When Kirti Singh, Procter & Gamble’s chief analytics and insights officer, talks about the company’s laser focus on consumers, he begins with D. Paul (“Doc”) Smelser.
“P&G developed the concept of market research in 1924,” Singh told delegates at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) 2018 Data and Measurement Conference. “It started with a simple question about consumer behavior: ‘What percentage of women used Ivory soap for face and hands versus dishwashing?’”
Doc Smelser, as he was known by his colleagues, was a PhD working in the Economic Research department...