Procter & Gamble Debuts Marketing Lab
Procter & Gamble and Worldwide Magnifi, a Web-based provider of marketing infrastructure and applications, formed a company this week to provide firms with best-practice marketing applications and tools.The two companies have temporarily named the new venture Project EMM, for Project Enterprise Marketing Management. Services include marketing strategy and development, concept development and testing, pricing strategy, package design, media planning and interactive marketing.
Initial customers include The Coca-Cola Co., BBDO Worldwide and Philips Domestic Appliance and Personal Care division.
Industry observers noted that this is the first time Procter & Gamble, which will be a significant shareholder in Project EMM, has shared its marketing knowledge with other companies. Bob Wehling, P&G's global marketing officer, said one purpose of the new venture is to obtain "greater financial value out of core assets like R&D inventions and marketing know-how."
Procter & Gamble will first use Project EMM to build Procter & Gamble's brands globally. "We will use the Enterprise Marketing Management service ourselves to collaborate more effectively ... and free our brand managers to spend more time listening to consumers and creating winning brand strategies and marketing programs," Wehling said.
The worldwide infrastructure of Worldwide Magnifi, Los Gatos, CA, will allow Project EMM to provide global hosting centers on multiple continents, patented software with "brand memory of all marketing assets," and searchable database and collaboration tools, accessible anytime.
It will provide applications for consumer research, forecasting, targeting and market simulation techniques that launch from the desktop.
Project EMM will target the top 2000 global marketers, then will expand to mid-sized and small businesses.
