In the late 1980s, P&G management made a significant change in its brand management structure to improve coordination and efficiency. Multiple brands were combined into product categories, under the responsibility of a category manager, who managed individual brands as part of the overall category portfolio. For more than 50 years, the brand management approach had served P&G well, and the company had been recognized as the benchmark for excellence in brand management. The introduction of category management was a dramatic shift for company that had pioneered brand management in the 1930s.