped 50% in April-December 2016 following the launch of the "Blind Date Corner" ads.
"The campaign made us famous in China and generated extremely positive sentiment among consumers and retailers," he said, "It helped us win over young professional and executive women." Around 2013, brand-name skincare brands were considered "noblewomen's brands" and the younger demographic was not on the brand's radar, with the average age of SK-II's new users being over 40 years old. in 2018, the average age of SK-II's users in China was as low as 26.4 years old, making it one of the most successful premium brands in terms of rejuvenation. one of the most successful in rejuvenation among premium brands.
And in the global market, relying on star products such as Shen Xian Shui, SK-II has long seen rapid sales growth, with 18 consecutive quarters of growth through 2019 and a 30% jump in sales in 2018 alone.
"The key to success is connecting with consumers - especially with Chinese consumers."
Until today, the concept of "rewriting destiny" has penetrated into the minds of consumers and become a unique symbol of SK-II. Today, through a series of successful marketing and channel layout strategies, SK-II is still considered one of the most successful high-end skincare brands under P&G.
The veteran executive believes that when people discover the humanity of a brand, it can change the connection with consumers and the performance of a business.
"We are human and we crave emotion." Strobel also left the industry with the insightful question and marketing challenge: "How do you find the humanity in your brand?"
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