P&G’s CEO says innovations are key

Lee Sue-kyung, CEO of P&G Korea, discusses the company’s business strategy during a press meeting in Busan on Thursday. Provided by the company

BUSAN - In the face of the dwindling consumer confidence in the local market, P&G Korea said that innovation will continue to be the primary driver of the household products maker’s growth.

P&G Korea chief executive Lee Sue-kyung discussed the company’s business strategy at an annual media meeting held at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Busan.

The event came as some of P&G Korea’s brands such as SK-II have seen declines in sales over recent years.

Lee emphasized that innovation will serve as the backbone of P&G Korea.

“P&G’s history goes hand-in-hand with the history of innovation,” said Lee.

She cited groundbreaking examples of products manufactured by the U.S.-based company.

“Before Downy was introduced, there was no such product category as ‘concentrate’ fabric softener,” said Lee.

She also cited odor eliminator Febreze and Gillette, which invented the double and triple edge razors.

The company also introduced a successful global marketing strategy called the “Thank You Mom Campaign.”

The campaign, launched at the time of the London 2012 Olympics, included a short film that celebrated the role moms play in raising athletes and Olympic winners.

P&G also offered the “Thank You Mom” app, which allows people to express gratitude to their own mothers by uploading personalized content in the form of a video or still image with captions or texts.

“At the time, P&G sought to take a fresh approach to marketing,” Lee said, “And as the Olympics were about to start, we decided to shed light on a mom’s role - something that we take for granted.”

She also took note of the growth in Korea’s e-commerce market.

“Sales of P&G products sold online in Korea are the second largest after China in Asia. This is why P&G sees Korea as an important market.”

“We see constant growth in sales in Korea as P&G has posted an average of 20 percent sales growth in the past three years.”

Following the presentation, which highlighted the company’s successes, the CEO got some tricky questions.

Most of the questions revolve around the latest report that P&G is mulling over a sale or initial public offering of some of its beauty brands. P&G denied the report.

Local media reports have said that beauty brand SK-II has suffered falling sales after fears of the radiation leak from the Fukushima nuclear power plant since SK-II is made in Japan.

While declining to elaborate further, Lee said that SK-II is “a very important brand” for P&G Korea.

She also denied that the Fukushima accident posed any serious damage to the cosmetics as the factory that makes SK-II products is far away from the nuclear power plant, adding that the products passed safety inspections.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]