P&G learned how to sell soap then created iconic brands

In celebration of America’s 250th birthday this year, the USA Today network is taking a look at iconic companies that were founded and flourished in the nation.

Jason P. Chambers, professor of advertising and associate dean for access and engagement, shared his insights on the branding impact of Proctor & Gamble (P&G), the makers of Ivory soap, in the “Iconic Brands” series, which celebrates American ingenuity with a deeply reported examination of how brands intersect with history, community and everyday life.

Chambers said brands like P&G emerged in the last decades of the 19th century as the manufacturing industry surged after the Civil War. Not only did the economy get bigger due to growing steel, railroad and oil industries, but American consumers changed as well.

As more laborers worked in factories, not farms, they had more money, but less time. Consumers were more inclined to buy items that a previous generation would have made themselves—from clothing to crackers to soap, he added.