Marketing case study of Portugal’s Renova black toilet paper is #1
INSEAD, the international business school, has won the top global award for case studies by ecch – (formerly European Case Clearing House) – for ‘Renova Toilet Paper: Avant-garde Marketing in a Commoditized Category,” it was announced today by ecch, based in the UK and the US. This is the first time a non-US school has won the overall global award.
An unprecedented thirteen schools from seven countries in four geographical regions have produced winners in the 2012 case awards and competitions. Ecch identifies winning cases through an objective process and cases are judged anonymously. All cases registered with ecch during the last five years are put forward for consideration. The wining case in each category is the one that has achieved the highest growth in popularity among peers worldwide, based on the number of individual organisations ordering and teaching the case during the last calendar year.
The INSEAD case study documented how Renova, a privately-held European paper products company headquartered outside of Lisbon, Portugal, managed to differentiate itself from its international competitors, transform white toilet paper from a commodity into a premium product, and then enter new business sectors through innovative marketing. The result was “Renova Black,” the world’s first black toilet paper, which rapidly shifted from a novelty item to a luxury fashion item. Equally rapidly, the company moved from supermarket aisles into boutique hotels, fashion shows and the headlines.
INSEAD marketing professor Pierre Chandon, one of the authors of the overall winning case said: "We are delighted to be the first non-US school to win the overall award since the ecch awards went global. After many years during which the overall award went to cases about multinational companies, we are pleased that this year's award recognizes the accomplishment of a small Portuguese company. Renova's success in bringing innovation and creativity to a commoditized category can serve as inspiration for all managers battling difficult conditions and a reason to remain optimistic about the future of southern European businesses.
"Renova Toilet Paper: Avant-garde Marketing in a Commoditized Category" represented a completely in-house effort from INSEAD and included more than a dozen video clips. The business case was written by Pierre Chandon, in association with INSEAD assistant professors of marketing Yakov Bart and Steven Sweldens and Raquel Seabra de Sousa (INSEAD MBA 2009) from BCG’s Lisbon office. Seabra de Sousa also participated in the video clips, which were written, edited, and produced on-location by INSEAD Knowledge Editor-in-Chief, Shellie Karabell and Julian Boudier, INSEAD Audio-Visual Production Manager. Please click here to see the video: http://youtu.be/cvR8qcEkDiQ
Chandon explained: “In today’s MBA and executive classrooms, paper-only teaching material is simply not enough. For the Renova case, INSEAD created video interviews of consumers, company executives, and opinion leaders with computer animations and sent out product samples to instructors. Just like the movie industry of the 1930’s, business cases of the 2010’s are changing from silent, black & white documents to multi-sensory, multi-media super-productions.”
Ilian Mihov, Deputy Dean for Faculty and Research at INSEAD commented: “To take the overall top spot is a rare honour and an indication of how much hard work and dedication went into developing the Renova business case on the part of the INSEAD faculty and staff. Case studies are a proven and effective teaching tool and we look forward to adding to this world repository of knowledge.”
Ecch is the largest single source of management case studies in the world, with more than 75,000 items in its catalogue, available to everyone through www.ecch.com. An independent membership-based, non-profit organisation, ecch has offices at Cranfield University, UK and Babson College, USA. Formerly the European Case Awards, the Case Awards have been presented since 1991. More information can be found at: www.ecch.com/caseawards.
