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William Procter and James Gamble founded
P&G as a partnership in 1837 in Cincinnati, Ohio by merging
Procter’s candle making company with Gamble’s soap business.
The company grew to $1 mn in sales by 1859. P&G’s initial
foray into branding was The Moon and Stars, a trademark that
appeared on all company products starting in the early
1860s.
In 1887, P&G became one of the first companies in US to
offer a profit-sharing program for its employees. In 1924,
P&G was one of the first companies to create a market
research department to study consumer preferences and
behavior. The company’s marketing organization and brand
management system began to evolve in the early 1930s. In
1933, P&G’s Oxydol soap powder sponsored a radio serial
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P&G had been a late globalizer. But after World War II, P&G began its
international expansion in right earnest. In 1948, it established an
overseas division while opening its first Latin American subsidiary in
Mexico. P&G entered Europe in 1954, Saudi Arabia in 1961 and Japan in 1973.
By 1980, P&G was operating in 23 countries and reporting over $10 bn in
annual sales. By the mid-90s, over half of its sales came from outside US.
As its global expansion progressed, P&G continued to modify its structure
and internal processes to maximize global leverage. Various initiatives were
launched to facilitate exchange of knowledge and best practices across the
company.
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