Tambrands—Overcoming Cultural Resistance

QUESTIONS

1. Evaluate the wisdom of Tambrands becoming part of Procter & Gamble.

The decision to belong to P&G was very smart on the part of Tambrands since in
addition to being a world-renowned company with extensive global marketing and
marketing capabilities, it will allow the acceleration of Tampax growth worldwide,
which will help this brand to reach to its full potential. According to what was read
in the case, Tambrands was not able to take advantage of growth in developing
countries due to its infrastructure, which P&G does have.

This allowed the organization to achieve important goals: increase its actions and
obtain more products for sale in foreign markets that are in expansion.

2. Tambrands indicated that the goal of its global advertising plan was to
“market to each cluster in a similar way.” Discuss this goal. Should P&G
continue with Tambrands’s original goal adapted to the new educational
program? Why? Why not?

Proctor & Gamble sí debe continuar con el plan de publicidad global de Tambrands
adaptado al nuevo programa educativo ya que este busca identificar los conflictos
religiosos y culturales que existen en algunos países con respecto al tampón. Los
estudios revelaron que los que carecen de educación o no tienen conocimiento del
cuerpo femenino son los que mayormente no entienden el debido uso de un
tampón. Evidentemente fue conveniente la forma de manejar a cada grupo de
manera específica con relación a su cultura, creemos que de otra manera no
hubiese tenido la tenido el impacto que tiene actualmente y que con respecto a las
cifras hay un crecimiento.

3. For each of the three clusters identified by Tambrands, identify the cultural
resistance that must be overcome. Suggest possible approaches to
overcoming the resistance you identify.
R/ As a company wants to expand worldwide to make its product known, it will
face different cultures with which it will have to accommodate and adapt. Of
course, each country or society is different, so the acceptance of a product
varies depending on the product. This is where the cultural resistance comes in,
where the company must make its advertising campaigns to be correct
depending on the country it wants to target, this is undoubtedly the most
important thing for the company's image to be well seen by the target market.
In this case we refer to Tambrands, a brand of tampons that based its
expansion plan on the resistance of women to use this product and was divided
into 3 groups.

Group 1: A group composed of the United States, the United Kingdom and
Australia. First, the United States, a country that generated 45% of trambands
sales. It is in this group that women are most familiar with the product and have
full knowledge of the product. The resistance in this first group would be that
the customer feels that the tampon no longer serves her needs, so you have to
give priority to the needs and desires of your audience and also, giving added
value to your product, presenting new ideas to make them feel more
comfortable and safer when using the tampon.

Group 2: Group formed by France, Israel and South Africa, in these countries,
about 50% already use tampons, the cultural resistance would put the other
half, for lack of information and ignorance about the product. For your public to
believe you and feel confident to buy your product you must have some
credibility and the support of specialists (gynecologists, in this case) to attest
that your product is good.
In addition, do information campaigns to educate women about the benefits of
using tampons and generate that need in them.

Grupo 3: Brazil, China, and Russia. The cultural resistances in this group of
countries are cultural and religious, which say that the way of using the tampon
is not appropriate and is totally forbidden because it is believed that somehow,
a woman using a tampon is an attempt against her virginity, which is totally
false.
The best way to act against this resistance is to make publicity campaigns of
testimonies of women from that country, who tell their experience without
scruples and telling the truth to end insecurities and fears when talking about
the correct use of the tampon.

4.
5. I do not consider that the same strategy should be taken due to
demographic and cultural differences, Brazil is almost 2 times bigger than
Mexico and 10 times bigger than Venezuela, for which in Brazil the different
niches that exist in the market should be reviewed and decide about the
strategy that P&G will implement.
Another aspect that I consider should be considered are the cultural
differences between the countries, as Brazil is larger it is possible that we
find different ethnicities, races, etc. which will make it difficult to carry out the
strategy. Additionally, in Brazil they speak Portuguese, while in Mexico and
Venezuela they speak Spanish, this difference also adds difficulties when
implementing the strategy.
Finally, I consider that the Mexican model should be changed according to
the demands of the Brazilian market, some aspects of the strategy will be
similar, since the 2 countries are in the same region.

6. Yes, because everything goes hand in hand. If Tampax manages to change