According to Ad Age, Procter & Gamble Co. is increasingly looking to services to fuel its thirst for growth.
“I think service is yet an untapped area for us,” Chairman-CEO Bob McDonald said. “We’re active in franchising now with Mr. Clean car washes and Tide Dry Cleaners. MDVIP [concierge physician service] is a service operation. But we’re also working on services on our existing brands, for example, where you walk up to the shelf, take a picture of the UPC code on your phone, and you can download information about the ingredients in that product, which you as an environmentalist may care about.”
Mr. McDonald said service is “part of our broader purpose,” noting, “It’s fair game for us, and we need to learn more about it. We’ve got to grow; that’s the main thing.”
The need for incessant growth seems like a flawed concept to me. However, I like the idea of a well known packaged goods brand like Tide extending itself into a related field like dry cleaning services.