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The purpose of this article is to describe the rationale behind and analyze the results of a strategy in regards to changing conditions and market share dominance. For more than 20 years, with the growth in available product varieties, product and brand proliferation have become increasingly evident in many consumer markets.

This article examines how three L’Oréal mass market businesses, i.e. L’Oréal Paris, Lascad and Gemey-Maybelline-Garnier (GMG), managed proliferation activities between 1988 and 2012 on their domestic market. Data were extracted from the information resources, inc. (IRI) Census and Sample Databases (retail panel data), and information was collected from internal sources and semi-structured interviews with top executives. Brand performance was assessed using panel data structure analysis, as recommended by IRI and Nielsen. Some data, as they remain confidential, were not included in the paper.

The study reveals that when opportunities are lacking, demand is declining, and competition is fierce – the situation that marks most mature markets – a proliferation strategy actually can yield diminishing results and reduced brand dominance.

Offering broader lines appears to generate confusion and to be counterproductive in relation to theoretical assumptions. Additional research on proliferation strategies is needed, particularly in declining market conditions, which implies diminished demand and market saturation due to increased competition and isomorphic practices.

When deciding to extend product lines, managers should take into account competition and more qualitative factors than those included in the models developed by and for store brands. The respective positioning and marketing strategy (i.e. challenger and leader) of the brands involved have also to be considered.

Prior research on proliferation strategies has relied on strong assumptions such as increase in demand and unsaturated markets. Through these case studies, this article shows that making the shelf space denser affects brand dominance, particularly when market conditions change. These results challenge current thinking as, in facing internal and external contingencies, managers might think which scenario is most favorable for maintaining a dominant position: changing the structure of the market by reducing (i.e. concentration) or increasing the number of brands/products in the market.

This paper first attempts to analyze the issue of brand proliferation by a monopolist allowing transfer pricing as a channel to bridge headquarters and brand divisions, and then to view how the headquarters uses transfer pricing as a strategic device to encounter intra‐brand competition, inter‐brand competition and cross‐border profit‐shifting under an oligopolistic market.

This paper models cross‐country interactions in a Cournot‐Nash framework, and characterizes equilibrium that involves both transfer pricing and output decision. MNE's behavior is based on a two‐stage process in which the centralized headquarters' prior action on setting transfer pricing is to backup the decentralized subsidiaries in their output decision‐making.

It is demonstrated that MNEs have the incentive to manipulate their transfer prices in order to shift profit cross‐border. Higher transfer pricing enables brand divisions to collude easier in the intra‐brand competition model, and the level of transfer price hinges upon the strength of intra‐brand competition and inter‐brand competition. In addition, transfer pricing is affected by tax differences between two countries.

This paper provides the theoretical underpinning to see how headquarters may use transfer pricing as a strategic device to face intra‐ and inter‐brand competition that is visibly evident in many diverse industries.

Within the UK, low levels of saving has been a continuing policy concern for both government and financial regulators. Why individuals save less than might be expected has been increasingly associated with an inability of ma… financial services consumers to comprehend product quality and to underta… of firms in this debated through examining the product choices presented to consumers by financial services providers.

We examine two aspects of poor consumer decision making, yet to be fully explored in the wider regulatory literature. Initially, we review how financial services providers consider product innovations and the marketing strategies they pursue in constructing their offerings to consumers. Secondly, we ass… a popular financial product, the interest bearing deposit account, to examine what savings product choices are actually presented to consumers. These areas are explored through semi‐structured interviews undertaken with semi financial services managers and through a review of the entire product offerings to the interest bearing deposit market.

We report that savings markets are characterised by high product turnover and short duration. Consumers in the UK, alike many developed nations, and often unfamiliar with, and lack confidence when, buying savings products. Example consumers often have difficulties when making product comparis… Faced by so much proliferation of undifferentiated products, consumers find difficult to make a straightforward comparison between products.

It is concluded that further public education, a greater understanding of ho… firms present product choices to consumers and how consumers perceive s… choices are areas demanding further research and consideration.

Consideration of how firms make decisions with regard to product innovation and savings problem more generally is an area demanding further investigation from a range of disciplinary approaches. Finally, given the perceived high importance of financial services to individuals and the nation… economy at large, some scrutiny should be placed on the issue of the high profitability of the financial services industry and how this is reflected into product innovations and, therefore, differentiated quality choices presented various categories of consumers.

This paper shows that consumer preference heterogeneity affects whether multinational firms serve local markets via imports or local production. Firms are least likely to choose local production over imports for product varieties that have relatively inelastic demand because transport costs have a smaller impact on the firm’s local profits for these products. The results suggest that there is complementarity between centralized production, with local market access via imports, and strategies that maintain low price elasticities at the brand level, such as advertising and within-brand product proliferation. A partial equilibrium study of the laundry detergent industry in Western Europe illustrates how firms and consumers interact at different levels of transport costs and reveals the product varieties that are most and least likely to be manufactured locally when transport costs are high.

Explores the concept of consumer confusion; what causes it, how consumers react to it and how marketers can influence it. The focus proposed differs from previous work by integrating the notions of stimulus overload and stimulus similarity as well as acknowledging conscious and unconscious confusion. The marketing determinants of confusion are classified and an inventory of confusion reduction strategies is discussed. Examines the marketing and policy implications of confusion, presents a checklist for brand managers to use when conducting a confusion audit and highlights areas for future research, especially into measurement of the concept.

Discusses how the adoption of a “manufactoring” strategy can solve the dilemma of market demand for a wide range of products and assesses the concomitant cost of producing and offering such a strategy. To offer a full range of products to a growing number of mini‐markets, the most cost‐effective option for manufacturers may be found in the adoption of a make‐or‐buy “manufacturing” strategy. Offers a new angle on the discussion of product line management, drawing from a wide range of marketing areas and issues including: product proliferation, “hypersegmentation”, joint ventures and product development.

This paper addresses the issue of mass‐customisation from the point of view of consumer demand. It aims to develop a framework to examine the demand side of the mass‐customisation equation which will allow researchers to identify whether a market of customers who are ready for mass‐customised products exists. In doing so it considers in particular three “inconveniences” of mass‐customisation: the increased price of customised products; the delay in receipt of custom‐made products; and the need for customers to invest time in specifying their preferences before the product can be produced.

Observes that consumer confusion is a concern for manufacturers because it can lead to weakened brand loyalty, a deterioration of brand image and lost sales. Argues that watch manufacturers in particular suffer from consumer confusion caused by product proliferation, imitation strategies and inaccurate/inadequate information. Consumer confusion is also of concern to retailers because it can distort retail image and lead to promiscuity. Reports on an empirical study using the accompanied‐shopping method conducted with 30 watch buyers. The study revealed the importance of the retail environment, store loyalty and the salesperson for the clarification of consumer confusion. Discusses implications for marketing action for both watch manufacturer and retailer.

Use by some firms of a revolutionary new form of market research, here termed “real‐time market research”, has been observed in certain dynamic product markets where technologies and consumer preferences change rapidly. In real‐time product research, firms produce small lots of new product models and research consumer reaction by offering product model variations to consumers. This product research has been made economically feasible by the development of methods for shortening the time required for product development, by the adoption of flexible manufacturing systems, and by the rise of important new regimes for designing products. Documents the apparent use of real‐time market research by some firms and discusses the new product design regimes which make real‐time research feasible and economic.