Product Management - Early History

EARLY HISTORY

The concept of product management was created in the early 1930s by Proctor & Gamble. At the time, the company's Ivory soap was a top seller. Its Camay soap, on the other hand, was not performing as well. Proctor & Gamble executives appointed a brand manager to focus specifically on the Camay line in hopes of reviving the product. This management approach proved successful and soon other consumer packaged goods firms began using a similar strategy to manage their products.

As product management began to take hold in many business organizations, the concept gained popularity among business colleges and became part of the curriculum of marketing classes. During the 1960s, Harvard Business School professor N. Borden created the four P's of marketing: product, which involved the creation and development of a product; place, the markets in which the product would be sold; price, how much the product would sell for; and promotion, how the product would be marketed and sold. Borden's marketing theory soon became a standard in business classes throughout the United States. Soon thereafter, three additional P's were added to that concept: people, process, and provision of customer service. While product management has traditionally encompassed all of these P's, changing technology and evolving market conditions leave it subject to constant change within an organization.