Section: HBR CASE STUDY
Rose Partyware's largest retail customer has decided to create a private-label line of party goods-and wants Rose to manufacture it. Should Rose put its efforts behind its own brand instead?
TOM ROSE hated to go to a meeting with ice cream on his pants. But Rose Partyware's after-school party-a monthly gesture of goodwill to the local community and, not incidentally, a field trial for products the company was developing- had confirmed his suspicions that one of the new ice-cream bowls was just too shallow. The five-year-old who had demonstrated that fact had been sitting right next to him.
So here he was getting ready to listen to a major presentation, with paper towels in his hands. "Go ahead, Cassie," Tom said to his marketing director. "It'll dry or harden--or something. Thankfully, it's my last meeting of the day!"
He could tell that Cassie Martin was excited about the presentation she was going to make to the top management team. Tom had personally recruited her about a year ago to spearhead the biggest strategic initiative in Rose's history: the launch of a branded line of party ware. In fact, it was the first time a company in the party goods industry had contemplated a branding effort, at least in the 30 years Rose had been in business.
Party Lines
Rose manufactured a wide variety of paper goods- plates, bowls, cups, napkins, tablecloths, favors, crepe-paper streamers, and so forth- for birthday and holiday parties and other social events. Tom's uncle, who had worked for one of the largest paper companies in the United States, had started Rose in the 1970s. He had personally driven the company's growth until eight years ago, when he died suddenly, victim of an automobile accident.
A few years before the tragedy, Tom had joined the company-never expecting to stay long. He was fleshly graduated from a liberal arts college