MANILA, PHILIPPINES — “If everyone works to make progress together, brands can be a true force for creating a better world.”
This is the message that Fama Francisco, chief executive officer (CEO) of Global Baby, Feminine, and Family Care at P&G, imparted during her keynote speech at the 2022 Philippine Marketing National Association Conference.
In her speech, Fama discussed the future of brands and how they must lead the way to becoming a force for change.
A woman in a man’s world
Fama shared her journey to becoming a global CEO, starting out in the Philippines in a field traditionally dominated by men.
“I started my career at P&G as the first female sales manager hired in the Philippines after 55 years of operations. The fact is that, for a long time in our society, there was a general assumption that sales is a job for men… As a 21-year-old young woman in a male dominated environment, working side by side with men with decades of experience, in many ways, what I did back then was a direct challenge to social norms,” she shared.
A real trailblazer, in her 32 years with P&G, Fama has a global track record of leading successful businesses across developed and developing markets, and an incredible career of “firsts”. Today, Fama leads P&G’s second-largest sector and is the highest-ranking Asian female executive inf the company. In her position, Fama oversees more than 17,000 employees in 100 countries and around $19 billion in yearly sales.
She said that being her true self helped her to get to where she is today, recalling her experiences working in different cultures around the world and what enabled her to be successful. “I could have given up, but I chose to stay true to who I am, to learn and flex the new muscles of vision, decisiveness, authority, and confidence,” says Fama. Now she is an inspiration to other women in the organization and beyond, showing them that they can succeed by being their most authentic selves.
Creating good
“Consumers expect more of us than just delivering the products they use every day. They want to know that we stand for something bigger and better,” Fama said. P&G strives to offer superior everyday essentials and use the power of its brands and their voices to help create a better world through campaigns that raise awareness about societal issues, tackle bias, and drive tangible impact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
Under Fama’s leadership, Feminine Care brand Always / Whisper created the #LikeAGirl campaign to shift societal perception on the meaning of the phrase “like a girl” from an insult to a positive empowering message. Now, 76% of girls have a positive association with the phrase compared to fewer than 20% at the start of the campaign.
Another example is Pampers’ “Dad From Day One” campaign. This spotlights the role fathers play in the lives of their newborn babies from the very first day. Pampers provides all its new dad employees, whether biological or adoptive, with two months of paid paternity leave.
Fama described how P&G put its values into action at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, collaborating with government agencies, NGOs, and private partners in the Philippines to donate millions in products from trusted brands such as Safeguard, Pampers, and Whisper to hard-hit communities. With the technical expertise of its Cabuyao Plant employees, P&G re-purposed the machines and materials used for Whisper to manufacture over millions of medical-grade face masks for its employees, frontliners, organizations, and communities in need. The company has donated over 3.5 million face masks to-date and will continue to do as school begins reopening in the country.
Addressing the marketers present at the conference, she added, “I truly believe what the world has gone through since 2020 has forever elevated the role of brands as a force for good and a force for growth. I believe brands that can figure out how to do this genuinely and authentically, and prepare for unknown futures, will persevere and win.”
