Pretend you are the #8 company in the bath soap business. Your company, Merit Enterprises, makes CLEANLY Soap, a product BRAND that has a 2.3% market share in an industry that is growing about 1.9% a year, mostly due to population growth. Over the past five years, your market share has very slowly eroded from a high of 2.6% to its current 2.3%. Sales the past two years have been essentially the same. CLEANLY Soap does provide a small net profit of $4M per year on sales of $62M.
Your VP of Marketing has conducted her weekly staff meeting and she has put things cleanly on the line. The President has asked her to increase profits. Your VP, after the meeting, asked you to have a cup of coffee with her... as she wanted to gain your perspectives as to what should Merit Enterprises do with its CLEANLY Soap. Your role at Merit Enterprises is Manager of Strategic Directions, responsible for mapping out the company's STRATEGIC marketing direction and overall profitability. In your role, you work with marketing managers for the different product lines, including Dale Williams, marketing manager for CLEANLY Soap.
Given the situation provided you, how would you approach this situation? As you answer, demonstrate your comprehension of the term strategic vs. tactical. As you look at your TOTAL approach, what, too, are potential risks and benefits of your approach?