Renova Paper

Award winning author, Pierre Chandon, Professor of Marketing, INSEAD, France talks about the development of his case Renova Toilet Paper: Avant-garde Marketing in a Commoditized Category.

Why Renova?

In recent years I have written six cases and won four ecch European Case Awards so I set myself high standards before deciding to write another one. After writing many cases about large multinationationals (L'Oréal, Unilever, Diesel), I wanted to examine how a medium-sized European family business could manage to survive in a commoditized industry when facing competition from international giants and strong pressure from big distributors.

I was also looking for a product category that most people would know, but for a story that most people hadn't heard of. Although it is important to study well-known companies, you don't need a case to learn about Apple or Google's marketing strategy - these companies are in the news every day. I was looking for a business that was a leader in its market and had done extraordinary - and successful - things that most people hadn't heard about! Amazingly, the Renova case fits all of these criteria.

How did you make contact with the company?

The idea to write a case about Renova, and the link to the company, came from Raquel Seabra de Sousa. Raquel was enrolled in my Brand Management class at INSEAD at the time and had worked at BCG before joining INSEAD. She was able to establish the contact with Paulo Pereira da Silva, Renova's CEO, through BCG in Portugal.

Pierre with Renova CEO Paulo Pereira da Silva

Teaching objectives

The case is a very inspiring illustration of the value of good marketing. In a nutshell, Renova understands that it is not a paper company (the word paper is taboo). Instead, they are providing skin care (and thus well being) and now, with coloured toilet paper, home decoration.

With zero marketing investment, Renova completely changed the rules of the category and turned a very boring...