As CEO of Procter and Gamble, Alexandra Keith is working to modernize their brands. You heard from her yesterday. Today she's going to be announcing a new partnership in the UK. So please welcome Alex Keith and Paris Liz. [ MUSIC ] [ APPLAUSE ] That music is so fitting for you. [ LAUGH ] So this is an exciting part of this conversation where you kind of get to know a little bit more about Paris because we know a little bit about Alex but I thought it's kind of an even keeled situation where. We need to understand who you are personally because we're talking about branding. So here is your rapid fire round. We have one minute to answer these questions. All time, since we're talking about music all through this lunch, all time favorite singer and song. Annie Lennox, Little Bird. There you go. She was here not long ago. Billy Joel, Vienna. One thing no one knows about you. I'm an obsessive compulsive cleaner. [ LAUGH ] I can do running pace time math in my head. [ LAUGH ] Best advice you ever got? Do what you can when you can. I'd say, follow your dreams. Paris Lees? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Clocks ticking down. Nottingham. [ LAUGH ] London. There you go. Favorite place in London? Hyde Park because I run. Dirty sweaty warehouse at 3 a. m. wearing Nike's. [ LAUGH ] Okay, okay Favorite seat in the plane? One where I don't have to get up for someone else. Business class [ LAUGH ] And how do you both de- stress? I run. [ LAUGH ] She runs a lot. Valium. [ LAUGH ] I like your solution better. I do, valium is underestimated. [ LAUGH ] I exercise, jog. I'll do the shrug as well, so introduce yourself Paris to this audience that may not know you. Hello ladies. Who is Paris? Who is Paris? I am a writer and campaigner and I'm probably best known in the UK for. Trying to raise awareness for transgender rights, and put forward the idea that trans people deserve to live their lives free from discrimination, and be treated with dignity. But I guess, I don't know, do a lot of different things, but that's probably the main thing. Writer, activist, and Tens of thousands of social media followers who take your word. Yeah, I don't keep count but- You don't keep count. It's 17, 000 on Twitter. Nope, guys, doesn't keep count. [ LAUGH ] There's a reason why we have you both here. You both are amazing at The ability to brand and rebrand. Alex, you came into this room at Procter & Gamble and [ UNKNOWN ] the way the brands were looked at, the ones that were not doing well put the company and the beauty business back on track. Tell me a little bit about the focus point at this point. Yeah, the study that you did. Yeah, tell me a little bit more. I'll talk and I'll focus today on our Pantene brand which is what we call it in the US. A little tomato, tomah- to. I think here in the UK it's Panten so forgive me. [ LAUGH ] I will call it Pantene but please think about Panten. It's a brand that's been around since 1945. And it is a fantastic product for hair. But as I came to this role, I really looked at that brand, which was not doing very well, and said the brand is really missing its mission and purpose. It's not emotionally connecting with women that we, you know, that we ultimately would like to use it. And especially in today's world, with the, Importance of purpose and mission for millennials and for people over particularly millennials and Gen Z, we're really trying to bring back the mission and purpose of our brands. So for Pantene, which is all about giving women the healthy, wonderful hair they wanna have. We looked at us we did a study with Dr. Mariela France at Yale University on the transformative power of hair. We did that, we've done a couple studies now with the The 8000 women in 11 countries around the world about the importance of hair to how they want to project themselves to the world and how they express themselves to the world. And what we found was, and we talked this morning a lot about fashion and And beauty and clothes and jewelry and all those things. But in all those countries hair is more important than almost anything else to the way a woman expresses herself to the world. So now, on our Pantene Brand Globally, we have a platform about the transformative power of hair. And that is coming to life differently in different countries around the world. And here in the UK I'm really proud to announce today on this stage we're partnership with Peris to help bring to life. Peris's story and journey and the power of her hair and the role her hair played. In her own story. [ APPLAUSE ] I think we touched a little bit on Paris's role in the UK. She is I think, in some ways, playing down how much influence she has in changing people's mindsets about issues that they might not understand. And her story is a powerful one. So, I want you to tell us a little bit more about this transformative power of hair and the purpose that, kind of got you from where you were from when you were very young to where you are now and what happened. Well, I think that, you know, genuinely when I first transitioned. As a teenager, I was messed about by the NHS like many trans people. And I wasn't actually getting the support that I needed, and I didn't have any medical interventions at that point, so I had the hormones and people reading me as male sometimes in public not all the time but enough to make me very anxious about leaving the house. I went home for a year at that time. The way that I was communicating to the world that I was female was essentially because I was physically I was exactly the same as I was a couple of months previously, it was the hair, it was the makeup, it was the clothes, and obviously these things don't Make us women. You can have a shaved head and you're still a woman, but it was so interesting to me that it's such a powerful way to communicate. Cuz you shaved your head at one point when you were a teenager. Yeah. When the start of the Paris [ UNKNOWN ] journey began you had shaved your head. Yeah cuz I knew that I wanted to go for it originally because I've known from a very young age the direction I wanted to go in and I had some really hard times as a teenager and I actually ended up in a young offenders institute and I felt like my life is ruined, I've messed up. I just can't even get through college, let alone mae this what seemed like a completely insurmountable change in my life. And there was no other way for me to express myself in person. All I had was my body. And it was this sort of cry for help. It was this sort of Just this complete despair and I think that there is an emotional element to hair. And I think for me, why it's not the only thing, but I think it's such a powerful expression of femininity because You know I think that my fear when I was growing up, the only time I ever saw trans people in the media or in advertising, we were presented as objects of pity, ridicule or disgust. You know we were never celebrated or you know shown basic humanity. And there was always this charactature of you've got too much makeup on and it's. Fake hair, fake boobs, but this idea that you are artificial, that you weren't who you said you were. And I think for me, my hair's my crowning glory because that grew out of my head. And I go to bed at night and it's there, and it's me. It's sort of indivisible from me. So It's just really nice that this is where the conversation is that in 2019 .>> And that's what it comes down to, at some point when you're looking at a change in your customer and the values that they're espousing and the change that people like you are bringing into the corporate world. When you look at A company like Procter and Gamble or any other corporate out there that is trying to achieve a new wave of branding. You talk about it the core being purpose instead of jumping on the bandwagon. Run us a little through the mentality that your approach has taken. The journey of the beauty product business and Procter and Gamble. I think ultimately I mean Procter and Gamble is a company that is very committed to innovation and product performance. But I think, and this has been a theme throughout the importance of people. Feeling connected to the brand and what the brand is about and what the mission of that brand and company is about is very important. So, we've done this work with our beauty brands and we have a broad stable beauty brands. One of our One of our most mission driven brands is a brand called SK2 in Asia that is all about changing destiny, and has a amazing emotional platforms about changing destiny for women in many countries These things are very important to tie to the benefits of the products so that the products and the brands are at the front and center because ultimately we're a company selling products and brands, but doing it in a way that makes them more important in people's lives. And Procter and gamble in general and I talked about this yesterday a bit. Views ourselves as both a force for growth and a force for good in our corporate social responsibility platform [ CROSSTALK ] . But it wasn't always like that, right? It was a cultural change that had to happen. Procter and Gamble has always viewed ourselves that way and led the way in many things over our. 175 year history but ultimately the cultural changes that we are putting at front in consumer facing now. Over the last five to seven years, we've come a lot more public about the things we are doing in the world, in the communities in which we live and work. And to bring Forward insights that spark conversation in the areas of gender, equality, diversity and inclusion, the things that we think matter to society, and forwarding society. But doing that in ways that fit with our brands, that don't feel co- opted and just latched on to. And that's why This transformative power of hair platform is so powerful globally because the 11 countries, they represent all the regions of the world. But what's interesting about them is how they're coming to life differently by country. And I'll just say in Japan for instance. there is a huge drive for conformity in Japan, which is probably not a shock to anyone. But women are really pressured, socially, into wearing their hair a certain way, to the point that in Tokyo over half of the public schools in Tokyo, if a young girl does not have straight black hair her parents have to sign a natural hair certificate to say that she did not Color or curled her hair. And panteen in Japan is now been kind of forwarding a conversation about why is this necessary, why do we need to do that. And it is generating tremendous conversation in the society between teachers and students and the news media, about why is that happening. So we're using these platforms to spark conversations that we think will help women have the hair they want. Ann, there's a very cute picture of Pantene's ambassador that you can Google. I'm not going to give it any more of a plug than that, but it's worth it. It's also Quite a name as well, in Japan In Japan In Japan, but parents when you decide to take your personal brand and add it to a corporate brand. What goes through your mind when you decide to make that association? Cuz again, you're not just an influencer, you are also an activist. Wow. It's a thin road to walk on. Yeah, my integrity's really important to me. And it's kind of my stock and trade really. But I've always been a pragmatist. And I don't really see myself as an activist per se, because that makes me feel that I should be handcuffed to the railings outside Downing Street or something. [ LAUGH ] But And that's just that's just not who I am. And I feel that I just, you know, think that trans people should be treated with respect. And I think that actually the, the way forward is I want trans people to feel included in things and, and not to feel excluded and stigmatize and oppressed and that you, you can't fully apply Participate in life. So, I welcome brands growing and going on a journey. And I think that you know, I'm very interested in speaking to the mainstream and, and taking, you know people with us because I think that's how you affect real change so there's always this thing of You know, was it tokenism, you were being asked to do this, and I kind of think so what? If that's the case, traditionally people haven't been handing it out on a plate to To people like me. It could be to a person of color, or any sorts of background you come from where you've been marginalized. If you can use the thing that makes you different to benefit in some way, Take it. Take that opportunity, and redress the balance a bit. So I think it's great. Look, I never actually thought that trans people would be celebrated. I thought we could maybe reduce a stigma. I didn't realize it would become aspirational. I didn't realize we'd be winning awards and appearing on the cover of magazines and stuff. Or at Fortune with powerful women. Yeah, at Fortune with powerful women and being in advertising I didn't realize that we could get to that. What a great message for kids to listen, if you're a working class kid living on a council estate like I was in the North in 2019 and your family's not supportive And it's still gonna be very much the dark, old days for you. We know that there's an epidemic of kids feeling suicidal in this country. I'm sorry to take it there, but we know that Nearly half of trans young people in Britain have attempted suicide. So we're not talking about thought about, or threaten to, they've actually attempted to take their own life. So within that context, being able to turn on the television, being able to look in a magazine, look online and see that there are brands Celebrating people from that community. It's like the middle ground has shifted in a way that, when I was growing up, you were getting people like Graham Norton on the television and it was still a little bit like, well, in my world, we're being told the Gay is a bad thing and you should be ashamed of that, but And here's this person who's got a hit TV show. So I think that that sort of cultural change, and that involves every aspect of the media, from the creative arts to advertising, cuz that's the world we live in. No, I agree with you. [ CROSSTALK ] Support and celebrate diversity. I absolutely agree but here's a question for you, Alex, as we Go into a couple of questions from the audience. Is this something that every company has to grapple with, that there has to be a purpose when they think about their brands having longevity? And be able to sustain another 150, 180 years of survival? I do think it's important for brands to connect with people and I think people that demand that People are putting out there for what it will take to connect you is is rising. But I think brands have to do in an incredibly authentic way. It has to be tied to what the brand's about. Otherwise it seems some like you've just hired somebody to you know? Show for you almost. All right. Chance to ask two experts about branding. Any questions from the audience? Ask us anything, as we've got no shame. And I have a bunch of questions here. So not to worry if you don't, but it would be lovely if anybody did. If not, here's what I'm going to turn around and ask you to do. From a personal branding perspective, I know a lot of us wonder about how do we go out and brand ourselves. It's a new environment for women, for minorities for everyone. So, personal branding advice, what do you do that people here can take away back to their organizations And kind of take them on their journey through their careers. Well I think as a crative person you should always try to find the thing that you can say that nobody else can say in quite the same way at any given moment in time. People may not like what you've got to say. But I know, for instance, some of my best articles have been things that. Nobody else could have said quite what I said at that time and I think as a creative person, that's your sweet spot. I think also, consistency, particularly in a social media age is quite important. You know, there are certain people that I go to. You know for the make up Jeter certainly plug a two fer a left wing political perspectives. You know I think that consistency in a really complex confusing world is really important people know what your brand is is about. Alex. Yeah, I think. Pearls of wisdom please. Yeah, I think both whether it's a personal brand or within a company or organization, I think about it as almost like a ven diagram. What do you love? And what are you really good at? How do those two things intercept and what What do you want to be known for and then seek out opportunities that allow you to to be known for that and and don't be afraid of the opportunities. Do things that you've never done before that will allow you to be known and I do think consistency to Paris's point. I mean once you're clear on that I I got this advice probably 15 years ago, and I decided I wanted to be known for really changing the game of the brands and the markets in which I competed and I went after that, and I think I've been reasonably succesful at it. Do you think you've done your parents proud, both of you? We've talked about children, I guess so. Yeah, I mean I was telling you my dad's 80 so he does not have a smart phone, but his little binder he calls his smart phone, he carries it around with articles about his daughter And bores all of his coworkers and friends with his little smartphone binder so I guess that's, yeah. Paris? I've reached the point that I'm working with Pan 10 now and being in [ UNKNOWN ] is just, couldn't be happier. I think she thought when I was younger I was gonna bring great shame on her and the family, and it's gone 180. Another thing I really just wanted [ UNKNOWN ] Brandi, which may seem so obvious, but I think authenticity is really important as well in a social media age, so I try to make sure that everything I do is really authentic. Authentic enough to make your mother proud. Yeah, yeah, she's kind of my biggest fan now. And, you know, I've taken it to Downing Street and stuff. So she's she like she's done all right, she only had one child. So you know, I feel like I've got a. [ LAUGH ] Well ladies, thank you so very much for giving us your advice. I know a lot of us will take it back to our organizations and personal branding, corporate branding. It's all important It's all about you. So, thank you. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

MPW London 2019: The Next Generation in Beauty Branding

Luxury

P&G’s Alexandra Keith and Journalist Paris Lees discuss.
