Team 5, Section C
Bernardino Colonna, Rishi Shroff, Gianfranco Capobianco, Melissa Barnett &ShuLiYeh
1) Which are the key factors that consumers consider when purchasing toilet paper?
The key factors considered by consumers when purchasing toilet paper are quality and price. In fact, the toilet paper industry in Western Europe is segmented based on these two key factors. In the Portuguese toilet paper market, 60% of customers find price the most important attribute when buying toilet paper,
30% find quality the most important determinant, while 8% mentioned the brand and 2% the format. For those who viewed quality as the most important characteristic; the three most important attributes of the product are softness, strength and absorbency. 55% of Portuguese customers mentionedchecking the price of the toilet paper on the shelves before purchasing, while 35% said they do not check the price beforehand.
2) Analyze key competitors in this industry.
Renova operates in the disposable paper products industry of which it occupies 1% share of the Western
European market and a 17% share of the Portuguese market. This industry is broken into the disposable tissue and hygiene products categories. Renova is a player only in the $13b disposable tissue sector, which includes toilet paper, kitchen towel rolls, facial and pocket tissues and napkins. The tissue market has been suffering from anemic growth of 2.4% per year for the last three years in Western Europe and even slower in
Renova’s home market of Portugal. The sluggish sales across Western Europe and Portugal are directly related to stagnant customer population growth and market saturation. The toilet paper market in Western
Europe is highly commoditized, has sluggish growth and generally lacks innovation.
Renova is in direct competition with large consumer goods companies, multi-national paper companies and major retailers both across Western Europe and within Portugal. Its major