Parvaderm Corporation Case Study

Overview

Parvaderm Corporation is a manufacturer of women's personal-care products. The company's line of products includes facial creams, hand and body lotions, and a full line of women' toiletries sold under different brand names. Products are sold by drug and food-and-drug stores through rack jobbers. Rack jobbers are actually wholesales that set up and merchandise retail displays.

Soft and silky shaving gel was introduced in the spring of 1991. The product was viewed as a logical extension of the company's soft and silky brand of hand and body lotions and required few changes in packaging and manufacturing. The unique dimension of the introduction was that soft and silky shaving gel was positioned as a high quality women's shaving gel. The positioning strategy was successful in differentiating soft and silky shaving gel from existing men and women's shaving creams and gels at the time.

Moreover, retailers were able to obtain product placement in the women's personal-care section of drug and food-and-drug stores, thus emphasizing the product's positioning statement. Furthermore, placement apart from men's shaving products minimized direct price comparison as Soft and Silky Shaving Gel was premium priced with a suggested retail price of 3.95$ per 5.5 ounce tube.

In addition, Soft and Silky Shaving Gel has been sold in a tube since its introduction. This packaging was adopted because the company did not have the technology to produce aerosol containers. Also it has been profitable from the time of its introduction. The positioning had created a customer franchise whereby the product is unique for the feminine woman who considers herself special.

Situation Analysis

A new package design idea was provided by Masters' brand assistant Heather Courtwright. The recommendation was based on four developments.

- Unit sales volume for Soft and Silky Shaving Gel had slowed and then plateaued in recent years.

- The growth of Soft and Silky Shaving Gel had stained manufacturing capacity whereby inspection of shipping records indicated that the product's fill rate had dropped, leading to out-of -stock situation and lost sales.

- The company had no manufacturing capacity expansion plans for the next three years.

- The aerosol packaging had become the dominant design for women's shaving creams and gels.

Nevertheless, the major question was whether a 5.5 ounce or a 10 ounce aerosol container should be introduced.

Market research results evaluation

Competitors

There are two dominate players in the current market whose prices are very competitive. S.C. Johnson and Gilletee

Representative Women's Shaving Products

Brand (Manufacturer) Sizea Form Price/Price per oz

Skintimate (S.C Johnson) 7 oz. Gel $ 2.79 / $ .40

Skintimate (S.C Johnson) 10 oz. Cream $ 2.99 / $ .30

Satin Care (Gillette) 7 oz. Gel $ 2.99 / $ .43

Soft Shave (White Labs) 9 oz. Lotion $ 1.82 / $ .20

Aveeno Therapeutic Shaving Gel(S.C.Johnson) 7 oz. Gel $ 3.99 / $ .57

Inverness Ultra-Lubricating Shaving Gel (Inverness Corp.) 6 oz. Gel $ 6.95 / $ 1.16

Soft and Sliky Shaving Gel (Skin-Tique Corp.) 5.5 oz. Gel $ 3.95 / $ .72

a. Several manufactures also sold smaller 2-ounce sizes designed for travel purposes.

According to the table above, it is very noticeable that the competition according to Parvederm Corporation is very high as S.C. Johnson and Gillette have competitive prices

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