chemistry

Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Procter & Gamble rather than just read about it. In short: The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation incorporated and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble.

Key takeaways

Procter & Gamble belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Procter & Gamble to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Procter & Gamble from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation incorporated and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. The company operates five divisions:

Beauty (18% of 2024 revenues), which includes Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene, Rejoice, Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, SK-II, and Native; Grooming (8% of 2024 revenues), which includes Braun, Gillette, and Venus; Health Care (14% of 2024 revenues), which includes Crest, Oral-B, Metamucil, Neurobion, Pepto-Bismol, and Vicks; Fabric & Home Care (36% of 2024 revenues), which includes Ariel, Downy, Gain, Tide, Cascade, Dawn, Fairy, Febreze, Mr. Clean, and Swiffer; Baby, Feminine & Family Care (24% of 2024 revenues), which includes Luvs, Pampers, Always, Tampax, Bounty, Charmin, and Puffs. The company owns brands that are in many cases the global brand leader in their category. Many of the brands have a market share greater than 25%. The company generates 48% of its sales in the United States and 52% of its sales in other countries. The company manufactures 90% of its domestically sold merchandise in the United States. The company is ranked 51st on the Fortune 500 and 60th on the Forbes Global 2000.

History

Origins Candlemaker William Procter, born in England, and soap maker James Gamble, born in Ireland, both emigrated to the US from the United Kingdom. They initially settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, and met when they married sisters Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, persuaded them to become business partners, and in 1837, Procter & Gamble was created. From 1858 to 1859, sales reached $1 million. By that point, about 80 employees worked for Procter & Gamble. During the American Civil War, the company won contracts to supply the Union Army with soap and candles. In addition to the increased profits experienced during the war, the military contracts introduced soldiers from all over the country to Procter & Gamble's products. In the 1880s, Procter & Gamble began to market a new product, an inexpensive soap that floated in water. The company called the soap Ivory. William Arnett Procter, William Procter's grandson, began a profit-sharing program for the company's workforce in 1887. By giving the workers a stake in the company, he correctly assumed that they would be less likely to go on strike. The company began to build factories in other locations in the United States because the demand for products had outgrown the capacity of the Cincinnati facilities. The company's leaders began to diversify its products as well, and in 1911 the company began producing Crisco, a shortening made of vegetable oils rather than animal fats. Beginning in the 1880s, P&G advertised its wares in full-page advertisements in many general-interest magazines. By 1921, it had become a major international corporation with a diversified line of soaps, toiletries, and food products; in that year, its annual advertising budget reached $1 million. In the 1920s, P&G advertised its products on the new medium of radio and, from 1932 forward, was one of the biggest sponsors of daytime serials, which soon became known as soap operas. In the television era, P&G sponsored and produced some twenty soap operas across six decades; the division went on a hiatus after the end of As the World Turns in 2010 before The Gates launched on CBS in 2025 as a co-production with P&G.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Former P&G logo, which was accused of being a Satanist symbol. In 1989, its details were simplified, to avoid further unfounded accusations.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Procter & Gamble

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Procter & Gamble claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Procter & Gamble before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Procter & Gamble ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Procter & Gamble

In research: Procter & Gamble appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Procter & Gamble in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Procter & Gamble is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1837 establishments in Ohio, American companies established in 1837, Business duos, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Procter & Gamble outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Procter & Gamble” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Procter & Gamble in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Procter & Gamble means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Procter & Gamble out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Procter & Gamble in simple terms?

Why does Procter & Gamble matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Procter & Gamble?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Procter & Gamble.