Damon Jones leads efforts to ensure the world’s largest consumer goods company is recognized as one of the most trusted brands in the world. He leads a global organization responsible for P&G’s image and reputation and that of its nearly 100 brands. P&G’s global communications discipline includes brand and corporate communications, digital and social media, stakeholder engagement, issues advocacy and crisis management. Leveraging P&G’s significant industry presence, advertising spending and convening power, Jones also directs a broad portfolio of citizenship and advocacy efforts focused on driving equality for women, people of color and other under-represented groups. A trusted advisor to the C-suite, he has a proven track record of leveraging reputation and relationships to drive brand and business success, while guiding and enabling the company to be a force for good and a force for growth.

Following are the edited transcripts of a virtual conversation BR Research had with Mr. Jones:

BR Research: You took on this role in P&G at a very uncertain time, and you have also been named as one of the most powerful players in PR recently. What are your aspirations from this role?

Damon Jones: I have always been involved in work that could make a meaningful impact. Part of my role is to lead communications and relationship management with a number of important stakeholders around the world. But I also have the responsibility for our advocacy portfolio; these are ways in which we are using our voice as one of the leading advertisers around the world as well as the impact that the private sector can have. We have seen that in areas like environmental sustainability, where we can’t rely on governments alone, we can use the innovation power of companies like P&G. It also works in areas such as diversity and inclusion - which is another passion point for me – making sure that we are drawing attention to some of the challenges that our societies face such as gender inequality, racism and bias; and articulating how in the private sector we can use some of the same skills we use in our products to help motivate people. We believe that once people are more aware of such problems, we can actually be more collaborative in our approach to solve them.

So, I like to describe my philosophy as The Power of And: How do we have great commercial benefit, AND how do we have great societal benefit. And I found a really good home at P&G because the company’s values and principles align with that.

BRR: P&G has been participating in the Consumer Electronic Show for years. What was different this time?

DJ: This is the third year of P&G at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which looked a bit different as it was all-virtual. It was an opportunity to demonstrate how we combine leading edge innovation with deep human understanding to make sure we are creating consumer experiences in meaningful and small ways. And that has become even more important as people are mostly sitting at home for the past one year and paying more attention to the products they use at home to their own habits and practices. P&G LifeLab Everyday demonstrates how we are leading constructive disruption by harnessing new technologies, embracing lean innovation, and leveraging partnerships to deliver products and services that enhance the human experience.

I would like to highlight three areas of this virtual show. One is the sustainability experience which demonstrates innovation that reinvents what we call responsible consumption. We know consumers want to take steps to improve the environment and care for future generations, and we think we have the responsibility to make sure that we have the products that can aid them in their journey, particularly in their home and hygiene needs. P&G is working with a coalition of industry partners to reinvent how we use water most effectively.

Our research shows that depending on where you are in the world, a household can use between 100-500 litres of water in a day, and that largely happens as we are not deliberate in thinking about the water scarcity challenge. The world is facing an urban water crisis; P&G is partnering with different companies, policy makers, and groups to help educate the world on the impact of everyday water use and attain the goal of 50 liters of daily water use per person.

The second is our oral care experience which shows how Oral-B is reinventing oral care. Last year P&G introduced Oral-B iO series, which has the new iO magnetic technology that combines micro-vibrating bristles with Oral-B's dentist-inspired round brush head for a professional-clean. We have also been really big on educating consumers on the link between oral health and whole-body health.

And the third experience is what we call healthy, happy, hygienic home which demonstrates how we have integrated technology into some of the everyday products to give consumer superior experience.

BRR: COVID-19 has been a global health, economic as well as a social crisis. How much of a challenge has balancing stakeholder interest as well as managing a global team and staying connected been for P&G. And how did you respond to this challenge?

DJ: The biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for us is to ensure that we are demonstrating humanity through our everyday actions. When the pandemic hit, we thought really hard on what we could do right and how could we make sure we were using all of our resources to serve our consumers. So, we turned in a number of our lines to making hand sanitizers. We started using some of our papermaking technology to manufacture masks. We moved a lot of our advertising to focus on educating consumers on personal health and hygiene.

We worked hard on maximizing our efforts to be helpful to our consumers in the communities we live and work. I think when you’ve got a crisis as big as the COVID-19, everyone wants to do something and everyone can’t do the same thing; so, doubling down on some of our unique contributions whether that was monetary donations, or donations and support that we did for some private sector organizations to help them understand how they could be more effective in delivering aid to people around the world.

From the business standpoint, we were challenged to ensure that we could maintain many of our delivery systems, because we are in the business of helping people live cleaner and healthier lives. People all across the company doubled down to really make our plants and facilities remain open, and lines of transportation and shipment open. What made us all feel positive was that each of those individual acts had the potential to add up to something really meaningful. That was our philosophy, and that how the company thought about it.

On a more personal level, I look at my job as helping people connecting the dots, making sure people understand the why and see the benefits behind what we do, and tell the story of P&G stepping up to serve consumers in a way that its inspirational for other companies. A collaborative nature than a competitive nature at this time has been incredibly important for us.

BRR: Being a global advertiser, the pandemic must have changed and pivoted your advertising strategy in the current scenario. And then there are religious and cultural sensitivities. How does P&G align its communication and marketing strategy with these realities?

DJ: What I tell people is that our advertising strategy probably changed less than people thought it did. Why I say that is because we think of ourselves as very consumer centric and consumer driven, which means we are constantly in conversation with consumers on what they want to hear from P&G. Yes, we did have to communicate a lot of different things, but at the end of the day, people want a good performing product and value.

While we did make some changes in our advertising, we thought it was important to continue to advertise our products while making sure that it was relevant, timely, and educational in nature and helped people understand how to use our products to get the maximum benefit. What we also tried to make sure was that we were showing both the challenges as well as the happy moments in our advertising. We just launched a new campaign called ‘Lead with Love’, which demonstrates our humanity and care for each other and that it is not all gloom and doom, but people can enjoy some of the everyday moments of joy.

Coming to consumer sensitivities, I would say that it starts with making sure we have meaningful consumer insights and understanding which of those insights are universal and which of them have strong cultural context. We try to deliver advertising from a powerful and meaningful insight.

The diversity of our own internal organization also helps us a lot. We tap into our Consumer Market Knowledge Organization, and we’ve got people in more than 70 countries around the world who are constantly developing these insights and making sure that our communication is insight-based. And then there are simple things like different music, different celebrities, different people, and different settings in our ads that also demonstrate local relevance.

BRR: What are the localization levels achieved by P&G over the years? Has the pandemic impacted these efforts lately?

DJ: Our localization varies by category. Some are incredibly local, while some are regional or global. For example, when we are tapping into passions such as football, its more global. But there are campaigns that we run that are incredibly local because they are tapping into a unique insight, e.g., beauty category is very local. Where consumer insights are unique, that’s where we have a unique approach whether it’s a TV commercial, an in-store advertising or community activation.

BRR: What is P&G’s plan for markets like Pakistan in 2021 and beyond?

DJ: Every market has its unique set of challenges. For example, meeting the needs of a wide consumer base such as the ~216 million population of Pakistan is a challenge in itself. We are spending time in reaching those consumers in ways that are meaningful and relevant, particularly those smaller towns and villages, which is another challenge due to the infrastructure in those areas.

As the infrastructure improves, we have a strong focus on improving our distribution. We also know that we have to serve different consumers in different ways. Pakistan is an important market because its growing at a healthy rate, and we’ve got a strong organizational presence in the country and we are looking to make sure that we create unique-to-Pakistan elements.

BRR: Some supply chains were more prepared for the pandemic than the others. Even then they couldn’t escape the challenges that came from extreme demand damages and supply disruptions. How would you describe P&G’s preparedness to the existing crisis as well as planning for the next major unforeseen event?

DJ: There is a multidimensional answer to this. In all our markets, we have really tried to pressure-test the resilience of our supply chains and make sure we have a strong distribution network to reach all consumers particularly those who are underserved.

In each of the market we operate in, we have business continuity plans – most of which were traditionally thought about when we had natural disasters, suppliers’ riots, or shipping closures etc. COVID-19 has been an opportunity for us to revisit what those business continuity plans are to make sure we have the right balance of local manufacturing. We’ve got a significant portion of business in Pakistan that is locally manufactured such that we can mitigate some of the impact of international shipping. That’s what we look at from the supply chain standpoint for every market. The pandemic has brought upon some unique challenges. However, I would say that our supply chain overall has proven to be very resilient. Its not about getting comfortable and resting on our laurels; it’s constantly doing the scenario planning. It’s getting the right balance between local and international manufacturing; and making sure as we design new manufacturing plans, they are multidimensional.

Over the last few years, we have moved to setting up manufacturing plants that are smaller in scale, but manufacture multiple products at the same time. That’s going to give us some flexibility to respond to some of the changes and shifts in consumer demand over time. We are not there in all places around the world equally, but that’s the next big step that will offer us the agility. We can’t do it all alone. This is where the power of our partners and network will play a huge role in having a real mindset for supply chain agility within P&G, both with our manufacturing partners and retail distribution partners.