The Procter & Gamble Co. is betting that consumers' ramped-up desire to maintain better hygiene, improve personal health and keep a cleaner home will be sustained long after the COVID-19 crisis has faded and continue to drive performance at the Cincinnati-based company.

In reporting robust sales and profit growth over the last two quarters while boosting its financial outlook twice, P&G has built up significant momentum amid the darkest days of the global pandemic. Company executives said Jan. 20 that key accomplishments during those months — boosting online sales growth, launching new high-tech products and changing how it spends some of its advertising dollars — could stand it in good stead when the post-pandemic future arrives.

As with two of its biggest rivals, Unilever PLC and Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, one of the main drivers of P&G's robust performance is sheer good fortune: it owns a broad swath of long-established household brands that are in especially high demand among millions of consumer seeking familiarity, dependability and easy availability as they spend more time at home, instead of in offices, restaurants or on the road.

"In the U.S., as an example, cleaning and sanitizing frequency is up 30%, dishwashing frequency is up 15%, air freshening frequency is up 20%, and in-home paper towel usage is up 15%," said CFO Jon Moeller on an earnings call with analysts. "We've been at this on a global basis, well, even in the U.S., for a year. And that does tend to form habits, which means some higher level of consumption should continue to occur post-crisis."

Far from it being a cakewalk, though, P&G executives said they have had to juggle multiple challenges in order to keep the world's largest household goods company on track. "We've suffered disruptions across multiple channels," Moeller said, including "closures across... specialty beauty, away-from-home channels, dental offices. In Japan, department stores still lack beauty consultants, which impacts our premium SK-II [cosmetics] business, [and] our P&G professional away-from-home business has been impacted by low hotel and restaurant occupancy."

Nonetheless, P&G has adapted to the changing dynamics of the consumer market. The company's e-commerce sales, for example, shot up 50% year-to-date and now comprise 14% of global revenue. "It's not far from closing in on that 20% level, particularly with those kind of growth rates," Moeller said, adding that margins from online and brick-and-mortar sales were roughly the same.

P&G has also pushed its scientists and research staff to come up with new products that meet the altered needs of customers. In August 2020, for example, it introduced the high-tech Oral-B iO electric toothbrush that promises a "professional clean feeling at home." It drove a 20% year-to-year increase in P&G's power brush sales.

The company also launched Microban 24, a sanitizing spray that won U.S. regulatory approval as a product that can kill SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In some cases, as in the home care category, P&G has shifted a significant amount of advertising to a more "educational format" to guide consumers about better hygiene practices.

"The relevance of our categories in consumers' lives potentially increases," said Moeller. "We will serve what will likely become a forever altered cleaning, health and hygiene focus for consumers who use our products daily or multiple times each day. There may be a continued increased focus on home, more time at home, more meals at home with related consumption impacts."