Procter & Gamble’s CFO says pricing power isn’t a given anymore—here’s how the company plans to earn it

Good morning. For nearly two centuries, Procter & Gamble, home of Dawn dish soap, Tide detergent, Pampers diapers, and Gillette razors, has sold consumers the same basic promise: its products are worth a premium. The pitch has always been that better performance justifies a higher price.

However, after years of cumulative inflation, consumers are more price-sensitive, more willing to compare, and less reflexively loyal. Against that backdrop, P&G’s message is evolving.

“I don’t think we’ve lost pricing power,” P&G CFO Andre Schulten said on the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call on Friday. “I think pricing power has to be earned—and the way to earn it is to combine pricing with a truly delightful experience for the consumer.”

For the past few years, large consumer goods companies were able to push through price increases with limited resistance. That window is narrowing. From tariffs to commodities, costs are still rising, but consumers are no longer absorbing those increases as easily. The result is more of a balancing act: How do you protect margins without pushing shoppers away?

P&G, No. 51 on the Fortune 500, is emphasizing innovation over across-the-board price hikes. “Consumers respond well if we give them a truly better proposition in the categories we are in because they see there is upside,” said Schulten, who led the earnings call discussion and handled analyst questions.

That looks different depending on the product. For Tide, P&G recently introduced what it described as the biggest formula upgrade in 25 years, holding the price steady while........

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