Case Study:

Tambrands -
Overcoming Cultural
Resistance

MARCH 2020
Authored by: - Simone Segatto
Marketing and International Sales

IMoTML01 - MBA in International Talent Management &

Leadership - 2019/2020
1. Evaluate the wisdom of Tambrands becoming part of Procter & Gamble.

To become part of P&G was a sage decision taken by Tambrands: The company was having
its earnings decreased by 12%, was facing a saturated market in USA, the country responsible
for 45% of Tampax sales and so, the most reasonable path for growth was the expansion to
other countries were the Tampax was not very known. To do so, there would be a need for a
huge investment to enable Tambrands engaging in a global campaign and to build a global
distribution network at the same time. That was too risk for a company of a single product to
do alone, however the company also could not keep its profitability if the revenues continued
coming only from US, even more considering the dropped-on revenues and the competition
with Playtex Products and Kimberly- Clark.

Joining P&G, a world-class company, was a master play, as P&G with its intelligent marketing
and powerful branded products (about 300 products in 140 nations at that time) would
accelerate the global growth of Tampax, achieving its worldwide distribution. Procter &
Gamble was one of the top companies in the adspend ranking, with $ 5,336.7 million spent in
1995, and being the second in the global presence ranking, behind Coca-Cola only. P&G had
the infrastructure to tap Tampax into growth in the developing countries and expertise to
develop and improve the product and market strategy among women universe.

A risk for Tampax becoming a P&G brand could have been related to the product image, as
P&G 17 years ago, had been associated to the death of two dozen women who used P & G’s
Rely brand tampons and got toxic shock syndrome when using.

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?

Tambrands’ desire was to extend Tampax presence around the world and proposed a
segmentation of consumer markets into three clusters taking into consideration how resistant
women were to using tampons. The three clusters were: 1) Women who already use tampons
(e.g.: US, UK and Australia); 2) About 50% of the women use tampons, but there still are some
concerns due misconceptions related to physiology (e.g.: France, Israel and South Africa); 3)
More challenging and lucrative cluster: Women resistant to use tampons due misconceptions
related to physiology and lack of comfort when using the product (e.g.: Brazil, China and
Russia). By doing that, Tambrands could at the same time, employ strategies for marketing
adaptation (one strategy to each cluster with messages that differ widely from country to
country) and standardization (by using the same slogan to have a consistent image for
Tampax, for example). It may have been a first step in the right direction, however, without
consider any other factor besides the resistance to the use of tampons, the strategy wouldn’t
be successful in terms of reach and cost effectiveness.

Once assumed the Tampax brand, P&G did it right by not marketing to each cluster in a
generalized way as proposed by Tambrands, as the parameters to classify the countries and
allocate them into each cluster were too superficial, not considering the real aspects that could
have being influencing customers choice (cultural inclinations, demography, religious
predominance, etc.).

The possibility to go ahead with Tambrands goal, associating it to the new global program,
would only be possible after looking at those aspects and redefining the clusters, adjusting the
message delivered through the new educational programs according to the cluster, countries’
characteristics and existing barriers to the product, delivering the message to the people in
the right manner.
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.

A common cultural resistance and possible approach for all of the three clusters is related to
the religious indoctrinations and lack of information (or misinformation). Implementing
educational programs, could support the company to demystify prejudices, to deconstruct
mistaken beliefs and to stablish a relationship with customers.
Besides that, analyzing each cluster separately, we also have:

• Cluster 1: Market without resistance, women already use tampons (e.g.: US, UK and
Australia) where the cultural resistance is related to the fact that 70% of women already use
tampons and customers believe they know all they need to know about the product. A possible
approach could be to keep the competitiveness in order not to lose market share to
competitors, identify the profile of the 30% of women who don’t use tampons and the reasons
why and study the demography and define a strategy to attract young customers who are in
the time of their first periods, retaining customers from an early age.

• Cluster 2: Half to Half, where 50% of women use tampons (e.g.: France, Israel and
South Africa). In this cluster, the main cultural resistance is religious related, with concerns
about virginity. Also, tampons are seen as unnatural products that block the flow. To reach
this audience, propagated ads endorsed by professionals reinforcing that tampons don’t block
the flow, campaigns presented by young “celebrities” promoting the idea that tampons don’t
make a teenager lose her virginity and educational programs in association to social projects
would be helpful.

• Cluster 3: Women are more resistant to the use of tampons (e.g.: Brazil, China and
Russia). The women from this cluster also present concerns related to virginity and there are
women who don’t know how to use a tampon or feel it uneasy. The approach here could
encompass campaigns presented by young “celebrities” to promote the idea that tampons
don’t make a teenager lose her virginity. The company could implement educational
campaigns and ads, using different channels (web, tv, supermarket campaigns, etc.) to
promote the product and, considering the three mentioned countries, the company could focus
on the low-income classes, associating the campaigns with social programs for women.

4. In reference to the approaches you identified in Question 3, is there an approach

that can be used to reach the goal of marketing to each cluster in a similar way”?

Yes, there is. Every country, regardless the cluster, has its own segmentations in terms of
wealth and access to information. For poor communities in general, with a lack of access to
basic information and resources, the company could look for social projects focused on the
women health and well-being, providing information, giving product samples and with time,
retaining as customers that group of women who can disseminate information and attract other
customers.

Also, nowadays, all countries have internet access (maybe in different levels, but has).
Advertisements utilizing the web as channel, could present in a ludic, interesting and funny
way the benefits of the product, with a FAQ, game, promotions, etc.
5. P&G is marketing in Venezuela with its “Mexican” model. Should the company
reopen the Brazilian market with the same model? Discuss.

The marketing approach in Mexico and Venezuela was based on education, to bring to the
light information related to how to use a product that for some women still was a mystery,
explaining as well, what happens inside their bodies when the women have their periods and
also, to demystify wrong ideas related to the usage of tampons and virginity lose, that was a
common misconception presents mainly in countries that are predominantly Catholic and with
limited school health education.

Brazil, as Mexico and Venezuela, are catholic countries, where women have the same
concerns related to virginity and questions about the correct tampons’ usage. It’s is also a
tropical Latin-American country and quite close to the other two where P&G conducted the
first campaigns.

However, there are many other points to be observed: Different than Venezuela, Brazil is
extreme huge, being considered a “continental country”; Even being a tropical country, there
are states in Brazil where there is no beach, and a single approach and material content
associating the tampons with a beach day wouldn’t make sense for the whole country; While
in the other two countries, the official language is Spanish, in Brazil it is Portuguese; Besides
the difference related to the countries’ size and language, it must be considered the
miscegenation of the people in Brazil, once Brazilian people are a mix of African, European
and native Indigenous, keeping in some regions small communities of these three ethnicities
that remains unmixed and it leads to a strong difference when comparing these ethnic groups;
There are many idiomatic expressions very well known in some parts of the country but totally
unknown in others, or even, some usual expression in one region could be discriminatory in
other; Last but not least, some regions are known as more “open” for dialogs and approaches
than others. In this case, the same kind of educational program conducted in Mexico and
Venezuela, would be better accepted by these “open regions’ women” while in other region
could be a total failure, as in Brazil there are also people from some regions internally known
as “reserved and cold”, not allowing strangers to get so close to discuss such personal
subjects.

Summarizing, a generalized campaign could repeat the mistakes made in Venezuela (related
to expressions) or worse. It does not mean that educational approach would not be applicable
and successful. There are myriads of women who would well receive the information and
become Tampax customers, however a deep research and even a segmentation to have
different approaches to different regions could be the determinant factor that would lead P&G
to increase the sales in the country.

6. A critic of the “Protecting Futures” program comments, “If you believe the
makers of Tampax tampons, there’s a direct link between using Western feminine
protection and achieving higher education, good health, clean water and longer life.”
Comment.

The comment, despite seeming a little ironic, could be mentioning the results and sustainable
reports probably disclosed by P&G, promoting the educational programs, conducted in Mexico
and Venezuela, that have taken out of ignorance thousands of women who were alienated,
possessing wrong information and prejudices related to the tampons. Bringing this elucidation
moment for what the women have passed through, to the neurolinguistic programming area,
it would many other changes in the women’s life and consequently in the society, as a single
changing in the human’s mindset can be responsible for a chain reaction able to transform
their lives.
However, keeping the discussion into the marketing aspects, P&G affirms that programs such
as “Protecting Futures” conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, was responsible to give
to the girls in Africa a better chance for education, considering that after the company's
intervention with its brands Always and Tampax, there was decrease in the drop-out rate
among adolescent school girls that would no longer miss 10 to 20 percent of their annual
school days because there were menstruating and the schools lacked of clean and private
sanitation facilities or because the girls not having access to basic sanitary protection and
other resources to manage girls' periods. Not only limited to school attendance the program’s
results would be related to the girls' retention and academic performance.

The main criticism aspect related to this type of social programs or to the message that is
ventilated by P&G to the western’s people is that the distribution of internal and external
absorbents would be being the solution for a problem that is much deeper when talking about
school absences and dropouts in Africa, that includes poverty and the need to support the
family to bring food to home, teenage pregnancy, sexual harassments and even in some tribal
cultures, to the meaning of menstruation.
Not forgetting to mention, that Procter and Gamble, as any other private company, will be
always looking for increasing its marketing share and profitability. It may make some people
consider that the main reason for the delivery of social projects, besides to bring some better
life aspects to the communities, would also be to benefit the company’s branding and public
image and a way for the company looks at the local girls as future customers.