CASE ANALYSIS: PROCTOR & GAMBLE EUROPE: VIZIR LAUNCH
For more than a decade, Proctor & Gamble followed what amounted to a mass customization strategy in its pursuit of market positions in Western European nations. Mass customization is a strategy of mass producing tailored products for specific markets, as opposed to mass producing uniform products for all markets. In Western Europe, where cultural differences are substantial, entrenched, and defended, the mass customization policy was a highly successful one for Proctor & Gamble.
This case [Harvard Business School Case 9-384-138] is analyzed in relation to the plans of the company to consider revising its product strategy for Western Europe in relation to clothes washing detergents to develop uniform products for marketing in all of the national markets in Western Europe. This policy appears to be driven by managers in both company headquarters in the United States and the company European headquarters who want to make names for themselves by doing something different even if it is damaging to the company, and by an empire-building research and development director in the company European headquarters.
According to the case, all of these issues distilled into three major decision questions, as follows: (1) Should the new Vizir brand detergent be launched nationally in Germany on the basis of preliminary market test results? (2) If the new product is launched nationally in Germany, should it be launched simultaneously regionally throughout Western Europe? (3) Should the companyÆs country managers in Western Europe retain any decision prerogatives related to new product launches in their markets? The company has been burned before in Western Europe by embarking on long-term strategies on the basis of short-term test results. Therefore, the company should wait for the results of more complete market tests before making a national launch in Germany. Company management is...