Tilting Windmills: Sanex Tries to Conquer Europe
Course: Marketing Management Case Study: “Tilting Windmills - Sanex Tries to Conquer Europe
1st Question: What were the reasons for the success of Sanex in Spain? The product Sanex, or moreover the Sanex concept, became a success in Spain because the company responsible for it, CVL, and it’s local President, Mr. Martin Muñoz, carried out one of the first rules of Marketing: they invented a Consumer’s need and provided the right answer for it. Mr. Muñoz was able to find a gap in the Household and Personal Care (HPC) Market, and namely in the Bath & Shower Products Market, where we could only find, in the mid 1980’s, 2 types of products: Cosmetics and Pharmaceuticals. After studying this market along with his management team, Mr. Muñoz realized that the first ones were perceived as lower end products, abrasive (sometimes giving rashes to its users) and with strong scents, only suitable for cleaning one’s body and not offering additional properties. The second ones were perceived by costumers as being suitable for almost medicinal purposes only, with no day-to-day applicability. Pharmaceuticals were not appealing to the mass consumer, namely because they had no perfume in its composition, besides being rather more expensive than their counterpart ones. We could find Cosmetics in supermarket chains and Pharmaceuticals in pharmacies. In this way, we can say that Cosmetics and Pharmaceuticals divided the Bath & Shower Products Market, but in fact these were 2 completely different segments of the Market, with totally different approaches and Marketing Mix, being it in terms of Product, Price, Placement or Publicity. Accordingly, Mr. Muñoz realized that there was a huge gap in the Market and thus started developing a product that should position itself between Cosmetics and Pharmaceuticals: it should be cleansing as Cosmetics were, but slightly milder, and should offer a protection side as the Pharmaceuticals did. It should embrace the best of those 2 opposite worlds,
1st Question: What were the reasons for the success of Sanex in Spain? The product Sanex, or moreover the Sanex concept, became a success in Spain because the company responsible for it, CVL, and it’s local President, Mr. Martin Muñoz, carried out one of the first rules of Marketing: they invented a Consumer’s need and provided the right answer for it. Mr. Muñoz was able to find a gap in the Household and Personal Care (HPC) Market, and namely in the Bath & Shower Products Market, where we could only find, in the mid 1980’s, 2 types of products: Cosmetics and Pharmaceuticals. After studying this market along with his management team, Mr. Muñoz realized that the first ones were perceived as lower end products, abrasive (sometimes giving rashes to its users) and with strong scents, only suitable for cleaning one’s body and not offering additional properties. The second ones were perceived by costumers as being suitable for almost medicinal purposes only, with no day-to-day applicability. Pharmaceuticals were not appealing to the mass consumer, namely because they had no perfume in its composition, besides being rather more expensive than their counterpart ones. We could find Cosmetics in supermarket chains and Pharmaceuticals in pharmacies. In this way, we can say that Cosmetics and Pharmaceuticals divided the Bath & Shower Products Market, but in fact these were 2 completely different segments of the Market, with totally different approaches and Marketing Mix, being it in terms of Product, Price, Placement or Publicity. Accordingly, Mr. Muñoz realized that there was a huge gap in the Market and thus started developing a product that should position itself between Cosmetics and Pharmaceuticals: it should be cleansing as Cosmetics were, but slightly milder, and should offer a protection side as the Pharmaceuticals did. It should embrace the best of those 2 opposite worlds,