As I’ve visited Benny’s blog (https://blogs.ubc.ca/zhibinliang/2012/02/27/how-much-will-social-network-grow-in-the-coming-days/).  It struck me that this information (as Benny showed) is “The” type of information that a CEO based decision upon.Our real life example: P&G’s recent job layoff after the CEO found out it is FREE to advertise on social media! 

Just to re-post the graph that captured my attention from the original post: 

“eMarketer estimate that social network is set to grow nearly 50% in 2012, and advertisers will spend $7.72 billion on social network , this year’s growth will be even faster than in 2011. By 2014, eMarketer expects nearly $12 billion will go to social network advertising worldwide.”

I agree that the social media phenomena is true, as I have noticed this growing TREND of how online influencing our daily life, decision making. 

How has Trend influences on Decision Making:

“Recently, Procter & Gamble’s CEO had made cut on marketing jobs after he realised marketing on Social Media – Facebook was free, or with little costs.” Read Business Insider “Why lay off 5700 employees” for more information.

• Arguably, it is the right decision to lay off 5700 employees.
• 2 Reasons:

1.  P&G ad budgets $10 annually was too bloated, but is not achieving its sales target in traditional media. This graph explains it all.
   Their percentage Sales is NOT reflected as though P&G’s marketing budget continued to grow  from 2009 -2011 Marketing Cost.

“Sensible companies try to peg their ad budgets as a strict percentage of sales so that they can monitor the efficiency of their spending. It’s called managing your margins.That discipline was lost at P&G in recent years and only rediscovered yesterday. That’s the explanation for why 5,700 of P&G’s 130,000 people won’t be working there any more.”

I believe this brief analysis on the P&G’s problem can demonstrate how powerful information, market indication, and market trend SHOULD be monitored for companies to succeed, and learn from mistake.