PROCTER & GAMBLE EUROPE: Vizir Launch
It is recommended that Charlie Ferguson wait for the final test-market results before launching the product and that a rethinking of stategy might then be necessary as a result of those tests. In any case, it is recommended that the product be considered a German product at this time and that a Europe-wide launch not be undertaken initially. Such a launch could be possible alter once the product is established and once the feasibility of any Europe-wide move is assessed.
The objective is to launch the product successfully, and this requires knowing that the product will fill a particular niche. The test results should help determine this in the German situation. The problem with a Europe-wide launch is that there are too many variables and too many uncertainties involved, and the questions that such a move raises need to be answered carefully and with hard evidence. The company is trying to accomplish several things at the same time--the launch of this product; the creation of a proper corporate control structure for the various European operations; the learning process that goes along with this, meaning the necessary cultural differences that will have to be accommodated in the developing European operation; and a Europe-wide strategy not merely for this product but for other products.
The drive to make this a Europe-wide product has been pushed too hard and too quickly, particularly given the evidence that there is no Europe-wide market at the present time. Indeed, this is particularly premature given the fact that there are major uncertainties involved in the product itself and in whether it will find a market, given the different way European consumers think and the different kinds of washing products they already use. The first managers in Europe realized that there were major differences between the home market and the European market, for washing habits and market structures ...