Tambrands Case
Question: What alternative solutions to the problems, given the information in the case, are available? What is your recommendation? Why?
With all these issues discussed above, taken into consideration, Tambrands felt the need to expand oversees, where it faced cultural and religious sensitivities for the longest time. The agency decided to expand into 26 foreign countries, however being a single-product company, it was a very risky proposition to go ahead with. Another reason why this proposition was risky is because Tambrands did not have the infrastructure, the global marketing and distribution capabilities that other multinational companies have. Hence they approached Proctor and Gamble for a buyout as this would help tampax grow globally and help the brand receive its full potential.
The reasoning behind this decision was that Proctor and Gamble had expertise in marketing feminine protection products for some time. Proctor and Gamble continued the marketing strategy that Tambrands had been using, however they met with failure. They realized that places like Brazil were too expensive and slow growing, despite having the potential for further growth. At this point they decided to go one market at a time, one of their first markets was in Monterrey, which has a population of 4 million out of which 1.2 million were its target market. Although this was just a test location, Proctor and Gamble believed that this place was ideal to start as this would give them a lot of information regarding peoples mindset towards this product and how they can use that mindset to their advantage. They also realized that places where health education was not given great emphasis usually were the places where their product did not sell. Procter and Gamble marketers found open boxes in stores indicating that women were curious as to how the product worked. Thats when the adopted the new educational program where tampons