The Science Behind Superior Products: From Insight to Innovation

This blog post is guest authored by Victor Aguilar, P&G Chief Research, Development and Innovation Officer.

This post is also part of our series on P&G’s Integrated Growth Strategy. Click the links below to read the other stories in this series:

• Inside P&G’s Integrated Growth Strategy

The people we serve are at the heart of everything we do. Our employees devote countless hours to understanding and solving the problems you, our consumers, face in your daily lives — from diapering a newborn baby to washing a pesky stain out of your favorite shirt. Only when we truly understand the challenges faced and get clear on the jobs to be tackled, can we develop innovative products that deliver superior performance consistently, from the very first use.

Our cutting-edge R&D facilities, advanced tools and talented professionals enable us to offer superior products and packaging that exceed high standards. We combine the latest technologies, resources and expertise resulting in breakthrough innovations to help you care for your home, family and wellbeing.

We have many examples to share but one I feel most people can relate to is cleaning.

Cleaning Without Compromise

People tell us that cleaning floors is one of the most tedious parts of their home care routine. This might be because more than half of us still use a traditional mop and bucket, thinking it’s the only way to get a deep clean. We asked ourselves, how can we create a faster, easier solution to clean floors and meet the high standards that you want and expect, even on complex surfaces like tile floors with grout?

Using the combined expertise from our Baby Care, Feminine Care, Home Care and Fabric Care businesses, we created Swiffer PowerMop, an all-in-one wet cleaning system with multiple patents that delivers a mop and bucket clean in half the time. How is this possible?

• We redesigned the mop pad to feature 300+ powerful scrubbing strips and a looped design that captures loose crumbs and breaks down tough, sticky messes.
• We delivered a sleek, modern design and 30% larger mop head with 360 swivel making it easier for people to maneuver and get better coverage, even in hard-to-reach nooks and crannies and grout lines.
• We produced a fast-drying cleaning formula that leaves floors virtually streak- and residue-free.

Why did we do this? Because we heard you and understood the challenge. Response has been terrific. PowerMop is the largest product launch in Swiffer’s history, contributing to 40% of Swiffer’s portfolio growth and becoming the #1 category growth driver.

New Capability Smells Like Success

Our work doesn’t stop here. We continuously look for new ways to drive innovation, which is why we invest more than $2 billion in R&D annually, spending more efficiently and effectively, driven by our investments in digital modeling and new predictive testing tools. One area where we’ve expanded capability to bring people more of what they want, faster, is with fragrance.

Scent plays a key role in our daily lives, and it can make washing dishes, doing laundry, mopping floors and getting ready for our day more enjoyable. People asked for more products with new, on-trend scents, but perfumery can be complex and time-consuming. We asked ourselves how we could improve the process to develop fragrance in a fraction of the time?

We created what we call the Perfume Development Digital Suite, an ecosystem of digital tools powered by AI and advanced data processing, to create irresistibly superior fragrances five times faster. How does it work?

• A comprehensive digital library catalogues vast scent profiles and molecular data so fragrance developers can more easily and quickly design the perfect scent.
• AI algorithms analyze millions of data points and help us create perfume character models based on consumer insights into what makes a fragrance smell good.
• Bio-olfactive models refine these predictions, precisely adjusting materials and ingredient levels for an optimal sensory experience.

This lets us bring new fragrance offerings to you more quickly, whether it’s a limited-edition body wash, a concentrated fabric scent booster or a new form of home fragrance, and we’re equipped for agility.

I hope these examples illustrate our commitment to you, solving the problems you face in your everyday life with a consumer-centric approach, leveraging best-in-class expertise and capabilities from across the company to accelerate and strengthen our innovation portfolio and to drive business growth. I look forward to sharing more examples like this in the coming months.

Be sure to check out all the stories from our senior leaders on how we are delivering against our Integrated Growth Strategy. Continue watching our social channels and blog to learn more.