Stop Talking, Start Trying

If a billion-dollar brand can do it, you can, too

Welcome back to The Workaround. I’m Bob 👋

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A brand that’s still in my mind and heart. This sign still hangs in my office.

As you read these words, tens of millions of people are sitting in conference rooms or on Zoom calls discussing whether to do one thing or another.

They work in startups, corporate gigs, not-for-profits, and government jobs.

And 99% of these meetings will end with indecision. A task force will look at it. Consultants will be called. And, of course, a follow-up meeting will be scheduled as soon as everyone is available again. Maybe by Q4.

But in the other 1% of those meetings, an individual or small team will roll up their sleeves and get to work. They’ll gather real-world data to help them make a quick decision. They will encounter numerous interesting challenges and opportunities for learning in the process. This approach will continue over time, becoming a positive habit. And they will become the 1% of companies that outperform the rest.

If it’s this easy—and often even fun—why isn’t everyone doing it?

Likely fear of failure, combined with groupthink and a lack of real urgency. But maybe someone out there just needs to see what’s possible, even within a giant corporation.

I hope this story is your unlock…

The Value of Detergent

It’s January 2002, and I’m an assistant brand manager on Tide detergent at Procter & Gamble. I’m a few months into my second assignment at the company, working on our biggest brand in North America.

Tide is a billion-dollar behemoth with a spot in the homes and hearts of half the country. The last several CEOs sat in my seat in decades past, as leading this big brand was considered a key test for advancement. They succeeded here and later by remembering the Rule of Tide:

Don’t Fuck it Up.

Seriously. Every year, this brand generates the company’s largest revenue and profit in its largest market. No one wants to screw up a good thing.

But I’m feeling antsy. I want to make my mark. I want to do big things for this big brand. And right this minute, I’m tired of sitting in a meeting debating whether or not we can talk about price and value in our advertising campaigns.

We’re on a call with our agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. They are based in New York City and have been Tide’s agency of record since the 1960s. Our brand is probably the most profitable and highest-profile client for the agency, and our team there is some of the best talent in the company. And because they are smart and confident that we’ll keep our partnership going, my agency counterparts aren’t afraid to share their strong opinions.

The discussion topic at hand is the concept of Value Reframing. It’s an idea that has been circulating more frequently within our company as a way to address a very common issue: our brands are premium-priced, and consumers are increasingly wondering if they are worth the money.

A team of internal product and marketing people first saw this idea from other premium brands. Michelin, for example, had been putting babies next to tires for decades in order to “reframe” how people made purchase decisions. Instead of comparing the price of Michelin to tire competitors, its advertising planted the seed of valuing the life of your child. Thus, a commodity purchase decision becomes a matter of life or death.

Some other peers at P&G had also seen success with Value Reframing. Olay began comparing its products to what you’d find in a salon for 10x the price. PuR water filters demonstrated that their system was a fraction of the cost of bottled water with no negative environmental impact.

Tide certainly had a premium price to worry about. We were typically twice the cost of the next leading brand. Price was the biggest complaint from our consumers, despite retailers frequently discounting in order to drive traffic into their stores. To this day, the only more powerful loss leader is milk.

But our debates on the topic continued to go around and around. On the one hand, various members of our brand team suggested that we needed to shift our advertising campaign to a value focus or incorporate these messages into our rotation. On the other hand, the agency and a few other stakeholders were strongly opposed. They feared the loss of our premium brand equity that they had helped us accumulate over the decades.

Everyone brings a positive attitude, smart points, and a passionate desire to do what’s right. However, this is the fiftieth time we’ve discussed it, with no progress either way. I return to my cube desk and think about how I can reclaim that lost time.

Then something clicks. I can’t reverse time, but I start to see a vision for how I can stop the madness.

As the leader of our liquid business, I’m responsible for developing a plan and budget for our next major marketing initiative. The goal is to increase our share in the liquid detergent category, where we’ve been lagging behind our lead in the powder market. As consumers continue to shift from powder to liquid, we’re gradually bleeding basis points of share. So there’s a window of acceptance to change, and a budget to try it. And when I get a window, I usually find a way to squeeze through it.

I roll my chair across our brand bullpen to Meredith’s desk. She’s the junior assistant brand manager on our team and my partner in developing liquid plans. I pitch her my idea: Let’s do a test of Value Reframing so that we can put the debate to bed, one way or another.

Her face flashes fear…then excitement. Meredith should never be allowed near a poker table.

Neck Hangars and Lobster Rolls

The two of us sketch out a plan to allocate a small portion of our large testing budget to assess the impact. Over the next two weeks, we work with our market research supplier to develop a small test in 17 stores around Portland, Maine, with suburban Boston as a control.

We decide that the most direct and basic approach is to apply “neck hangars” around each bottle of Tide with a Value Reframing message. Some suggest we offer a coupon as well, but a coupon would raise costs, increase complexity, and make it harder to determine if any sales lift came from the marketing claim.

Through some quick research with detergent shoppers outside our corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, we land on a message that resonates (see image below): “For about 25 cents per load, Tide provides 3x more stain removal power than the next leading detergent.”

It’s a double value message: (1) only about 25 cents per load, which seems reasonable and helps overcome the fact that a full bottle is one of the most expensive items in a shopper’s cart; and (2) it might be 2x the price of the leading competitor, but that’s because it’s got 3x the stain removal power—i.e. you get what you pay for.

Meredith and I present our plan to the powers that be, including our agency, to obtain approval. There’s another round of debate, of course, but no one can stop us. We’re going to get real data.

By the end of spring, I’m standing in a grocery store in Maine looking at our beautiful orange neck hangars wrapped around bottles of Tide Liquid. Our research partners drive us around a handful of other stores, and then I try my first lobster roll. It’s all wonderful.

And a few months later, our entire team is back in the main conference room, settling in for the presentation of the test market results. After some warnings about the small size and short duration of the test, they announce that there was about a 10% lift in Tide liquid sales due to our neck hangars. This was a boost from historic sales at the stores, and significantly higher than sales in the control markets outside Boston.

I smile widely in the meeting, not because of the sales lift or “being right” in the debate. I honestly didn’t care what happened in Maine over those few months. I was happy that we finally got some data to guide our future decisions and could stop navel-gazing through meeting after meeting.

My tenure on Tide wrapped up a few months after this work, as I got a promotion and a new assignment. I heard that value reframing messages became a consistent theme in Tide marketing. Saatchi continues to do great work on the brand.

Trying is Habit Forming

I left the BigCo world for an entrepreneurial path a few years later, but this lesson is something I’ve continued to apply in my work in startups.

Decades ago, software startups adopted a strong belief in testing in the real world, rather than debating in the boardroom. One of Mark Zuckerberg’s founding beliefs for Facebook was, “Code wins arguments.” The concept of a Minimum Viable Product has become a guiding principle in our world.

“You can’t beat a problem by debating it, only by deciding what you’re going to do about it and then doing it.”—Courage is Calling

Words like this are primarily used by startups seeking product-market fit. Still, I drew inspiration from my old P&G playbook at my influencer marketing company, Ahalogy, even after we achieved repeatable and scalable success.

We frequently entertained innovation ideas in our executive team meetings. Clients requested a feature, competitors announced a new product, and upstart startups announced they’re going to disrupt our market.

After a brief strategic discussion, my new product leader, Kristin, and I regularly developed plans to test at the lowest cost and complexity possible.

For example, back in 2017, there was considerable discussion about “shoppable blog posts.” Brands were increasingly looking to win in e-commerce and pushed us to add a way to close the sale on influencer marketing. We worked with a tech partner and selected a few clients who were interested in learning.

In this case, I believe we sold approximately $10 worth of clients’ products. And this was great! Shoppable social media was way too early at the time. We and our clients saw the truth beyond the hype, saving ourselves a lot of stress, meeting time, and money.

Other product tests showed promise, leading us to invest. Our goal was to launch one significant product feature each quarter. But it took at least three tries to get there. Testing and learning became a habit. These consistent innovations, compounded in value over time, doubled our revenue each year and ultimately led to our strategic acquisition at a premium valuation.

Ready to Carry the Flag?

Every time I go back to old stories like this, I try to figure out what made me…me. It’s easy to say “you should stop meeting and start testing," but no one else did. You can’t take my advice if it doesn’t fit into your personality and worldview.

Here’s what made me think differently: I went into my job at P&G knowing that I would be leaving in five years or so. I wasn’t going to be another CEO who made a pit stop on Tide and focused on not fucking it up. I planned to become an entrepreneur and learn everything I could in this company to improve my odds of success down the road.

“The only thing worth telling anyone is to come see for themselves.”--Jed McKenna

I was in a hurry to do stuff—to learn, try, test, and behave like the owner of this business. I leveraged the company’s core values in Leadership and Initiative to do what I believed was best for both the business and my career.

Getting a chance to work on Tide was like someone giving me the keys to their Ferrari for the weekend: If I don’t get this thing above 100 mph while I’ve got it, then I’m an idiot.

And I wasn’t afraid of the worst case: Getting fired. Cincinnati wasn’t my hometown, and I planned to leave soon anyway. Thanks to my skills, network, results, and resume, I knew I could secure a similar position at another CPG company. And if they’re going to fire me for being maniacally focused on growing the business, well, then fuck them.

As odd as it sounds, the only thing I feared was fear itself: if I held back from treating this billion-dollar brand as if it were mine and doing what I thought was right, it would lead to my failure. And perhaps the brand’s failure as well.

This ownership mentality wasn’t stressful—it was fun! I worked my ass off and had plenty of battles with bosses and legal along the way. But when you’re standing up for what you think is right for the business, the wind is at your back. People tend to get on board—or at least back off—when you’re charging forward with a flag in your hands. You might find they, too, are tired of pointless meetings and eager to follow you into the future.

Perhaps this is the attitude that enables 1% of big corporate brands to consistently outperform the rest.

Maybe this is the attitude for you, too.

“Doing stuff” brings valuable lessons, stories to tell, and a life well-lived. And if you feel fear, it might be a signal to lean in even further.

Value Reframing may be a tool for changing your work+life, too.

If you like my writing, feel free to click the ❤️ or 🔄 button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏

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How we might work together…

• A2 Influence is our content development agency, helping some of the biggest brands and retailers create and distribute authentic content at scale.

• Fleet is our holding company for services businesses. We invest in leaders ready to start their own companies (we also do some M&A). If this might be you, hit my Office Hours link.

• Revelin is our consulting practice that helps with revenue alignment, growth management, and other RevOps functions. CEO Jess Shuman is standing by to share a no-cost assessment of your business.

• Feel free to schedule a chat during my Office Hours to discuss questions, feedback, networking, or any other topic. Seriously, any topic! You can also reach me on LinkedIn or by email.

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BONUS: Cool Content of the Week

A little something I found meaningful. You might agree…

The Titles of Your Life’s Chapters

Steve Bryant always keeps me thinking through his Substack, Delightful. A few weeks ago, he and his friends came up with the idea of writing chapter titles for their life stories. It’s an interesting way to look back and tease your friends into asking more, probing questions. Here’s my list:

1971 - 1990: From Bobby to Bob

1991 – 1996: Finding Loves

1997 – 2004: Playing to Win

2005 – 2011: Earning it Out

2012 – 2020: The Hero’s Journey

2020 – 2023: Scouting the Second Mountain

2023 – Present: Growing Up Again

It’s a fun exercise, but I’m not planning on writing a book anytime soon.¹ It’s too much fun to write one sub-chapter at a time here on Substack. See ya next week!

1. Sorry, Marc!