Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Procter and Gamble (PG), Stocks to Buy

This post continues a series on defensive stock-picking strategies.

With the equity markets in a choppy, consolidation mode (or perhaps worse), the consumer products sector has appeal. One consumer products name worth a look: Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG).

If General Electric (NYSE: GE) is ‘the mutual fund in one company,’ then Procter & Gamble is the ‘consumer products aisle’ in one company. Pick a brand, any brand. PG has about 300, including names you know well like Crest toothpaste, Folgers coffee, Bounty paper towels, Tide detergent, Gillette shavers. PG’s core product line contains brands that are entrenched in U.S. culture, and in U.S. consumer buying patterns.

Procter & Gamble says its mission is “to provide superior quality and value to the world’s consumers,” and both revenue and consumer satisfaction suggest it’s “on message,” to borrow a political campaign strategy phrase. To be sure, in the kaleidoscopic consumer products market, one can always find a designer/niche product — a salon-based shampoo, for example — that argues that it’s better, for a price, than PG’s product. But PG has moved forward, first domestically and now globally, confident that its products will offer more than adequate value for the typical person. That strategy has been working for, oh, about 170 years.

Continue reading Procter & Gamble (PG): Playing defense via consumer products

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 6:29 am and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.