How do you revitalize a 50-plusyear-
old brand? By focusing the brand’s marketing efforts on its core purpose—a purpose that is both benefit-driven and inspirational—
and using that purpose to build essential one-to-one personal connections with consumers.
Procter & Gamble’s (P&G’s) Secret brand, launched in 1956, has dominated the women’s antiperspirant deodorant category for many years. Secret maintains its leadership position as one of many products in what is typically considered a low-involvement product category.
Underarm deodorant isn’t traditionally the type of product consumers think about engaging with in an ongoing,
meaningful way. However, Secret has demonstrated that delivering the product benefit is important to establish trust and build engagement. This type of engagement often results in amplifying the brand’s marketing investment, or paid media. Since 2009, Secret’s purpose has been at the center of its marketing efforts,
resulting in tremendous growth and brand advocacy among consumers.

PRODUCT BACKGROUND 

Secret was the first deodorant marketed exclusively to women. In the 1960s and 1970s, Secret’s growth was supported by a recurring series of ads featuring a husband and wife dealing with issues of the day, such as having children and returning to work afterward. “It was all about empowering women to make the right choices for themselves and to embrace those choices fearlessly,” according to Kevin Hochman, marketing director for skin and personal care at P&G North America at the time.
However, in 2004–2005, brand executives felt the theme was getting dated, so Secret backed off from that positioning. “We walked away,” Hochman says. “We thought, women are empowered, and maybe this isn’t so relevant. That was a mistake. Of course the idea was still relevant; we just hadn’t modernized it in a contemporary way.” Secret made a deliberate decision to go back to its roots.

THE ROAD TO PURPOSE Secret started to experience slower growth in 2008 due to a down economy. The launch of a super-premium line of antiperspirant,
Secret Clinical Strength, helped increase sales and market share, but competitors soon followed suit with similar products.
Meanwhile, top P&G management began infusing the idea of purpose-driven marketing throughout the organization.
The companywide vision focused on building brands through lifelong, oneto-
one personal connections that ultimately build relationships and fulfill the company’s purpose to “touch and improve more lives of more consumers more completely.”
With this in mind, Secret brand management realized it needed to get clear on defining who Secret was, why Secret existed, and what Secret’s purpose was. The brand needed a reason for its consumers to care and wanted to give them a reason to share.

Questions
1 What is “purpose-driven marketing” from a product and brand management perspective at Procter & Gamble?
2 How does “purpose-driven” marketing for Secret deodorant relate to the hierarchy of needs concept detailed in Chapter 4?
3 What dimensions of the consumer-based brand equity pyramid have the Secret brand team focused on with its “Let Her Jump” and “Mean Stinks” ignitions?