ESADE CASE STUDY

Roca in Egypt
Written by Josep Franch and Marianna Sablina Kondratieva, 2013

On that evening in late March 2012, Carlos Velázquez, Corporate Marketing Director for
Roca Corporación Empresarial (the Roca Group), and Xavier Torras, Corporate Brand and Communication Director for the same company, were taking a short break from their meeting with Gravena, their partner company in Cairo (Egypt). This was the second long day in a row with endless meetings. Torras looked up and said: “What the heck are we going to say in Barcelona?” — where corporate headquarters were located. “I have no idea…” — replied Velázquez — “…if we do finally decide to launch the Roca brand in Egypt despite the current political turmoil, we will be sunk by the crappy advertising campaign…” Torras could not agree more: “This campaign has nothing to do with our brand values, but these guys are the ones who really know the market, and this local advertising agency has outstanding credentials…” he added. As if it was not challenging enough to decide whether or not to go ahead with the launch given Egypt’s political instability, the idea of a local campaign misaligned with the global brand values posed yet another question as to what the company should do with its mainstream brand in the Egyptian market.

Roca: Company Background
With a sales turnover close to €1.5 billion1, and over 20,000 employees, the Roca
Group was the worldwide leader in the bathroom industry (see Exhibit 1 for some financial information). In 2012, the firm was present in over 135 countries and it was a family-owned multinational company.

1

The so-called ‘short scale’ (échelle courte) convention is used throughout whereby ‘billion’ means 109
12
(American usage) and not 10 (British/Continental usage).
This case is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than