Roca in Egypt

In late March 2012, Carlos Velázquez, Corporate Marketing Director for the Roca Group, and Xavier Torras, Corporate Brand and Communication Director for the same company, were visiting Gravena, their partner company in Cairo (Egypt). Roca, worldwide leader in the bathroom industry, was a Spanish family-owned multinational company present in over 135 countries. The company had entered Egypt in late 2009, acquiring a 50% stake in Gravena, an Egypt-based manufacturer of bathroom products. The plans for launching the Roca brand in Egypt had been put off for over a year following the outbreak of The Arab Spring. The managing team at Gravena wanted to go ahead with the launch but senior management at Roca headquarters wanted to postpone a decision. Velázquez and Torras went to Cairo to meet the Gravena team on the spot and assess the situation. Upon their arrival. they found the local team not only as keen as mustard to go ahead with the launch but also enthusiastically defending a high-impact advertising campaign based upon gags that had nothing to do with the Roca brand values.