Depending where you were, you may have celebrated Halloween on Oct. 31st. At Procter & Gamble, they've been celebrating the company's 175th anniversary.
That's right: P&G – mother of such consumer packaged goods icons as Tide, Pampers, and Comet, among others – is now 175 years old, but a look back at the company's history reveals that the whole endeavor might not have started if an errant flame and a rapscallion hadn’t done their dirty work all those years ago — or if an opinionated father and father-in-law hadn't intervened.
Or put another way, Mr. Procter's failures in England led to P&G's global success today — and Procter took a Gamble that paid off.
Englishman William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, an Irish soapmaker, emigrated from the UK to America. Both settled in Cincinnati initially (still home of P&G) and married sisters, Olivia and Elizabeth Norris.
Alexander Norris, Procter & Gamble's father-in-law, persuaded his sons-in-law to become business partners. On October 31, 1837, Procter & Gamble was born.
Before Procter moved to America and met Gamble in 1837, he owned a woolens shop in London. However, Procter had a run of bad luck between November of 1831 and January of the following year: The place caught fire and was then robbed. It wasn’t looking good for Procter.
His dear old dad, William Procter, Sr., a parson, came through, though, with some good advice. Dad informed son that he’d heard plenty of good news coming out of America: “We are quite pleased with the accounts from America, your mother so much so, that there is nothing she says but the water that prevents her going there,” he wrote in a letter that P&G shared with the press and fans today in the first of a series of dips into its corporate archives.
Procter Sr. passed along further advice to let William know that it was better to learn from what had happened rather than sulk about it: “An old sailor that has split upon a sunk rock and has lost his ship is not the worst man to make a pilot of,” he wrote. “On the contrary he is particularly able to guide those that come after, to shun the dangers of that unhappy plan.” (We're not sure if P&G CEO Bob McDonald lives by those words today, but he's certainly inclined not to sulk and maintain an optimistic outlook for shareholders and employees.)
Today, with operations in about 80 countries, P&G brands are available in more than 180 countries worldwide. Those brands include Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Whisper, Pantene, Mach3, Bounty, Dawn, Fairy, Gain, Pringles, Charmin, Downy, Lenor, Iams, Crest, Oral-B, Duracell, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Wella, Gillette, Braun, Fusion, Ace, Febreze, and Ambi Pur.
P&G has grown over the years through key acquisitions including Folgers Coffee, Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals (the makers of Pepto-Bismol), Richardson-Vicks, Noxell (Noxzema), Shulton's Old Spice, Max Factor, and the Iams Company. P&G's iconic brand launches include:
1946: Tide laundry detergent
1947: Prell shampoo
1955: Crest launches as the first toothpaste to contain fluoride
1957: Charmin Paper Mills purchase leads to Charmin toilet paper and other paper products.
1960: Downy fabric softener
1961: Pampers first test-marketed, popularizing disposable diapers
1972: Bounce fabric softener sheets
1996: Olestra (known as Olean) approved by FDA
2005: Gillette acquisition bumps Unilever to #2, adding Gillette razors, Duracell, Braun, and Oral-B to P&G's stable of brands.
In more recent years, as CMO Marc Pritchard told Ad Age, the company has been getting creative about how it grows its flagship brands. "I'm proud of the accelerations of social and digital and even the elevation of combining that with public relations," Pritchard commented. "I'm proud of some of the really breakthrough creativity I've seen on some of the brands. Old Spice continues to be very creative. Febreze is very creative. I like what I've just seen on SK-II and Vicks — some really good work. And I'm proud of the Olympics. I think we've broken some ground there."
Here's to the next 175 years.
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