Playing to Win

Chapter One

Strategy Is Choice

By the late 1990s it became clear that P&G really needed to win in skin care. Skin care (including soaps, cleansers, moisturizers, lotions, and other treatments) constitutes about a quarter of the total beauty industry and has the potential to be highly profitable. When done well, it can engender intense consumer loyalty compared with other beauty categories like hair care, cosmetics, and fragrances.¹ Plus, there’s significant knowledge and skill transfer from skin care to these other categories in terms of technology and consumer insights. To be a credible player in the beauty business, P&G needed leading hair-care and skin-care brands. Skin care was the weak link. In particular, Oil of Olay was struggling. It ...