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Richard lvey School of Business

The University of Western Ontario Ivry

904A10

PENNZOIL - QUAKER STATE CANADA: THE ONE-TO-

oNE DECISTON (A)

Christopher Spalding prepared thrs case under the superuision of Professor Terry Deutscher solely to provide

' mateial for c/ass dlscusslon.' The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a

managerial situation. The authors may have dlsgulsed certain names and other identifying information to

p rotect conf id e nti a I ity.

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Managemenf Seruices, c/o Richard lvey School of Euslness, The lJniversity of Western Ontario, London,

Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208; fax (519) 661-3A82; e-mailcases@ivey.uwo.ca.

Copyright @ 2003, lvey Management Serylces Version: (A) 2004-04-20

It was March 17, 2002. Mark Reed, director of Lubricants for Pennzoil-Quaker

State Canada (PQS), had asked that he not be disturbed for the remainder of the

duy. Sitting in his office wrestling with his decision, he reflected on the words of

PQS President Owen McManamon: "Mark, I think it sounds like a great concept,

but you are the marketing expert, so it's your call. I will back whatever decision

you make."

McManamon was referring to a consumer retention concept that had developed by

PQS's account team at Quality Marketing Solutions' (QtutS), the company's

longtime supplier of promotion management services. QMS had spent months

refining a new promotional program called One-to-One, which was designed to

' persuade consumers to have their vehicle's oil changed with a PQS product every

four months. Everyone involved expected Reed to announce his final decision on

One-to-One at the follow-up meeting the next morning.

Despite more than 25 years of marketing experience in the auto industry, Reed

struggled with selecting the right marketing programs for PQS to strengthen its

relationships with individual consumers. He had grown frustrated that despite the

'QMS was a privately hetd agency that specialized in the

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