Parvaderm Case

Parvaderm has been a successful company in the past with their line of Silky Shaving Gel. However, their sales numbers are dropping and are forecasted to drop even further. There have been solutions proposed by the Soft and Silky brand assistant, Heather Courtwright. However, it is up to Phoebe Masters, the newly appointed product manager, to make the call on the new solutions to help get Parvaderm back on track from their past few years of disappointing sales.

There are two decisions to be made by Parvaderm Corporation. The first is whether to get rid of their current tube packaging or introduce a 5.5-ounce or a 10-ounce aerosol container to the current product line. The second is to see if it was necessary to add additional funds for a market test. This is all part of the bigger question of introducing a new package design for the Soft and Silky Shaving Gel. The Soft Silky barnd was introduced in 1991, when aerosol packaging wasn’t widely known, however: since 1999 aerosol has become the dominate packaging for women’s shaving cream.

Analysis and Evaluation

Since Pavaderm's Soft and Silky Shaving Gel sales had not risen but instead have declined over the past few years, there was definitely room for improvement. Courtwright proposed the new package plans and as the newly appointed manager, Phoebe Masters ultimately had the final call on the new packaging and the spending of additional funds. Masters approved Courtwright to spend $35,000 to conduct the marketing research tests on customer responses.

Courtwright hired a marketing research firm to conduct four focus-group studies. Two groups consisted of current Soft and Silky users, and the other two consisted of users of shaving cream, users other than Soft and Silky, and users of soap and water. The six principal findings were:

1. Customers and non-customers we unanimously in favor of the aerosol can, with the 10-ounce as the favorite.

2. 20% of Soft and Silky customers said they would convert to the 10-ounce, and 25% said they would convert to the 5.5-ounce can.

3. 1/4 of the non-customers said they would switch over to the aerosol can no matter the size. these customers’ preference for the aerosol over the tube packaging was their main reason for not buying Soft and Silky Shaving Cream.

4. Customers expected to find the aerosol can next to the tube container. Non-customers expect to find the aerosol can stocked with women’s toiletries.

5. The pricing was acceptable and actually favored by current customers. Non-customers thought the suggested retail price was some what high, but liked the value-added features and would try the product.

6. Current Soft and Silky customers are extremely loyal to the brand. none of the brand’s current customers had used a competing brand in the past two years. There was no evidence